Post-Gustav New Orleans Nothing Like Post-Katrina
The brunt of the storm largely missed New Orleans this time around. As Hurricane Gustav was losing steam, people who stayed behind as others evacuated surveyed the damage.
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STEVE INSKEEP, host:
Now let's get a glimpse of the city that many evacuees left behind. No matter how well you think you know New Orleans, you have not seen it until you tour the empty streets with NPR's Ari Shapiro.
ARI SHAPIRO: You can tell that there has been a hurricane here. There are signs on the ground; there are trees that have been knocked over and branches in the road. But on the whole, the city looks like it's in very good shape. There's power out all over, and the streets are empty, but we're not seeing roofs ripped off of buildings, we're not seeing windows shattered in.
Right now it doesn't look anything like what the city looked like after Hurricane Katrina.
(Soundbite of wind blowing)
SHAPIRO: We've just pulled up near the Industrial Canal here and there's a convoy of camouflage vehicles, Humvees and other vehicles that have SWAT emblazoned on the side. It looks like National Guard troops perhaps. And they're all lined up in front of a street that has right now about six inches of water in it but it looks like more water is coming in. We're going to head closer to the canal now and see what we can find.
(Soundbite of water splashing)
SHAPIRO: I'm wading through the water in my galoshes to get to an overpass where hopefully I can get a better view of what exactly is going on. Hold on a second: a white van just pulled up. I'm going to talk to these guys and see what's going on.
Will you tell me your name?
Mr. ALVIN MCMILLAN: Alvin McMillan.
SHAPIRO: Mr. McMillan, what are you doing out here in a hurricane like this?
Mr. MCMILLAN: I own a lot of property in the city and I was just checking my property.
SHAPIRO: How does it look so far?
Mr. MCMILLAN: It looks good. I mean, they got a couple of houses fell, but...
SHAPIRO: Now, you're saying it looks good but you're driving through about a foot of water. I'm standing here in about a foot of water. Do you feel like you made the right decision to stay here?
Mr. MCMILLAN: Absolutely.
SHAPIRO: All right. Good to talk to you. Stay safe.
I'm walking up the overpass now to get a better view of the canal.
(Soundbite of wind blowing)
SHAPIRO: The wind is really strong up here and the clouds are just skidding by. I can see the canal and from my perspective things look good despite the fact that some water has washed over the side causing some minor flooding in the Upper Ninth Ward here. I don't see any breeches; I don't see any overtopping and that's consistent with what the mayor's office and the Army Corps of Engineers has said.
All right. The wind is picking up again and so it's the rain. I think it's time to head back towards the car.
(Soundbite of car door opening)
SHAPIRO: Okay. We've left the Upper Ninth Ward and now we're heading towards the French Quarter. And as we drive through the city there's now a flock of chickens crossing the road in front of us. You see some strange things during a hurricane.
Okay. We've just pulled up outside of Mr. Chubby's Cheesesteaks on Bourbon Street and I see a guy walking out with some food, so it looks like they're open despite the storm. Let's check it out.
(Soundbite of car door opening)
SHAPIRO: Hey, you guys open? Would you just tell me your name?
Mr. TODD BROWNING: Todd Browning.
SHAPIRO: What was it like at the worst of the storm when you guys are still here serving?
Mr. BROWNING: It wasn't bad at all. I mean, during then we had the National Guard and everybody coming in. But the storm wasn't too bad at all.
SHAPIRO: This cheesesteak place is like a microcosm of people who decided to stay through the hurricane. There's sheriff's officers, National Guard, and of course Al Roker.
Mr. AL ROKER (NBC): There are a lot of people who are looking for someplace to eat and that's why you end up at Mr. Chubby's.
SHAPIRO: Having a cheesesteak.
Mr. ROKER: Having a - well, they're out of cheesesteak; we had cheeseburgers. But the important thing is we had cheese.
SHAPIRO: The cheese is important in a hurricane.
Mr. ROKER: Well, you know, you want something that's going to help weigh you down because, you know, you're blowing around a lot. You need something solid.
SHAPIRO: Right. Good to talk to you.
Mr. ROKER: Thank you. You bet. Take care.
SHAPIRO: Well, the French Quarter certainly survived Hurricane Gustav intact. We're going to head now to Magazine Street, which is one of the main shopping streets in New Orleans, where everything was boarded up before the storm hit except for one barbeque place.
(Soundbite of car door opening)
SHAPIRO: Okay. We're here at Jenita's(ph) Barbeque, where they've got cars parked on the sidewalk and a sign in the door saying here inside and heavily armed.
Ms. KIM GISIKE(ph): I'm Kim Gisike(ph), one of the owners.
