Is NOLA Still Under Water?
Well yes, and no. I last week's brief stay I was only ever in the parts of New Orleans that had never been severely affected by Katrina and her aftermath, that is downtown and the French Quarter. These areas were business as usual. But there was improvement over when I was last in the city last fall. It used to be the case that when you drove over the canal on I-10 (the major highway into the city) you immedeately saw lingering damage in the form of watermarks and strikingly thousands of abandoned cars. The cars have finally been moved and the wtermarks are being painted over. There also used to be huge piles of garbage nearby that are no longer visible. So now you could truly travel into the city, stay a few days and leave without knowing the reckoning that took place.
But it is my understanding that there are still very large areas of the town that appear to be untouched since the storm, which underlines the magnitude of what happened - we are almost a year past the disaster.
I heard an interersting conversation about people buying properties cheap in Lakeview, fixing the houses and selling them at huge profits. I found this bewildering, not on the part of the developers, but that the market would have buyers for exepnsive houses right on a faulty levee. The person talking had a line that went something like this: the government (the administration and the army Corps of engineers who build levees) was so embarrassed by what happened after Katrina that they will build impenatrable levees before the next major storm hits the area. This seems like a dubious proposition. I'm not sure such levees can be built and if they can the government has not yet demonstrated that to the point that that I'd be willing to bet my financial well being on it. But then again, New Orleans attracts a different kind of folks.
till next time.
Well yes, and no. I last week's brief stay I was only ever in the parts of New Orleans that had never been severely affected by Katrina and her aftermath, that is downtown and the French Quarter. These areas were business as usual. But there was improvement over when I was last in the city last fall. It used to be the case that when you drove over the canal on I-10 (the major highway into the city) you immedeately saw lingering damage in the form of watermarks and strikingly thousands of abandoned cars. The cars have finally been moved and the wtermarks are being painted over. There also used to be huge piles of garbage nearby that are no longer visible. So now you could truly travel into the city, stay a few days and leave without knowing the reckoning that took place.
But it is my understanding that there are still very large areas of the town that appear to be untouched since the storm, which underlines the magnitude of what happened - we are almost a year past the disaster.
I heard an interersting conversation about people buying properties cheap in Lakeview, fixing the houses and selling them at huge profits. I found this bewildering, not on the part of the developers, but that the market would have buyers for exepnsive houses right on a faulty levee. The person talking had a line that went something like this: the government (the administration and the army Corps of engineers who build levees) was so embarrassed by what happened after Katrina that they will build impenatrable levees before the next major storm hits the area. This seems like a dubious proposition. I'm not sure such levees can be built and if they can the government has not yet demonstrated that to the point that that I'd be willing to bet my financial well being on it. But then again, New Orleans attracts a different kind of folks.
till next time.
posted by Wes at 6:47 PM
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