Current Condition in New Orleans

This is an e-mail from a friend of mine living in Metairie, a suburb outside of New Orleans.

Just thought I would share some news of NOLA. I spoke to the former Loan Officer at my credit union located in Harahan today. She informed me that area is still very bad. No major stores such as Wal-mart and Home Depot are staying open past 6 pm as there are no workers, therefore one cannot buy what little there is--the stores are open one minute and close the next. She stated that she went to the store about 7 AM to shop and she stood in line for almost three hours just waiting to pay--you have no choice if you need the items as there is NOTHING else open. Traffic is backed up from Baton Rouge to NOLA on I-10.

In NOLA it took her three hours to get to her work this morning for what would normally be a 20 minute drive. Curfews are in effect everywhere--people have to be in their homes by 6-7 PM and this is being enforced by the military who are heavily armed. There is still much widespread looting and stealing. The schools for the children are in a terrible state of disorganization (remember they weren't much better prior to the hurricane--imagine now)--children are being made to attend in staggered schedules and there is shortage of regular teachers so the children are not adequately learning--there are no daycares open for smaller children.

Most are saying that if you must come to see your home be prepared for it to take you several hours to even get into the outskirts of New Orleans. There is still a widespread gas shortage and in general people are being more hostile and violent. There is garbage and debris everywhere and infestations of insects and rodents in some of the harder hit areas.

Interesting that we are not seeing these images on television--the media keeps showing us the French Quarter and Canal St. I think that Mayor Nagin needs to "get real" and stop trying to make it seem like the city is "coming alive" again. We all feel bad for the situation, but the reality of the place being inhabitable again on a healthy basis (psychologically, physically and emotionally) is an extremely long way off. Let's face it, Nagin's family is in Dallas--that fact should be strong enough to illustrate the depravity in the real living situation that NOLA now is.