Back Downtown

There was no chance to ride today because we headed into New Orleans to retrieve some stuff, including my desktop computer, from the Tidewater Building. After finally getting the OK from the appropriate people, five of us headed out in the wee hours for our 8:30 a.m. meeting with today's group of 20 that had been given permission to get into the building. We drove down in two cars. The lead car (actually a fancy truck) was driven by one of the psychiatrists who happens also to be a deputy sheriff, so he had his flashing blue lights going, his Glock strapped to his hip, and his badge hanging around his neck. We broke numerous laws along the way as he led us through the early morning traffic at speeds well above the speed limit. We arrived just in time to wait in the parking garage for 40 minutes for the latecomers to arrive, chatting with the security guards who were all carrying AR-15s. Then we headed over to the Tidewater Bulding which is still without power, water or sewerage. Equipped with our handy headlamps, we ascended the hot, dark stairwell, dropping people off at their designated floors along the way. Since I was going all the way up to the 25th floor, I was the last. It was nice to see that our office seemed to have survived the hurricane(s) intact, and although I didn't check out all of the individual offices, I did step out onto the roof and check the windows to make sure none were broken. The roof itself was a bit of a mess. It looked like a fair amount of sheet metal was scattered about, along with many of the compressors and other a/c equipment. Down on the 10th floor where The Wife's office is, there were two huge windows that had been blown out. Those two offices were completely trashed. There was nothing left but one heavy steelcase filing cabinet and an old psychiatrist's chair. Everything else was reduced to splinters and confetti. Back in my office, where I would estimate the temperature to have been at least 120F, I stuffed my computer, monitor and associated cables into a large shoulder bag I had brought with me and finally headed back down the stairs, waiting for the others along the way. It took forever for some to finish finding everything they had been sent to find, but after a couple of sweath hours we finally made good our escape.

It was the first time I had been back downtown since Katrina, and although the building itself looked pretty good above the first floor, the city is still quite a mess. There are hundreds of flooded, abandoned cars all along the streets, and the high water marks are evident everywhere you look. In most places, it was maybe three feet, but as we headed toward mid-city, the water marks got higher and in some places looked to be around 5+ feet. Not nearly as bad as the 9th ward, but still far worse than I have ever seen. Downtown, and especially around Tulane and Tulane Hospital, there were lots of people working on the buildings. When we arrived we had seen a small army of people, all dressed in those Tyvec hazmat type coveralls, getting ready to start working in the Hospital. I am confident that by November 1 most of the University's downtown buildings will be ready for occupation. The first floors will still be closed, but everything else should be OK. BTW, the reports of mold spreading up to the 5th floor constitute genuine urban myths. I would have loved to have gone by our house while we were there, but the others were anxious to get back. We headed out by way of Veterans to see if there was somewhere we could eat lunch, but the few places that were open were packed, so we decided to wait until we were around Baton Rouge.

Anyway, it was a long day and I'm looking forward to getting in a ride tomorrow morning before I have to go to Baton Rouge for a meeting and a conference call. It's looking like another long day! Perhaps we'll be able to get back to our house this weekend????