Katrina Update #48Katrina Update #48As you may have noticed, these updates have turned into more of a weekly affair. That's partially due to the fact that, while things are getting better every day, there isn't much changing on a daily basis that needs to be reported. More stores are still opening up, but you still have to get your shopping done before 6PM. More bars and restaurants are also opening up, which means more places to go out to eat. Nonetheless, in a week's time, enough things do happen that it seems worthwhile to keep you informed. Also, I really need to justify the amount of money MacSpeech pays me, so more and more of my daily activities involve sitting at the computer and doing my job.
This past Monday was Halloween, of course, and it was a bit strange – but not for the reasons you may think. In New Orleans, Halloween has always been somewhat more of an adult holiday anyway. A sort of local's Mardi Gras, if you will. (Locals tend to leave town during Mardi Gras, leaving the city to be enjoyed by out of towners, so Halloween becomes their chance to costume and party.) The highlight of the evening is the annual Halloween parade which starts at Molly's, which is right next to Coop's Place.
There were two strange things about this Halloween. The first was how normal things were on Decatur Street. It was crowded – as crowded as it ever is – and people were wearing costumes of all kinds, including many duct-taped refrigerators and people with debris and "blue roof" tarps. As the parade proceeded through the French Quarter, winding its way up Decatur, over to Bourbon, and then back to Decatur, ending where it started, it was as though all was as it should be. Coop's Place was as busy as it ever is on Halloween, and if you were to stay only on Decatur you could be lulled into thinking New Orleans was truly back in form.
A group of refrigerators make their way down Bourbon Street as the parade marches by.
But on Bourbon Street, after the parade had passed, the reality of life in New Orleans became abundantly clear. This is very much a place for locals right now. While the locals were partying on Decatur, Bourbon Street was practically empty. There was plenty of live music, provided by bands playing to mostly empty bars. Gone was the wall of people, packed like Sardines on the street and the slow baby-step pace one was forced to adopt in order to make progress. Now I need to tell you, I am not one for crowds, so this was a refreshing change - but it was not the Bourbon Street I was accustomed to seeing on Halloween night. You can see more pictures in the Halloween Gallery.
As the week progressed it became increasingly hard to believe that we had entered the month of November. Our senses have still not recovered from our month in exile. If you have ever taken a trip in your car that lasted over 9 hours or so, you are probably familiar with the feeling that you lost a day – the temporary disorientation that makes you wonder what day it is, and where that "lost" day actually went. Now imagine having a month like that. Imagine coming back to your home after a month and resuming something very close to normal activities. We now refer to this odd September-October month as Septober. We have even joked with people who had birthdays in September that they didn't age this year.
But November it is, and with the weather unseasonably warm we still sit in our shorts and occasionally need to turn on the air conditioner. Try as we might, we have not yet been able to muster the will to think of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, let alone Christmas.
I took a drive out to West End Park yesterday, just to see the extent of the damage in that part of the area. There was a restaurant out there called Brunings. Some of you may have eaten there with us when visiting New Orleans. They were the second oldest restaurant in the New Orleans area, having opened in their West End location in 1859. Here is how it looked before Hurricane Georges in 1998:
Bruning's Restaurant before Hurricane Georges hit in 1998.
Hurricane Georges did severe damage to many restaurants in West End, including Brunings:
Brunings after Hurricane Georges.
But they rebuilt, actually they built a new restaurant in front of the damaged old one. We ate their a couple of times in the past few years. Here is a picture of where both the old and new restaurants were located, post-Katrina:
Brunings is gone.
It's just gone. All of it. Not a shred of evidence that it even existed. Cary said the manager of Bruning's was in Coop's Place this past week. He made no mention of whether they would rebuild. At this point his main concern was finding a place to live for himself. Here are a couple more pictures from the West End area:
Also gone were Jaeger's and the Key West End restaurant. The cars in the picture on the right are in the parking lot.
- We did get some extraordinary good news last week: Mr. Lewis, the last of our unknown evacuees was found – at Molly's, next door to Coop's Place of all places. He reports that he was evacuated to Houston, then to Austin, then he spent some time in Arkansas with family before returning to New Orleans about two weeks ago. He is currently living with a friend on the Westbank until his residence in the French Quarter is ready for him.
- Steve Edwards flew back into town on Wednesday. He is here to supervise the demoliton of his first floor as well as determine what can be salvaged and what gets thrown out. He flies back to Chicago on the 12th.
- I added an email address for Joey Screws on the People page.
- Unfortunately, Adam did not get the gig with Harry Anderson. There was a bit of a miscommunication where Janis thought he had gotten it. He heard from them this past week, and they decided to go with someone who could play piano and sing.
- The only news I have that is something you can't read for yourself on one of the New Orleans news sites involves Coop's Place. Last night someone turned up the fryer to its maximum temperature in order to "cook food faster." This resulted in a grease fire, that shot flames 4 foot high. Although Coop was able to contain the fire, the landlord got wind of it and called in the Fire department. By the time they left, a wall had been knocked down to insure there were no "hot spots," the the kitchen was rendered unusable. He can remain open to serve drinks, but it will be at least Monday before he will be able to serve food again - and that is only if he can get the necessary approvals from various city departments, which are already overworked and understaffed. Talk about kickin' a guy while he is down.
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