katrina on my mind

    As the one-year anniversary of Katrina approaches, I find myself thinking about it a lot. Perhaps most people around here are doing the same, I don't know. Although I have not yet been able to bring myself to return to the Coast, I spent two days last week at the APA convention in downtown New Orleans.     There is an eerie (not scarey, eerie) atmosphere there, which is really difficult to explain. Very few people are on the streets, even fewer working and hardly any vehicles. We left downtown at 6pm on Friday night and did not hit a bit of traffice until we were east of Chalmette! Many places downtown are still closed -- as is nearly everything east of New Orleans. Some businesses are gone entirely (like Nawlin's Cookery), but we drove out Dauphine on our way out of town Friday and it was good to see some familar places open, and in the same places (like Mulates, The Central Grocery and Cafe du Monde -- although we personally don't care for the beignets at the latter). There are also new and unfamiliar shops and restaurants. There are also lots of dumpsters for the debris as clean-up and remodeling continues.     On Thursday evening we drove out toward the lake (Pontchartrain) to see how badly Joe's Crab Shack had been hit. Nothing appears to have been done yet towards reopening the restaurant. The road along the shore is damaged in several places. The high water marks are still quite visible on most of the houses along the boulevard. FEMA trailers and dumpsters sit on many properties. It is sad to see, but at least they have something to rebuild from... the MS Gulf Coast is not so fortunate. I have heard more than one person say that it doesn't look as if anything has been done at all on the Coast, as if Katrina hit just recently and not almost 12 months ago.     Wednesday night I saw a "coffee-table" book of Katrina pictures that I really want to buy. One of the reason is that there are many more photos of the MS coast in this one and not just NOLA like most of the ones I have seen previously.     And for those who might have missed the news, the Beau Rivage resort has chosen the anniversary as their reopening. Whenever the Coast is rebuilt it will have an even more different face than the new New Orleans seems to be getting... I imagine only hotels and casinos in their future, not houses. LC