I\'ve finally posted some pictures we took on our recent return to New\r\nOrleans: http://dev.priorartisans.com/paul/katrina/katrina.html\r\n\r\nThere are a couple of sections:\r\na) The flooding in Old Metairie, a couple of blocks from our house\r\nb) The flooding in our neighborhood and at our house\r\nc) Our new house in Baton Rouge and the kids\r\nd) Pass Christian, Mississippi\r\n\r\nNo words could adequately describe what I actually saw in Pass\r\nChristian. After his visit, my brother-in-law Trey reported that \"the\r\nwalls were blown out.\" I couldn\'t grasp what he meant until I saw it,\r\nand discovered he meant just what he said: there are large sections of\r\nwalls that are just gone - the interior sheetrock is gone; the\r\nexterior siding is gone. Just the studs, and your outside the house\r\nlooking in.\r\n\r\nIts all the more remarkable because standing in the front of the\r\nhouse, it looks fairly normal. Trees down, some debris - but overall,\r\nyou\'re left with the impression that the house weathered the storm.\r\nThen you walk around the house (can\'t go in - because the front door\r\nwon\'t open due to piles of debris inside, but you don\'t know that\r\nyet...) and from the back you see a *very* different sight.\r\n\r\nOne type of disaster (flooding) and two very very different results: a\r\nfast surge of water in Pass Christian wreaked absolute havoc. Walls\r\nbroken, furniture moved (there are lots of dings and scuffs and marks\r\nin the ceiling where as best we can guess, the floating refrigerator\r\nwas banging), windows gone. The slow seeping in New Orleans leaves\r\nhouses soaked, mildew and mold growing, but largely intact.\r\n\r\nWe did receive good news yesterday from a friend who continues to live\r\nin our neighborhood. A short digression about him: His name is Ray\r\nReggie. He was recently indicted by the feds for some shady dealings\r\nwith the previous mayor of New Orleans, pled guilty and is awaiting\r\nsentencing, which could be up to 5 years. He decided to weather the\r\nstorm in New Orleans (probably a questionable decision in hindsight),\r\nand lost his roof during the storm. I believe he then moved to a\r\nfriends house to escape the weather and rode out the storm (Monday).\r\nOn Tuesday, the flood waters started rising - so he went and moved his\r\ncar. The waters kept rising, and he realized that some other\r\nneighbors (primarily elderly) were going to be in trouble, so he went\r\nto try and rescue them and get them out. He\'s apparently saved 26\r\npeople since - including (allegedly) one police boat trip where he was\r\nshooting back at snipers as they traveled down some roads to go\r\nsnorkeling to save the baby of a girl who had to leave the baby behind\r\nwhile she swam out, because she couldn\'t swim well enough to carry her\r\nbaby). He bought whatever boats he could find from whomever he could\r\nget them from (that\'s where we got the canoe and flatboats we used on\r\nour previous return), and has since remained in the neighborhood\r\nwithout power (his generators flooded last Wednesday and haven\'t\r\nworked since then). But he\'s now taken to patrolling the\r\nneighborhood, getting chummy with the National Guard, scaring off\r\npotential looters, of which there have been a few, and generally\r\ngreasing the wheels to help people in our neighborhood get back in to\r\nretrieve stuff. I asked him yesterday what his background was -\r\nwhether he was a National Guardsman in a former life, or a Navy Seal,\r\nand his reply was \"No, I\'m just a fat, out of shape, guy who was\r\nhere.\"\r\n\r\nAnyway, Ray said that yesterday our whole neighborhood is dry. I was\r\nvery pleasantly surprised - that means that in the span of about 5\r\ndays, somewhere around 8 feet of water has drained from our\r\nneighborhood - which is a hell of a lot more than we expected.\r\nOriginally, the engineers were guessing 4-6 inches per day as they\r\nbrought pumps back online. We happen to live 2 blocks from one of the\r\nbiggest pumping stations in the city, so I knew we would drain quickly\r\n- but I didn\'t think it would be that quick.\r\n\r\nWe\'re going back again on Saturday to begin cutting out sheetrock, and\r\nstarting the first steps to alleviate water damage. Which brings me\r\nto a question:\r\n\r\nIf anyone out there knows of a housing contractor who could spare some\r\ntime to talk with me about what we should do to reduce damage to our\r\nhouse and prepare for rebuilding, please let me know. As you might\r\nexpect, contractors are a bit busy right now, and we haven\'t been able\r\nto get in touch with the few that we do know. So any help along these\r\nlines would be greatly appreciated.\r\n\r\nFor those of you who\'ve asked about them:\r\n\r\nRenee is doing well. She went back to Oschner hospital in Jefferson\r\nParish last Thursday, and is supposed to come out tomorrow - this time\r\nwith her fiance - for another 5 day break.. The two of them will be\r\nliving here in BR - I plan to welcome Mike with a big \"ND 17 - UM 10\"\r\nbanner hung from the house - as he\'d been talking a *lot* of smack in\r\nthe weeks leading up to the game. Their wedding is still scheduled\r\nfor December 3rd, but all plans are up in the air. They will get\r\nmarried, somewhere/somehow. Just don\'t ask where/how yet....\r\n\r\nNoel\'s Aunt and her family are doing well. We visited them last\r\nweekend on our way to Pass Christian. Their neighborhood is slowly\r\nrecovering - lots of tree clearing right now, and lots of \"blue tarp\r\nroofs\", as people begin repairing their houses. Noel\'s grandmother is\r\nstaying in Gulfport right now, and is also well. They have power and\r\nall utilities, and even had a working gas station when we were there.\r\nSo slowly but surely the area is rebuilding.