New Orleans, Katrina and the missing bags...

Day 22, Feb 24th

First things first, we got the missing bags delivered intact to our hotel this afternoon. To be honest, its a bit of a mystery where they got to, because we were expecting them to arrive no earlier than this evening when The Crescent arrived from New York. There is only one train a day which travels direct NY-NOL, so how they arrived before that train arrived I don't know. The guy at AMTRAK told me he thinks they may have gone via Chicago, but there doesn't appear to have been time. Anyway, it will remain a mystery I guess because everything was there and it's now all good.

Firstly, our hotel in New Orleans is excellent, another great Priceline deal. We are on the 39th floor with a fantastic view over Downtown and the river. Some shots from our room, apologies again about the quality, taken thru dirty windows and all...

We were out of our room and hit the pavement about 9:00am. I was back in the hotel at about 9:01am, taking my jacket back to the room. It was quite warm and very very humid. We had breakfast at 'Daisy Dukes', a small diner in the French Quarter before wandering around a few streets in the area. We made our way down to the tour bus area and decided to take the City/Katrina Tour which is a City Tour with an emphasis on visiting areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. There are major areas of the city inner suburbs still sitting in disrepair. A few shots shows what probably 80% of houses look like in some areas...

Not much left of this house, just the steps, patio and some foundations...

The following picture is a picture of Fats Domino's home and studio. The story goes that he spent 2 days on the roof of his flooded house before a boat came along to rescue him. The way the story was told was believable, so I have little doubt it may be true...

The thing about the devastation of Katrina was not the damage caused by the winds. Sure, some of the weaker homes were blown over and tiles were dislodged and homes damaged by flying debris, but the real destroyer was the flooding which occurred when the levies and walls were breached for various reasons.

Now for those who haven't been here, New Orleans is just dead flat. Whilst on the tour, the bus went under a freeway and the road dipped a bit and he told us this was the lowest point in New Orleans at 14 feet below sea level. The high point is about 6 feet above sea level. So in the whole of New Orleans there is about 20 feet of undulation. Now surrounding the town is a wall which runs all the way around with big sliding 'doors' which are sealable. This is to protect the town from flooding if the Mississippi rises too high. here is one picture of the wall near the French Quarter...

There are also canals which run out of town which carry all the rainwater that falls in New Orleans. As you can imagine, being so flat the rain that falls from the sky doesn't just naturally flow downhill and find it's way into stormwater drains...there is no downhill!! So it gets a helping hand and gets pumped into canals which flow into Lake Ponchartrain, which isn't actually a lake as it is connected to the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico.

When Katrina hit, the winds forced the waters of the lake back up the canal at great force, which was met by equally great force by the huge amount of rainwater which was coming down the canal from the torrential rain which was pouring down on New Orleans. This clashing of the forces created a never seen before effect which quickly started to erode at the foundations of certain sections of the levy wall. The wall collapsed over about a 100m section and water poured into the city and wiped out the suburbs closest to the wall. The repaired section of wall can be clearly seen in this shot...

We also stopped at a large cemetery, Louis #3. The cemeteries in New Orleans are very unique, everybody is buried above ground!! Because New Orleans is essentially built on a swamp, it is not practical to bury people in the ground for a few reasons. Firstly when you start to dig a hole 6 feet deep in a swamp, it is quickly going to fill with water, if it doesn't collapse in first. Also, back in the 1800's they found that when it flooded in the area, remembering this is pre wall and levy days, the remains would just float to the top... not nice. Therefore, family's have built tombs where they 'bury' all the family members. There are tombs owned by groups of families to save costs, companies etc...

So what happens when somebody dies?? The front part where the names are engraved is actually a door which is removed. The remains of the last person placed in the tomb are removed, placed in a plastic bag and stored underneath the tomb with the previous 'occupants' of the tomb. The latest 'tenant' is placed in the tomb and will remain there until the next person needs their space. Louisiana law dictates that once placed in the tomb, the remains must remain untouched for 1 year and 1 day. If somebody needs the space within that timeframe (in other words, they die within the year), they are kept in a 'holding' area until such time as they can be moved into the tomb. I didn't ask what happens if 2 people die simultaneously such as a car accident. The whole subject may be a bit morbid, but fascinating all the same.

We finished the tour and briefly had a look at the casino which I must say was bigger than I was expecting. After freshening up in our room we had dinner at Drago's, a seafood restaurant in the Hilton, recommended by our SCA on The Crescent. The house specialty was oysters, char grilled with garlic, oil and parmesan. I had a dozen which were great, although the flavours of the garlic and parmesan overpowered any of the oyster taste. I would like to go back and have oysters natural to see if they were any good. I had Drumfish? for my main and Diane had a lobster.

I took a few shots when we returned to our hotel...

The blue cow is some exhibition of a popular American artist. meant nothing to me, but nice colours all the same...

Tomorrow the plan is to hit the pavement again, visit Bourbon Street for brunch and head back to the hotel to checkout at midday for our trip to Chicago (for the second time).

Later...