New Orleans Slowly Returns To Normal..Pics of Saturday

[Sean in New Orleans]

Figured I'd put this in recovery and aftermath, and you can see how the trees are coming back to life, as well, as the humans. Notably absent on this Saturday afternoon--tourists. But, they'll be back.

Here's the tour. I put the top down and a quick spin from my home, Uptown, towards the Quarter & Downtown, and came back home.

These are in order of my brief short spin. Just figured I'd get out and enjoy the low humidity, since, this is probably the last time we'll get to enjoy a day like this until September!!



























This is going to be cool, little hotel, when it opens. We know the owners.









Blurry..sorry, I'm driving while I did this, but, I posted it anyway:

[Sean in New Orleans]

Canal Street:





















Saturday Afternoon Cocktails



Snowballs in the Quarter!





Royal Street



Louisiana State Supreme Court





Lucky Dog!















New Tower Coming:





VooDoo Barbecue!









THE END: As you can see it's in the upper 80's and low humidity--A beautiful New Orleans Day!

[O Town]

Yep from the pics you can barley tell what happened only a short time ago. Looks so beautiful.
Did you notice the bumper sticker in the second photo? For some reason that stuck out at me.
Thanks for sharing Sean, looks like you guys are getting back on your feet quite well.

[Pearl River]

It's great to see the city coming back.

[GalvestonDuck]

Yep from the pics you can barley tell what happened only a short time ago. Looks so beautiful.
Did you notice the bumper sticker in the second photo? For some reason that stuck out at me. 8-)
Thanks for sharing Sean, looks like you guys are getting back on your feet quite well.

Yup, when I was there last week, I got a t-shirt with that saying. Darn, just looked at it and realized it didn't also say "Rebuild" in the fleur-de-lys (I thought it did). There were some that looked similar that said it. Of course, in my mind, the "war" the shirt is addressing was the one going on within the state over who to blame for the problems after Katrina. Anyone who knows me here in Galveston knows it's not an anti-war sentiment.

What's a magazine po-boy? LOL!

Great pics, Sean!

[BigO]

It should be noted that most of those areas received mostly wind damage and not the flooding we had in Lakeview, Gentilly, Mid-City, etc.

It is good to see part of the city back to 'normal'.

[Bluefrog]

how do you attach or insert photos here ???

[HollynLA]

I was going to comment on the same thing BigO said. The areas you are showing were some of the least affected by flooding. I think it gives a false sense of "we're back to normal" to those who don't live in or near New Orleans. Showing pics of east New Orleans, especially Lakeview, 9th ward, Gentilly, and on into St. Bernard is much more reality of how things are for many residents. Those areas have hardly been touched and many look strangely similar to how they did 2 days after the storm (minus the water).

[Sean in New Orleans]

I didn't go to Lakeview...I only took a spin around my house. These aren't the areas that flooded, but, I'm not trying to give a "false impression." Whether anyone wants to admit it or not, every picture in that photos is from Orleans Parish. There are areas that are still dead and recovering, but, I don't think it is entirely necessary to fixate all thoughts of New Orleans on flooded areas, as the media does. Believe it or not, there is abundant life and activity in the City of New Orleans. I attended a meeting last week and the population of New Orleans proper is now around 260,000. To me, it seems we've done more than enough fixating on the flooded areas. It will take a little longer, there, but, they are coming back, as well.

[CajunMama]

I was there last weekend and I saw alot of empty shops in the quarter and quite a few empty shops along canal near where we were staying. My sister-in-law has a house on Burgundy in the quarter...her area didn't even receive wind damage. I'd like to see pics of the residential areas that received the flood waters, to me that would really show more how NO is coming back.

[MGC]

Yea, Gentilly, Lakeview, 9th ward, Chalmette are way worst off than the Garden District. New Orleans will be back......MGC

[sunny]

I was there last weekend and I saw alot of empty shops in the quarter and quite a few empty shops along canal near where we were staying. My sister-in-law has a house on Burgundy in the quarter...her area didn't even receive wind damage. I'd like to see pics of the residential areas that received the flood waters, to me that would really show more how NO is coming back.

I took George out to Lakeview when he was here Kathy. It still looks bad.

[Audrey2Katrina]

What's a magazine po-boy? LOL!

