Katrina Evacuees' Thanksgiving

[Carl Eyman]

LOML and I spent Thanksgiving day in New Orleans at our son & DIL's home. They are spending the week there while kids are out of school at their evacuee community. Cleaning, repair, etc. on the agenda. I'd been concerned humidity caused by the roof damage that remained un-attended to for weeks might have made the dining table top move. I'm glad to say it is still flat as it was when made in 2002. As you can tell it is still functional. I'm in the foreground with my best side toward the camera.

[Kevin Arceneaux]

Nice to see things going well.

I actually got to go home for the day, though I had to be back for 5:45AM Friday. I think I am going to finally get a few days off in a week or so.

I REALLY miss woodworking, the weather has been perfect for it on the weekends.

We still have a lot of work to do in the mid-city area, my zone. Quite a few folks made their first trip home to the area this weekend since the cane. They are fairly easy to tell who they are, they are either staring at what is left with tears in their eyes or that shell shocked look on their face.

I would hazard a guess that at least 50% haven't been back yet at all, if they are even coming back. A lot depends on neighborhood they live in. The high rent area, most are back as are those that own their homes. But in a good many neighborhoods most are renters and they haven't come back yet. We also have the Orleans Street Projects in our zone and I have seen only 7 to 8 units that have been gone through. When the landlords finally get the right to go in the rental houses, we expect to see huge amount of debris on the streets for my crews to go through.