Katrina Update #34Katrina Update #34One month ago today we woke up thinking New Orleans would be OK. By noon, 80% of the city was under water. By 6PM martial law had been declared and Mayor Nagin was already estimating damage in the billions of dollars. By 11PM we reported it was 100% certain both Cary's house and Adam's house were flooded. We are very pleased to report that Adam's house escaped flooding. Unfortunately, Cary lost everything.
Back in the present, the Jeep started making some funny noises yesterday, so we took it into the local dealership. The front stabalizer bar, both front U-joints, rear brakes, and rear pinion seal all had to be replaced. So our trip south is delayed by yet another day while the Jeep is made roadworthy.
Some good news: I was able to get the web cams up and running at Coop's Place. Once he the Internet was working it was just a matter of restarting them — which I can do remotely — and make a few adjustments to the web pages. They are a bit flakey, due (I suspect) to phone lines that are not always working properly, but you can view the bar cam here and the dining room cam here. It sure was good to see Laura working behind the bar again. But I got to tell you — there is no more complete confirmation that things are not back to normal than to check in on the web cam after 10PM and see a darkened bar with no people in it.
Janis and I had a great evening last night. A friend from California arranged for a night at the Lochnaiar Inn on Racine's lakefront. We had a spacious room with a Jacuzzi. We went out to dinner with Cary, Andrea, and Jarret, as well as our friend (and Janis' old boss) Paul Cera. After dinner we all went back to the Inn and sat around the fireplace for awhile before they left and Janis and I went to enjoy our suite. Here are a couple of pictures:
This is our room at the Lochnaiar Inn.
This is the view from our room.
- We have spoken with Tom West, who is anxious to get back to the city. He will either fly in on Sunday, or meet up with us in St. Louis and drive in with Cary, Barry, and me.
- I spoke with Jesse, who says he has a new tattoo — a hurricane symbol with the number 6 inside it. He is currently in Little Rock and plans on returning to New Orleans on Friday.
- Lee reports that Barry is fine, although he hasn't seen him for a couple of days (but has heard him shooting his guns).
Our friend Keith reports that there are no traffic problems coming back into the city, and there are no checkpoints.
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