Skip to main content

New Orleans (road trip #9 continued)...

We visited New Orleans when we went for our visit to Slidell last weekend. We hadn't been to that area since Katrina, so it was pretty crazy to see how different it was. We spent some time driving around the 9th Ward. It was the hardest hit area and the area we used to live in (and I used to work in). We drove down street after street of houses that were still destroyed and unlivable. We could still see the spray paint on people's houses. You can see the "X" in the picture above (and the guy doing one in the pic below). They used those Xs as a way to communicate during the search and rescue time after Katrina. Different search organizations had different methods (and the animal search groups really confused things), but this is basically what they did:
When a team goes into the house, they paint one diagonal of the X, and where the northern quadrant would be, they put the date, and in the western quadrant, they put some indication of who searched it. After they're done searching, they put the other diagonal of the X. They fill in the southern quadrant with any people they found, living or dead (here they found nobody), and the eastern quadrant with any hazards that future teams should be aware of (such as unstable stairwells, missing floors, etc.)
When you're searching a large structure like an office building, you do the one diagonal going in, one diagonal going out, and you'd also put time in and time out in the north quadrant. That way if the SAR team itself gets in some kind of trouble in the building, the marking on the outside of the building lets other searchers know that there is still a team inside, possibly needing rescue themselves. (Was that too much information?)The area that was hit the worst of the 9th Ward was the Lower 9th Ward, that is where Brad Pitt is helping new houses to be built with his Foundation called the Make it Right Foundation . They had a competition with some architects to make new houses. Some of them are really crazy looking. Here is one below:
It was really cool to see all the rebuilding going on!
While in New Orleans we got to meet up with our friends E & M and their cute little girl Amanda. E & M will be joining us in South Asia in a few months - so we got to talk with them about how awesome South Asia is! Whoo hoo! See you guys in South Asia soon!!
We went to our favorite coffee place in the French Quarter - Cafe Du Monde ! They have the BEST Beignets !!!
YUM!!!!
We also got to enjoy some awesome street entertainment - you cant' beat it - it's a very fun place!
It was great to get to go and see everything again - what a cool place!

Comments

Emily said…
Man I can't believe New Orleans STILL needs rebuilding. I didn't know all that stuff about the X's - very interesting. You are like wikipedia. :)
That's cool about the new family joining SA. I'm jealous. :) The place at the last picture looks really pretty!
Anonymous said…
That info on how they did the markings was interesting...We don't always get to hear about those things. We also enjoyed the New Orleans street entertainment when we went there years ago. Very interesting people doing very weird things!
Meagan N. said…
I love New Orleans too but haven't been back since Katrina unfortunately. Yall should watch the documentary done by Spike Lee on the storm and aftermath called When the Levees Broke. Really well done. It's sad how much needs to be done but I have hope that that city will rebound and become an amazing testament to what people are capable of when they love a place.
Deanna said…
Hey! Going back to old places can be such a great experience. Glad you got to go. Thanks for being such a faithful blogging buddy!
Bran said…
thanks for sharing all the info. that's cool to know how they search the homes.
Anonymous said…
I always wondered about the meaning of the X's, that's really interesting. I bet is was heart wrenching seeing the city post-Katrina after having lived there pre-Katrina.
her said…
I love Cafe DuMode.....and the street entertainment! My husband is in the ministry and we lived in HAttiesburg, MS for 6 yrs...made many a trip to French Quarters!

Of course, Central Market has the best Muflalatta's (spell)

Bless you in your mission.

Joy, DeeDee
Shannon said…
wow...interesting post, Andrea. Thanks for sharing all the detail - it wasn't too much - it really was interesting.

Popular posts from this blog

Dusshera 2012

This year, our neighborhood was quite active for Dusshera.  At one end of our street, one of the major political parties here, set up a Dusshera celebration.   Here are some guys putting the effigies together and filling it full of fireworks! They had quite the political statement for their celebration.  (Basically that expensive water, fuel, electricity, diesel, gas, etc and FDI (bringing in foreign companies like Wal-Mart) are like Raverna (the demon god)... and are the evils of today....)  Here's their set-up at the end of our street.... you can't see it very well, but they had all three effigies there that they burned....  They burned VERY quickly at this one... So quickly that by the time I pulled out my camera, it was already on the ground!!  Our street looked like those CNN videos of rioting cities :) haha!!  There was burning stuff all over the street :)  Many people will get a piece of the leftover wood/bamboo...

Funny Things 2 - American Fair Edition

We just got back from Roadtrip #8 in Macon, GA. It was an awesome trip!! So, before we head out on the next trip, we went to the North Florida Fair! The fair is always famous for it's fried foods... they fried everything!!... They had fried/breaded zucchini, Mushrooms, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Onions, green tomatoes, okra, pickles, etc :) I had a lot of it too - YUM! Now, I'd heard of fried Snickers & twinkies (which they had) but they also had FRIED OREOS & PEANUTBUTTER CUPS :) The fair was cool. They had a shark show and a sea lion show... but our favorite was the pig races :) haha!!! It was hilarious!! Aashini was close up to the race until the pigs came - then she crawled up into Adam's lap really fast :) (as seen below) :) Pig races! haha! Cracks me up!

In Thailand!

We flew to Bangkok, Thailand today! The flight went well :) Aashini cried a little, but did awesome! We got the bulkhead seat and they even had an extra seat next to us! Aashini really only set in it for a pic or two, but it was fun anyway :) You can see the Buddhist monk in red behind Aashini. The guy that set next to us was a Monk also, he was actually the translator for the Dalai Lama ! Cool hunh? It was funny because he was typing on his laptop the whole flight (and Aashini was grabbing at his robe - haha!) This picture below cracked me up so I had to post it :) When we got here we had to go get a few things at the grocery store :) Aashini went to her first grocery store in the Middle East, but this was her first time getting to ride in a cart!!! She LOVED it!! She was swining her legs, babbling up a storm and looking at everything! Thai people LOVE babies!!! She got a lot of attention today! I have a feeling she's going to get a lot of attention the next coupl...