As people I know start filtering back into New Orleans on salvage missions, I’m starting to hear some interesting stories about what the city is like nowadays.
_____’s place in Uptown got about three feet at high water, which receded about two feet of standing sludge-water (highwater mark was above the bathtub ring, anyway). But nothing got into the house, as his place is on a high spot along St. Charles. All (*all*) the shingles got torn off in the wind, but that was the extent of the major damage — however, he learned from neighbors who rode out the storm that the old houses in the neighborhood were vibrated violenty by the winds. Consequently, every window pane has spiderweb cracks, and there are fine cracks in the plaster throughout the house.
As soon as you cross the 17th Street Canal on Robert E. Lee from Metarie into Orleans Parish, it looks like a nuclear bomb went off. Metarie largely wasn’t flooded and just has wind damage (trash and debris) but the sludge starts as soon as you cross the bridge. Coconut Beach’s clubhouse is completely leveled, you can’t even tell what it is knowing what had been there before. The Dock, Jaegers, etc. ended up as matchsticks in the canal and all around the volleyball courts on the side opposite the clubhouse. ____ had just bought a first floor condo on the other side of the berm, and got 8ft of water in his place, lost everything. Same with _____…despite his house being about 6ft above the street, it flooded to around 5ft above the floor.
_____ visited his old apartment on Marengo, across from William Jefferson’s place as it happens, and found that there had been about five feet of water there — and now there is black mold all the way to the ceiling. St. Charles is busier than he said he had ever seen it, with military vehicles, construction vehicles, dumptrucks, out of state police cruisers, and aid trucks going back and forth all the time. Much of the canopy over St. Charles was torn off by the winds, but it looks like enough of the trees survived that they will eventually recover (as old as those trees are, the experience is probably nothing new to them). He went to the bars down by the Balcony on Saturday and to Cooter Brown’s on Sunday, and said the places were fully operational and packed with people stinking of sludge and bleach, but the atmosphere was like a (oddly happy) family reunion.
I went in to MAF on Thursday for what ended up being a 1/2 day, thanks to Rita. The site survived the storm surprisingly well. The pumps maintained a dry site, such that other federal agencies (Corps, SEALS, National Guard) are using MAF as a base of operations for St. Bernard and Orleans Parish ops. The new roof of Bldg. 103 [main production building] held except for a couple of spots towards the east and one purlin failure. Bldg. 220 had what appears to be truss failure in one section. 101/102 [engineering buildings] are predictably wet with ceiling tiles down in spots. The entire roof of Bldg. 420’s four cells were stripped down to the insulation, which nicely supports our justification for replacing it…
While the site could be up and running soon, external factors are a much bigger problem right now. Chiefly, water and access. Workers are being bussed in daily, and currently only two of the previously four paths across the lake are available. Hwy 90 has had damage (new layers of asphalt ‘slicked’ off, so you drop suddenly from the new to the old surface, and possible damage to the Chef Menteur bridge). Boh is working on their 45 day contract to get one span of the Twin Spans open. Hwy 11 is open but predicictably choked off with all of the Orleans and St. Bernard traffic trying to get home. The Causeway is now open to traffic.
MAF lost water on Wednesday night. They had been using IWTF rinsewater [demineralized water used for ET internal cleaning], but ran out of that. So, Thursday it was portalets only.
I am hearing rumors of a contractor digging a well today. M_____ went in this morning, so I’ll have better info this evening.
When I was there Thursday, I was tasked with checking an area for production needs. They want to have an area for 10 Manufacturing Engineering designers to work so that work can resume on ET-120 (?). Also, repowering the NDE area on the south mezzanine…
While it may sound cliche, every day seems surreal. We are packing up the house so that we can begin wholesale demolition of sheetrock and cabinetry but my parents’ house is totally fine. While we are much more fortunate than others (like my mother in law whose house sat in water to the roofline for 3 weeks), it is so disheartening. My dad’s company has loaned us a travel trailer which is parked in our front yard. We are the envy of the neighborhood. Seriously. Everyone here is waiting for their adjustors, either from insurance or FEMA. We finally hired a tree guy yesterday, so that we can clear the yard and go fetch the dogs…
_____ took 3-4 feet of water in the house he had just finished renovating. The part that my mind keeps getting stuck on is the fact that we didn’t flood in the traditional sense. 90+% of Slidell’s ‘flooding’ was storm surge from the lake. Going through the house, looking at the behavior of the water showed that is was bizare. I am convinced we were the last street to flood, and the water swept in and out in little to no time. Literally, just a big wave. Knowing that it was storm surge and not a flood is the only way I can put wood floors back down. Or think that we weren’t fools to buy a house, when all the data we had said it was a good house with an excellent flood history.
In Slidell’s case, the lawyers have a good argument for wind/storm vs flood claims. The insurance companies want it to all be flood, but the water’s behavior argues it was driven by the storm.
The stories of folks who lost everything is awful. I called a guy for a roof, and his place on Hwy 11 is gone. _____’s house was so beat up that the tarp teams wouldn’t tarp his roof as the walls were unstable. My decorator’s house, which is 14′ above sea level, took water. _____ and _____ are in the same boat as my mother in law. She is making a trip back in today to assess the damage. She’s actually kind of driving me nuts because she refuses to grasp the reality of the situation. Last night, she was telling about the plants she wanted to take out of the garage and see if they lived. Really,
those same plants that sat under 8′ of toxic sludge for three weeks? Calculate the odds of their survival.
I think a large component of shock is denial, and so I only look at my little piece of the disaster pie. _____ and my mom are in New Orleans right now, cleaning out _____’s house.
The Honda was towed yesterday, which was kinda sad. Necessary after the flooding, five trees, and being unable to put the car into gear, but still sad. The tree guys finished yesterday… Seems like all of the sudden, the insurance company is throwing money at us but without any explanation. So we have three sizeable checks, and I’m having to request line item descriptions so I know how much money was allocated for what damage. And they still won’t tell me what the salvage value of the car is. Confusing, as it should be as simple as the blue book value, but…
I understand people wanting to leave the area and wish them the best, but I think we lose big, both at work and the region. Then again, if our house had taken and held 5′ of water, we’d probably be living in Houston as well.
I have been home based this week, trying to settle _____ in school (failing) and deal with insurance and contractors (one step forward, two back). And trying to learn to live at peace in a 38′ travel trailer. I struggle with the tanks–don’t want to know about grey and black tanks, much less smell a full black tank. Then there is the ‘toilet’–no tank, very much more similar to an airline toilet than a home toilet and set right in the middle, between the galley and the bedroom and no locks on any doors. Two-year-olds like to open doors, regardless of your preferences. Needless to say, we won’t be entertaining out of the travel trailer. But, before I sound like an ingrate, we’re really glad to have it and to be the envy of the neighborhood.
Thanks again for the update. Keep the information coming. Aren’t you glad you moved when you did? _____ and _____ are TDY in Huntsville, I’ve heard that Human Resources is working out of Houston. They keep trying to bring more and more people out to MAF daily, which is beginning to tax the available engergy and water. A contractor was onsite this weekend digging a water well (Folgers did the same), which will solve our short term problems…
Oddly enough, they want to finish the [ET project] award fee report on time, meaning work for flunkies like me. The funny part is, the rest of the flunkies are scattered nationwide.