New Orleans

Has anyone been since Katrina? I'm going in Oct, and just wondering what exactly to expect.

I'm going for a wedding. Of course I'll be staying in the Quarter. The wedding is at a Plantation. So there are still many things still up and going in the city.

I would love to take a tour of the lower ninth, but out of respect and privacy I'll stay away.

I don't know why I never came back to update my trip. I went to NO in October 2006. The French Quarter is still up and running. A few businesses have closed. I walked through some of the business district and that was still torn up. Once it was a normal looking city with tall businesses buildings up and running. In Oct. it looked war ravaged. Most of the buildings still had windows missing, with plastic cover ripped and blowing in the breeze. Every other sidewalk had orange cones around them. Alot of store fronts had construction men walking in and out with their hard hats on. There was rebuilding everywhere! It was coming back to life. Slowly but passionately.

I was at a car rental place. I asked what they did with their cars before the hurricane. They had managed to move a few. But most were covered with water and had to be junked. My friend and I were driving to her mother's house. She said to me as we were driving, "Remember when you saw people living on the overpasses of the freeway on the news, waiting for rescue? Look up. We're driving under one now." She said it so casually. I think she was being reverant.

I did not make it to the lower ninth ward. But I still saw chaos and devastation from the freeway. Many many buildings abandoned and boarded up. Water marks on houses every where. The traffic and people are not as dense as once was.

I was lucky to be able to find my favorite bartender. She stayed the duration. She and her home had been one of the lucky ones to survive. She still worked at the same bar I had met her in. (She actually owns it) I asked her how life has been in the year since Katrina. Not quoting word for word, but what she said amazed me. She misses her regular customers. Many moved on with the hurricane. Most she hasn't spoken to since before Katrina. Business is slow and the bills are higher. Once she paid $ 150 a month for the electric bill. She now pays $ 600 due to increases by Entergy. But what she told me next made me cry for her and they many who's lives changed so dramitcally. She said, "Da'lin, I imagined myself growing old in this city. I was going to be the funny old lady in my silly southern hat sitting at the bar still cussin' like a sailor. Now I may need to move. Not because I want to. But because I HAVE to. The business is not here like it use to be. The energy bills are eating me alive. It's just not fair that I may leave not because I WANT to. But because I HAVE to".

Possibly, but with her financial situation right now I don't think she could afford to install it.

I don't think those people have a choice right now. With 80% of the city under water at one point and time it's going to take a lot of money to repair 80% of the electricity. The money has to come from somewhere. And where better but from the businesses on Bourbon St.? The ones that are still surviving and making some sort of profit. You know?

I feel for the people that had the courage to stay and rebuild!

The ACME Oyster Bar is still there. That's in the French Quarter and the Quarter wasn't flooded. It still lays on higher ground. I like Felix's Oyster Bar. It's across the street from ACME and not as crowded.