The Big Empty, first time back

DW and I drove through New Orleans today; it was our first time in the city since the storm. Slidell, where we live, is full of people and activity, even in the very badly damaged parts of town.

Anyhow, we started along Hwy. 11 here in Slidell, then drove across the lake. Interstate 10 goes through the Bayou Sauvage swamp before one hits the more populated areas of the city, and the swamp looks much as it always does. New Orleans East, on the other hand, looks dead. N.O. East had a population of about 100,000 before the storm; today, there are few signs of life anywhere--no people or vehicular traffic away from the Interstate, as the place remains uninhabitable. The grass is brown, having been drowned during the weeks of flooding. A thin, dusty film coats everything--evidently, the shit-water that flooded the area has dried up and become airborne. We crossed the Industrial Canal into Gentilly, which also remains uninhabitable. We drove on into the Central Business District, where Charity Hospital looks from the outside just like it always has. The Superdome, however, looks like a gigantic metal ruin, and not at all like the football stadium that previously had remained stylish and withstood the test of time better than most sports venues. We turned near the Dome and drove towards Mid City and Metairie. The areas along the Interstate remain lifeless, so it's perhaps fitting that the roadway goes in between two very large cemeteries. Just across the 17th Street Canal, into Metairie, the grass is green, and things are starting to get up-and-running much as they are in St. Tammany Parish.

My impression is that New Orleans as residents know it will be built from the outside in, rather than the other way around. What that will mean for the culture of the area, I really don't know.