6 months after Katrina: on the spot

As the virtual hurricane (named 'Tammy') of the past few days dies down, it's time to move on.

It's around six months now since The Hurricane of 2005 struck. New Orleans was the worst affected. What better place to go and see how things are now? Last weekend, I was there.

The city is slowly recovering from the mighty blow of Nature. In several places, you can still see rubble and other effects of Katrina.

Seemingly unaffected houses, like the one below, are everywhere. But if you look closely, you'll see two things. The first one is the horizontal brownish mark left by the stagnated water. The other one is gruesome: a mark left by the authorities that denotes that this house has been checked for dead bodies.

All these houses stand lifeless, with a whole lot of rubbish in front of them. The roads look deserted except for a few passing cars.

The Lakeshore Drive was a beautiful place; but we saw hardly anyone there. You know why it's unattractive presently when you see fallen buildings.

Another battered building was possibly a buzzing crab shack before disaster occurred.

It's not just the small places. You can see loss of business even in malls. Look closely in the below picture for the removed letters of the name of a big store that's no longer there.

Numerous abandoned cars can be seen under overpasses everywhere. I guess most of them are in unusable condition. But are some just unclaimed?

If you thought all is lost, you are underestimating the resilience of New Orleans folks. They turn sorrow into fun and even business -- on the (in)famous Bourbon Street especially.

You can see "hurricane" drinks and loads of crazy T-shirts!

Meanwhile, the Red Cross is possibly still at work, apparent from the notices for volunteers still up in the airport. Not all hospitals are open yet.

Reconstruction is underway at many places, starting with roads. Construction means more workers needed and in this case, a lot of "Mexicans" have come in. There are complaints that some of them are even making the city unsafe for women.

Also, it is believed that the traffic has increased in the past few months. That's because more people now live in Baton Rouge (capital of Louisiana state) and commute to New Orleans. Some of those who are in New Orleans have no homes and have to make do with trailers and even boats (meant for cruises)!

Businesses are re-opening and they are in dire need for people. One of the restaurants we visited was operating on a reduced menu.

Below set of pictures shows various McDonalds joints. One of them is closed while another one cries out loud for recruitment. They go to the extent of displaying a list of employee benefits!

While basic necessities are up and running or are being done, can fun and sport be far behind? Strip clubs were said to be the businesses to re-open first! Now, the Superdome is being repaired. [See picture in Wikipedia for damaged state.] It bears an announcement of the re-opening date.

Casinos are opening back too. Harrah's hoardings combine hope and festivity.

When I say 'festivity', I mean Mardi Gras, of course. The annual carnival was announced to be held for only the last week of February this year, but it has started already.


With tragedy being part of their lives for a while now, people of New Orleans need to chill out a bit for sure.