Ms. MELANIE KAYE(ph): I'm Melanie Kaye, the only native staying here.
SHAPIRO: So how did you guys do last night?
Ms. GISIKE: Fine. Slept great. We had power until 6:00 a.m.
SHAPIRO: And so what happens next? What happens now?
Ms. KAYE: Oh, we're going to cook some food. We're going to be very good New Orleanians and support our local community.
SHAPIRO: All right. Well, we'll be back for some barbeque later on. Thanks a lot.
Ms. GISIKE: We'll be starting to serve around 4:00.
SHAPIRO: Not many people stayed in New Orleans for the hurricane, but based on this unscientific sampling, it seems as though those who are still here are in good spirits and ready to start cleaning up and putting the city back together.
Ari Shapiro, NPR News, New Orleans.
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New Orleans, Gulf Coast Assess Gustav Damage
Prisoners and others work on stopping the flooding underneath a floodgate at the St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish border, Sept. 1, 2008, in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.
Prisoners and others work on stopping the flooding underneath a floodgate at the St. Bernard Parish and Plaquemines Parish border, Sept. 1, 2008, in the wake of Hurricane Gustav.
If a city could breathe a sigh of relief, New Orleans would be doing that now. Bracing for what Mayor Ray Nagin had said would be the "storm of the century," local, state and federal authorities directed one of the nation's largest exoduses, getting some 2 million people along the Gulf Coast out of the path of Hurricane Gustav over the course of 2 1/2 days.
Now the task is to get them all home.
The city's evacuees are scattered across the country and naturally are eager to return to survey the damage. Nagin has asked them to hold off and stay in shelters and motels for a few more days. He wants officials to fan out and assess the storm's effects first. While the levees and flood walls seem to have done what they needed to do — a far cry from what happened three years ago during Hurricane Katrina — there is other storm damage.
The city remains under a mandatory evacuation order and curfew. Power lines are down all over the city, and electricity is out in some 80,000 homes in New Orleans. Some 35 substations are believed to be out of service. The city's sewer system also took a hit.
Nagin wants time to fix those problems before residents start back. He said a return home was "only days away, not weeks," and he hoped residents could begin to flow back to the city Wednesday or Thursday. "[At] the latest Thursday we'll start letting our citizens arrive," Nagin told CNN on Tuesday morning.
"We're just going to reverse the process; once we give them the word, the same process will get them back," Nagin said, adding that buses, trains and planes would be available to drop off returning residents. "We'll provide them all the assistance they need to get them back efficiently and effectively."
Retailers and employers will be allowed to send workers to check on the damage to their establishments Wednesday, the mayor said.
"I would not do a thing differently," the mayor said Monday night. "I'd probably call Gustav, instead of the mother of all storms, maybe the mother-in-law or the ugly sister of all storms."
Gustav is now a tropical depression moving across Louisiana, with maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, the National Hurricane Center said. That's a far cry from Monday, when Gustav made landfall as a Category 2 storm with sustained winds of 110 mph.
Lt. Gen. Robert Van Antwerp, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans, said Tuesday that the city "dodged a bullet."
"The water has gone down in the Industrial Canal considerably," Van Antwerp told NPR's Renee Montagne, referring to the 5.5-mile stretch of water connecting the Mississippi River to Lake Pontchartrain. He said the water is down some 8 to 10 feet from what it was during the height of the storm Monday.
Van Antwerp said he was satisfied with the way the levees and flood walls performed, particularly given that the Army Corps of Engineers is only halfway through a six-year reconstruction effort in New Orleans. The levees could never be foolproof and fully protect the city, he said.
"I don't use the word protection; I use the word risk reduction," he said. "If this had been a Category 5 with a surge of 15 to 20 feet, there is no way you can protect against that. There are always vulnerabilities."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal said it could be a couple of days before oil and natural gas companies can fully assess Gustav's impact on drilling and refining operations. He said as much as 20 percent of the oil and gas production that was put on hold because of Gustav could be restored by this weekend.
In a news release, the Shell Oil Co. said it planned to start redeploying skeleton crews to some of its operations in the Western part of the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday morning and to some of the eastern rigs later Tuesday afternoon, though those plans are subject to weather and road access, the company said.
The Gulf accounts for about a quarter of U.S. domestic oil production and about 15 percent of natural gas output. The concern is that damage to those installations could cause a spike in gasoline prices.
Oil prices actually dropped by $4 a barrel, closing at $111 on Monday. Idustry officials say they were prepared for worse and are feeling lucky.
"We are breathing a sigh of relief," Shell spokesman Shaun Wiggins told NPR's Carrie Kahn.
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