**UPDATE**
Here are the pics from the digital camera of a friend.
**UPDATE**
We went into the city yesterday. I'm not really sure how to describe it. It wasn't the total devastation I was expecting but it was bad. As I understand it, New Orleans didn't bear the brunt of Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi did. But with New Orleans being below sea level, the flooding is what did a good chunk of the damage. Don't get me wrong. There is plenty of wind damage but the flooding is what is going to change New Orleans forever.
We drove in on Highway 10 and drove by the downtown area. We passed the Superdome on the right. It looked terrible. Like someone had peeled the top layer of the roof off. We couldn't see any holes because those are on the top of the dome. This place will need to be torn down.
On the highway we drove by many poor neighborhoods and they looked terrible. We'd see small boats in places they wouldn't normally be. A barge in a canal on its side. The roof of a WalMart completely torn off. The city is about 95% ghost town.
We proceeded into a residential district. We got off the bus and were warned not to touch anything. This was considered a contaminated area. We tried to take pictures as inconspicuously as possible. Well a few of us did. Some of the folks with us got off the bus and had their pictures taken next to things. It pissed me off. This wasn't a tourist site. We weren't at the Washington Monument. This was a place where people's lives had been destroyed...and some of them were down the street going through the remains of their things.
Anyway, we hid our cameras as best we could and walked down the streets. The smell is noticeable but not overwhelming. Just smelled dirty and dusty. There were lots of pine trees in this neighborhood, most had been blown over and the needles had turned brown now. The grass was also brown, covered in dirt or dead. We could tell the water had risen about 6 feet in this area. All cars had been completely covered. The windshields had the look, caused by dirty water, that they'd been spray painted a light brown color. Each house had the spray-paint markings from the military that had gone through the neighborhood looking for survivors and bodies. One roof had "HELP" written on it.
A few of us walked to the end of the street to climb a levy and see what was on the other side. There was a rotting carcass of a dog at the end of the road. We climbed the levy and saw the lake. Looking back, we got a good look at the damage on the neighborhood. Nothing can be done for these neighborhoods. There are too many health hazards to salvage these homes. It will have to be razed to the ground.
We got back on the bus to drive back. We made sure to wash our hands in antibacterial wash. As we were going through the neighborhoods, we saw which familes had already come back. All of their waterlogged belongings were out on the curb to be taken away when trash services resumed sometime in the future.
On the way back, we stopped through downtown and got off at Canal Street. We walked around the French Quarter for about 90 minutes. Downtown had not been hit too hard. There was damage and a lot of work was being done to clean out water damage. There were piles of watersoaked carpet and office items on the curbs. We walked past a handful of broken storefront windows, no doubt looted.
Downtown had the worst stench of the places we went. Some streets in the French Quarter didn't smell at all and we'd turn to go down another and the smell of hot trash would hit us like a 2x4 in the face. Other streets would smell of raw sewage.
The locals we ran into in this area were incredibly friendly and happy to see folks in uniform. Stopping us to get their pictures taken with us, to shake our hands and to say "Thanks for being here, Sergeant."
It was a good trip for us. We're working the flightline at New Orleans Naval Air Station in handling troops and supplies for the folks coming into the area to help and those finishing their 30 days and going home.
We see the damage here on base (the city's name is Belle Chase if you want to find it on the map) but the trip into the city served us well by reminding us and giving us a "face," so to speak, of who we were down here to help.
