September 19, 2005

Convoy

I made it back into Nola on Friday and that place is uninhabitable.

We met up with the convoy at 7:00 a.m. Friday morning (happily, they moved the time back from the previously scheduled 4:30 a.m. -- ouch) in Lafayette. We zipped down I-10 to Baton Rouge where we met others in the convoy at a grocery store parking lot. From there we took Airline Highway to New Orleans, meeting up with local law enforcement along the way (they escorted us into the city).

We drove down Airline Highway to River Road and then down St. Charles Avenue into downtown. I was surprised to see that several hotels and businesses on St. Charles still had wooden boards on their windows which were spray painted with their messages to looters: "You loot, we shoot." There were huge trees everywhere that had collapsed and downed power lines all over the roads.

Once we got downtown we saw that our building was in good shape. If it had any water damage, I couldn't tell. It stunk to high heaven after sitting in the primordial ooze for so long, but otherwise seems to be fine. It was eerie to stand on the sidewalk outside the building and hear Army helicopters buzzing overhead and see Army humvees drive by. One humvee stopped outside our building and the soldiers got out to unload, while one soldier stood guard holding a rifle. It was the safest I've ever felt in New Orleans.

I never made it my house, but Archi-Sapper did. He took pictures and they're grim. You can clearly see the water line on the outside and inside of the house, and it is five feet off the ground. The inside of our house is so destroyed it is unrecognizable. The power of the surging water was so strong, it picked up the island in our kitchen and tossed it aside. Our refrigerator is lying on its side. Our sofa was carried into another room. Our seven drawer dresser in our bedroom was carried across the room and uprooted. Our 8' tall bookcases, full of heavy books, were emptied and tossed across the room. Everything in the house is covered in a slick goo. All I can think when I see the pictures is that I'm so glad we left.

Archi-Sapper is in the process of finding alternate housing for us, as we'll need some place to stay while our house is rebuilt. At this point, it doesn't look like we'll be back any time soon, especially since I see the Mayor has halted the repopulation of the city.

Posted by Kitty at September 19, 2005 10:41 AM

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