Well, just in case you don't know what po-boys are (which you might), they are the Ultimate in what some other areas try to mimic with their "torpedo" sandwiches. The Roast Beef is by far the most famous; but the potato, and meatball po-boys are very good IMHO. Magazine St. is THE thoroughfare through the lower part of the uptown/Garden District, (St. Charles Avenue is, of course along the "belt") so a lot of stores get their name from "Magazine"... hope that helps.

Incidentally, since I'm a pathalogical historian on my beloved city, Magazine Street got it's name because it was originally "outside" the city limits, and along that area near Canal is where the military kept armaments--hence their "magazine".

A2K

[Audrey2Katrina]

Nice, Pics, Sean; and I'm VERY glad to see these sections: Prytannia, Magazine, St. Charles, Uptown, and the Canal/French Quarter areas doing so much better than what they looked only a few months back; but to put things in proper perspective, this actually is a small part of the city proper, and was spared the worst of the storm, particularly the flooding. Like someone else mentioned, you drive only a few blocks up from St. Charles into the Mid-City, Broadmoor, areas, or even worse, Lakeview, or out east to Gentilly, Ninth Ward, and Chalmette/Arabi... and it's still almost eerie with the scattered residents living in houses still very much in shambles (or in trailers--some still tents). It has indeed become a city that is a "sliver along the river" which is where all these pics come from; but I resoundlingly voice your hope, if not complete optimism, that the good folks of this GREAT city, will NOT be held down, and that given enough time it WILL come back... much too much history, culture, and LOVE...not to!

A2K

[beachbum_al]

Love the pics. Glad to see that NO is making a comeback.

[Lindaloo]

But, Sean lives uptown. Don't you know that is all of New Orleans?

Still stinks in some places and the dumpsters are all up and down Bourbon.

[GalvestonDuck]

Ah, okay...Magazine Street...now it makes sense. I knew what Po-boys were...we have them here too. Just was lost on the name.

When I was there, I noticed Canal Street still shows evidence of the flooding and looting (many of the shoe, electronics, and jewelry stores were still closed with boards up over what remained of the windows). Bourbon Street looks almost the same as I remember it from 2002, with only a handful of shops or bars closed and apartments for sale. We couldn't take the trolley through the Garden District yet...the tracks are still covered over with dirt and debris. However, everyone rode for free on the buses.

When we first drove into the city, we could look down from overpasses and see plenty of blue roofs and dumpsters full of debris (nine months later). There's a huge sign on the Superdome that says it will reopen in September, yet the roof still looks warped and there's no telling how bad it is on the inside. Tall buildings around the Superdome had window damage on upper floors, I'm guessing where Superdome roof debris shattered them. Other tall buildings away from the arena didn't have the same window damage. Everywhere there are hints of renewal in places that don't look "new" even though they display signs like "Yes, we are open" as if they were new (although we know better). Even in the Garden District, where most of those businesses probably wouldn't have dreamed of tarnishing their historic doorsteps with a banner hanging across the patio during pre-Katrina days, many of the owners proudly display the ugly signs now.

Camellia's Grille was closed, but there were hundreds of heart-shaped Post-It notes with wishes of a speedy return taped all over the front door and windows. I added mine too ("GalvestonDuck was here. Storm2K.org prays for you. God bless NOLA!"). The hardest part was first time we saw the spray-painted notations on businesses and homes -- those eerie red X's with the date (most we saw were for "9-1") and the number of victims found inside. I never saw one with any number other than zero, but I'm sure if we'd looked around, we would have found a few.

Hope y'all don't mind me being presumptive and adding prayers from the board. I was writing it just as my best friend's hubby was telling us to hurry because the bus to get us back to Canal Street was coming up the block, so I just typed from the heart.

[Audrey2Katrina]

Any prayers are appreciated for just what you said they were: from the heart.

A safe season to us all!

A2K

[Sean in New Orleans]

But, Sean lives uptown. Don't you know that is all of New Orleans?

Still stinks in some places and the dumpsters are all up and down Bourbon.

??? When were you here? I don't see any dumpsters in my pics and I covered the Quarter last weekend.

[CajunMama]

You didn't know about the s2k get-together? 20 something of us met up in the quarter and went to dinner and hit bourbon st. Had a wonderful time. It was fun meeting up with other weathernuts.