Hurricane Katrina Aftermath (and other stuff I find interesting)

Warning: This is gonna be a total stream of conciousness, since I'm way tired.

Arrived at the eerily quiet airport at 10:45, had to wait for about 30 mins because my ride was stuck at a checkpoint to enter the city. He picked me up and we stoped to visit a friend who owns a business in Jefferson Parish. After our visit, we drove from Airline to Earhart, had to exit Earhart at Clearview and took Clearview south to Jeff Highway. Jeff Highway to Causeway, south to River Road, then River road into the city. Honestly, it didn't look too bad, it just looked like a hurricane had passed. Lots of tree damamge, and the occasional really bad looking buildling.

As we approached the parish line, there was a National Guard checkpoint. I was prepared to show them my ID, however they didn't stop us (or any of the 20 cars in front of us either). We got to the apartment, and the initial assessment was that the fence around the place was down, but it looked kinda ok. We entered, and saw some damage, but no looting and nothing major. The office in the front of the house was just fine. The Living room had lost 1/2 of a window, and we took a few shelves from a bookcase and nailed it shut. Some water damage to one of our sofas and to the roof of the living room. There was also water in the closet in that room, and mold was starting to grow.

In the bedroom, two of the four windows were blown open. We managed to close both, and remove the bed to protect from any further rain damage that might be possible, due to the huge gash in the roof above the bed. It may be salvageable, but there was a lot of damage to the roof of the bedroom, and the clothes that were on the floor (I'm a slob, I embrace the fact) were totally soaked and possibly lost.

The rest of the house was mostly ok. Only one other window had been pulled open, in the guest bedroom, and seemingly got little rain.

For those of you who have not been to your houses yet, let me tell you that nothing will prepare you for the refrigerator. That is by far, the most disgusting thing I have ever encountered. I pulled shrimp, chicken breasts, ground turkey and ground beef, mixed vegetables, fish from my parents, and who knows what else out of there. Bring gloves and cleaning supplies, gloves would have been great for me. The smell is the most horrid gagging smell that I have ever smelled, and it is still on my skin after washing my hands 5 times and taking a long shower.

I have pictures if anybody is interested, email me or comment here.

Catch you later. JBoo.