Going to be in New Orleans for a long weekend. Any advice on what to see and do? Would like to see some things that look the same as they did pre-Katrina and some of the aftereffects. Any thoughts appreciated.
The old section / French Quarter is and always has been, ABOVE sea level so although they tried to make the lack of flood damage there a RACIAL issue it was really just gravity and water level. There's a bar there that has been open 24/7 for I think 130 some odd years.
Many of the areas that were damaged by the flood waters, you don't want to visit. You wouldn't have wanted to go there BEFORE Katrina, during Katrina and probably especially after Katrina.
The maximum storm surge arrived on the Gulf coast about 60 miles EAST of N.O. - around Biloxi (safe area) and although you can still see how far the flood waters and damage went inland (the storm surge there was close to 35FT !!!) there is a pretty massive rebuilding going on right now. The people who lived there are doing the rebuilding. The people in some of the worst areas of N.O. figure it's somebody else's responsibility to rebuild for them.
Those observations ARE generalizations but when you tour the areas you can see they are also relatively accurate.
