Reply #6: My heart weeps...

[mentalsolstice]

My husband is from NOLA. We used to go down there quite frequently. However, after Katrina, I just could not get him to go. He always had excuses, but I think he was just plain scared (rightfully so) of what he would find. Unfortunately, this Christmas we were forced to go down there to bury my FiL. And we went back for MLK Day. Both times we drove through the neighborhoods he grew up in, and the 9th Ward. The 9th Ward is horrible, we were afraid to drive down the side streets. His own neighborhoods, lower middle class, were just devastation as far as the eye can see. And even in the upper middle class neighborhoods, there were still FEMA trailers in the driveways and tarps on the roofs. The codes that the Nat'l Guard spray painted on the front of homes really got to me.

The house that my husband grew up in has been demolished. All of the other houses on the street are gutted and unoccupied. About a block down, a small motorboat still lies out in the middle of the street.