Katrina Update

Note-- the photos have credit in parentheses below image.

I got a call from my cousin in Greater New Orleans a few days ago. He was on the way to his house because he had finally gotten doors hung. He was headed over to coat them with primer and prepare for painting.

He asked me if all the news up here (Ohio) was still about Katrina. I told him no, we did hear about the one year anniversary coming up, but Katrina coverage was not a daily feature in the news.

With incredulity in his voice he told me that still, down there, it was a daily news feature. The talk radio is all about the trash that needs to be removed:

(my photo)
(New Orleans 7 months after Katrina, NOLA.com, Michelle Strickland / Knoxville, TN)

Other talk topics are financial assistance and getting building, repair & handyman services, and the countless junked cars stashed under the city's elevated freeway system: (Ruined Automobiles. This picture was taken in New Orleans East just off of I-10, NOLA.com, Rusty Costanza / Times Picayune)

The church groups are still all about Katrina relief:

(NOLA.com, Greg Livaudais / Metairie, LA)

He guessed about 10% of the homes damaged in the storm were fully recovered at this point. Most all the damaged homes were gutted now, one year later. And lots of homes are somewhere in the repair process. He spoke of flood insurance vs. wind damage insurance and storm insurance woes. He spoke of keeping spreadsheets, estimating costs and federal funds for repairs.

Finally, with joy, he gave the good news: he could now revise his estimate of when he would be able to move his family out of their trailer and back into their house. They might be home for Thanksgiving. Life in the metro area was still very different from pre-Katrina life when I was there in May. Restaurants and stores completely closed or open for a few short hours in the day. Furniture stores were stuffed to the gills and had more goods for sale under guard in their parking lots.

The city held a scaled down Mardi Gras in February:

(Mardi Gras day., NOLA.com, Greg Livaudais / Metairie)

And celebrations still include walking bands in the French Quarter. (A second-line parade, Sarah Griffin Thibodeaux / NOLA.com)

In my neck of the woods -- yesterday I got a lot of weeds and hopeless veggies turned into the soil in my garden. I was able to dig out and throw away a dead rose I had unsuccessfully planted in the spring. And I found this fuchsia bloom on the other rose I bought in the spring. It looks like this one will make it. The roses the previous owner planted are all pale pinks and corals. This one really stands out.