Didn’t mean to knock anything about NOLA.
I love the place, and my nephew, who was an acclaimed
musician,and is now a painter, wouldn’t live anywhere else.
When I say it was a “mess”, I was referring to it in the aftermath of Katrina, and like I said I was there in the early spring following the late summer deluge.My nephew interestingly was supposed to go on tour with his band,
and literally they had to hit the road in their band as scheduled , a few days before Katrina hit. They were on the road THREE solid months, all over the country, and when he returned, with no solid information as to what may have happened to his house, he was one of the very first people that Law enforcement let back in. When HE came in, by van, the city was literally about ONE percent repopulated, beyond the stubborn holdouts who never left in the first place.I couldn’t wait to go down there, and see for myself what the place actually looked like, since I never trusted MSM coverage of ANYTHING. Hell, even Cable,when it has people like Geraldo and his insufferable grandstanding during the active flooding, was enough to make my blood boil, so I HAD to see it for myself. I was unfamiliar with the NOLA website until after Katrina, and it was my sister, his mother, who referred me to it, and its message boards all during that late summer and fall period, to try to figure out if anyone knew the fate of my nephew’s house. I was very impressed with the entire site, and am wondering whether it was appreciably better after Katrina,than before. Either way, and even though I haven’t revisited it in a few years, it was far different and far more interesting than just about any major city website I’ve seen.
Oh, no problem I didn't take it as a knock. It was very nice of you to give me the back story of your New Orleans post Katrina experience. Things were certainly awful here in those early days after the storm.
My family and I live on the West Bank of New Orleans in Gretna and, compared to the city,we sustained very minor damage. The worst part was the feeling of isolation. No mail, grocery stores, restaurants or many other businesses were also nonoperational and it took forever to reach a place of normalization again. From what you describe with your nephew, I'm sure you know what I mean.
We had evacuated to Birmingham and returned to our home three weeks after the storm passed. Even with all of the TV coverage, we weren't totally prepared. It was hard seeing entire areas of a city like New Orleans looking like they had been hit by a bomb.