TUSooner
1/24/2006, 05:48 PM
Howzit had the courtesy to ask how things were in New Orleans. I know he didn't REALLY want a long explanation, but "no good deed ever goes unpunished," so here's a little update:
We're OK in my house, but some houses in my 'hood were pretty hard hit, i.e. trees through fronts of houses, fences and parts of roofs gone, FEMA trailers in yards, etc. Otherwise, this old town is in many ways "sehr gefuchtig" (which Kaiser & PG may recognize as pig-German for "very effed up.")
From a consumer-in-everyday-life standpoint, gobs of people don't have any place to stay, so they can't come back to work. Therefore, businesses of all sorts are on shortened hours due to the lack of help. Plus, the people who have come back are crowding the places where there is housing (like my West Bank) So, the businesses here that are open are trying to handle more customers in less hours. Home Depot especially is a zoo almost at any hour when it's open. The formerly 24-hour WalMart closes at 5 or 6pm. Lines are long almost anywhere, but the business are starting to catch up it seems.
Lots of people - rich and poor - are in limbo, not knowing whether to repair, tear-down and rebuild, or buy elsewhere in or out of the city. Imagine livinmg that way for half a year. People are commuting 70-100 miles one-way to work. A lawyer pal has his daughter staying weeknights with his law partner so she can go to school here; meanwhile, he works in NO 2 days a week and the rest in Baton Rouge. Large areas of the city are just empty.
On the whole ... it's quite depressing.
Thanks for axin!
We're OK in my house, but some houses in my 'hood were pretty hard hit, i.e. trees through fronts of houses, fences and parts of roofs gone, FEMA trailers in yards, etc. Otherwise, this old town is in many ways "sehr gefuchtig" (which Kaiser & PG may recognize as pig-German for "very effed up.")
From a consumer-in-everyday-life standpoint, gobs of people don't have any place to stay, so they can't come back to work. Therefore, businesses of all sorts are on shortened hours due to the lack of help. Plus, the people who have come back are crowding the places where there is housing (like my West Bank) So, the businesses here that are open are trying to handle more customers in less hours. Home Depot especially is a zoo almost at any hour when it's open. The formerly 24-hour WalMart closes at 5 or 6pm. Lines are long almost anywhere, but the business are starting to catch up it seems.
Lots of people - rich and poor - are in limbo, not knowing whether to repair, tear-down and rebuild, or buy elsewhere in or out of the city. Imagine livinmg that way for half a year. People are commuting 70-100 miles one-way to work. A lawyer pal has his daughter staying weeknights with his law partner so she can go to school here; meanwhile, he works in NO 2 days a week and the rest in Baton Rouge. Large areas of the city are just empty.
On the whole ... it's quite depressing.
Thanks for axin!