Posted on 01/01/2006 3:24:11 PM PST by Ellesu
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Dr. Jeffrey Coco, his wife and their three children returned to New Orleans especially for a New Year's Eve party held at a neighbor's house that did not flood in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They stayed in the second story of their own house.
"We normally have a fireworks display that rivals most ball parks," he laughed. "We toned it down a lot this year because all the blue roofs around." Many damaged roofs throughout the city are covered with blue plastic tarps.
Coco's business is gone, along with his wife's job, his children's school and the first floor of his house, but he was hopeful as he stood amid the debris in his front yard on New Year's Day.
"Unless someone in my family gets sick, I can't imagine it can be worse," he said.
Coco, an infectious disease specialist, does not expect to return to New Orleans for good until April or May. He just received his flood insurance check, along with many of his neighbors.
"I think that's what people were waiting for," Coco said. "Now they can start getting things back to normal. That's my New Year's resolution - to get back to New Orleans and back to normal."
Unlike the Ninth Ward, where miles of houses were destroyed, sparse signs of life are returning to the affluent Lake Front neighborhoods, although trailers stand in front of some water-damaged houses, and muddy streets are lined with debris, ruined appliances and drowned vehicles.
"It was kind of spooky at first," said Ray Bigelow, a criminal court judge who is living with his wife and children on the second floor of their house. "But now we have a neighbor two doors down and we can see some street lights down the way."
Unlike buildings across the street that were submerged to the roofs, Bigelow's house was flooded only 3 feet deep. The bottom floor has been gutted and the family plans to use a trailer parked in the yard as a kitchen and dining room, but their electricity has been reconnected. It's two miles to an open grocery store and 10 to a gas station.
His children plan to return to schools in the city later in the month, and he will be holding court in a couple of rooms furnished by the federal court.
"I'd like life to get back like it was, but that won't happen this year," Bigelow said. "It probably won't happen in 10 years."
Fabian Schott Mumme Jr., 59, spent the first day of the new year trying to get more stuff out of his parents' house. The roof still leaked, despite two tarps, and there was no electricity, but Mumme was living there. His own house took 7 feet of water.
With his family scattered and his house gone, Mumme broke into tears as he looked around the yard at the soggy possessions.
"You got to learn to hit the curve ball," he said. "Because they just keep throwing them at you."
Photo: New Orleans cultural ambassador, Irvin Mayfield, plays a tribute to first responders as Mayor Ray Nagin, left, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, second from left, Lt. Gov Mitch Landrieu, and Gov. Kathleen Blanco, center, listen during an Interfaith Celebration in front of the Superdome in New Orleans, La., Sunday Jan. 1, 2006. The event was sponsored by Louisiana Rebirth celebrating the strength of those dedicated to the rebirth of Louisiana.
"Coco's business is gone, along with his wife's job, his children's school and the first floor of his house,"
Good reasons to return.. : )
It will be if they can get the rest of us to fork over the third of a trillion dollars (on top of charity and insurance) they say they need to grease palms making New Orleans the Biggest Easy of them all. They want to make "Oil for Food" look like pikers.
come down to the northern gulf coast and drive through the region before judging.
My uncle is leaving as soon as he can sell his house.
PFC to Stevem -- "come down to the northern gulf coast and drive through the region before judging."
--- I have. Big improvement this Fall in the scenery over the previous Spring.
People everywhere else in the country can't get loans to build in a location that might flood once in 100 years. why are we allowing ANYONE to return to a swamp below sea level? Even if we allow them to rebuild, why do I have to pay for it?
And don't give me any excuse about needing a port to load / unload container ships. Every other port in the US is available.
Its amazing that FL gets several hurricanes every year -- no whining.
I'm still waiting for someone to explain to me why my tax dollars should continue to be wasted in NOLA when even the Mississippi River has been trying for 50 years to go somewhere else (Free the river to go down the Atchafalya).
Sure as hell doesn't seem like it could get much worse for them.
Hurricane season begins in 5 months with "Ambrose".
How lucky do you feel??- tom
That has to be the dumbest headline of the year.
So far. :-)
With the exception of the trumpeter all those people should have been run out of town on a rail.
What is the status of the election? Is it still postponed?
yes, until sometime late in April for now, but no firm date set.
I know personally people that live and work in and around the Gulf. I know a couple that lost homes. My own son got lucky when Rita took a couple degree jaunt to the north because his home is right on the water.
These days when you hear the catastrophe figure on hundreds of billions atop insurance, etal I want you to think Blanco and Nagin and the Big Easy where, if public cash actually winds up where it is assigned, the bursar has somehow failed.
I live in Minnesota. However, I've been through the neighborhood from Galveston to Tampa on many occasions, and seeing what happened in 2005 was mind-numbing. That doesn't mean you need people to cast out arbitrary figures for the repair while those that pay the bill are simply supposed to sign the checks and pipe down so we can ignore for all time incompetence and corruption. I suppose, in the end, that will happen, anyway.
I don't live in New Orleans, so Nagin is not my mayor. My neighborhood is above sea level and my 80 year old house only flooded this one time in its history - after Katrina. The reason why I suggested you come down is so you could see the vast 3-state area affected. I'm in Louisiana, I've family in this state and Mississippi and Alabama who all had their homes severerly damaged.
Our home insurance will take care of our homes but not the destroyed infrastructure. And you might want to actually talk to people in parts of Florida affected by Ivan last year - they are whining.
"And you might want to actually talk to people in parts of Florida affected by Ivan last year - they are whining."
There's no need to bring Pensacola into this. But you're right (I'm from Mobile), people are still dealing with Ivan, and I know of several people who just got throttled by Ivan, and managed to get their houses in order just in time for Katrina to push some more water into it.
Off the record, my personal fear is that next year, we will be the source of the "direct hit", and possibly even the nightmare scenario of an eye making landfall in Bayou La Batre-Coden and then tracking northward. Not only would that bring the worst of the winds into the city, but that would almost ensure that if we're still living in the house, it would be destroyed by the surge.
I suppose scheduling the elections for April 1 would be too obvious....
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