Bohemians in the Recovering Land of Hedonists

(I wrote this right out of New Orleans a little over a week ago).

New Orleans architecture and lifestyle is amazing, but the evidence of Katrina is everywhere, from the piles of trash, furniture, and rotted wood lining the streets to the FEMA trailers parked in front yards on most blocks. When on the highway, most of what you see is blue from the tarps covering people's roofs. Certain parts of the city definitely got hit a lot harder. Roofs are torn off and windows are completely gone. Buildings are empty and abandoned. There are spray-painted messages on a lot of houses, from just the date and a code for whether people and animals were inside, to aggressive warnings to looters that the owners were still inside and armed with guns. We saw a couple of abandoned rowboats on the side of the road, right in the middle of the city. Lots of rebuilding is going on, but certain areas are so devastated that they are like abandoned ghost towns, especially right outside the city.

My friend from UCLA, Shalini, who hosted us, goes to Tulane law school and flew back to LA right before the hurricane hit. She just returned in January, to a new apartment since her old building was condemned. They have a sign on their front lawn that states that they are proud to have returned to New Orleans.


The house to the left of theirs is condemned:


Their neighbors on the right are living in a FEMA trailer in front of their house (there are lots and lots of FEMA trailers):


The first floor of my friend's building is uninhabitable from water damage.
The brown in the bushes of this house across the street shows how high the water got in her new neighborhood; about 4 feet:



She told us a lot about the situation when she first came back, months after the hurricane and water had subsided. She told us how when she came back she shopped for groceries at Walgreens and wherever she could get them and that people were basically sweeping everything off the shelves if there was food. How most restaurants still don't stay open very late because they run out of food. How sometimes the trash doesn't get picked up for a couple weeks. She said it all so matter-of-fact, and also mentioned that she hasn't heard a single person whine or complain about what happened or their current lot.

There's a lot of pride and a sense that people are taking a lot of it in stride and with humor. We saw a lot of people wearing t-shirts that said, "New Orleans, Proud to Swim Home". Apparently a lot of people dressed up for Halloween last year as blue tarps or FEMA trailers. Katrina was pure destruction, but while people might be crying on the inside, some have turned it around and are laughing right in its face. Shalini told us about a recent parade that had floats for "Mandatory Ejaculation" and "Katrina Blew Me " and "Gimme Some Good Levee".

There is also some apprehension, however, because hurricane season is coming soon and things aren't even cleaned up or repaired from last year. People are worried that with the hot weather, another big hurricane is coming in and are afraid that the repaired levee will give way yet again.

For me, someone who had never seen New Orleans before, even through the destruction and the trash the architecture and beauty of the city were beyond anything I could have imagined. I've never seen anything like the swamp:



or the wrought iron details on the houses in the city:



I wish I could spend a week there. Shalini took us out to Jaquemo's restaurant near her place, us riding on each other's laps and one person sticking their whole upper body out the window for the ride, getting a lot of yells, since we only have two seats in the jeep that aren't completely packed with stuff. The restaurant was cajun and fantastic. We had alligator sausage quiche and amazing fish.

The bar next to Jaquemo's and the restaurant itself:




Alligator sausage quiche:



The next day we went to the French Quarter and Cafe du Monde for beignets and cafe au lait.



The French Quarter was not hit at all by Katrina and it was the busiest place we saw in the city. The rest feels a bit empty. Everyone was dressed up in their Easter best. One bouncer outside a bar was yelling "Damn, Lent is over, let the sin begin!"

Mid-day it was time to go and we left to head for Tennessee.

On our way out we saw blue tarps everywhere:



Uprooted trees all along the freeway on the way out of New Orleans for miles and miles.



Rows and rows and rows of uninhabited FEMA trailers outside New Orleans.



PS

On our way IN to New Orleans, we drove through the amazing swamp at dusk. I've never seen anything like it. Truly a beautiful and amazing natural place, with the trees growing straight out of the water. I was driving through the evening and Nicole, sleepy, asked if it was raining. No, in fact, it was just tons and tons of bugs bouncing off of the car, sacrificing their lives to our journey. Occasionally a huge one would bounce off the windshield, which turned out to be a Palmetto bug (flying cockroach). Nicole stuck her arm out the window to feel the rain of the bugs and said ow, ow, ow, ow, OWWWW! when a palmetto bug hit her hand.

What the bumper looked like just after the swamp--this is ONLY from the swamp.