This area of New Orleans, near Tulane and Loyola Universities, is near the Mississippi River and on higher ground than most of the City. It received flood water following Hurricane Katrina's canal levee breaks but the water did not linger too long. To be in this area is like a mirage compared to the rest of the City. The universities are scheduled to reopen in January.
The Oklahoma National Guard cleaned the Park a few weeks after the hurricane and to look at it one would never know it had been affected.
I took a few hours off yesterday, away from house restoration, and met PBaser, Joshua, at this Park where we visited the City Park swans (relocated to Audubon Park) and shot some pictures. Upon leaving the Park I drove six blocks north to Ursuline Convent and Academy where the devastation is unbearable.
Someone told me yesterday "In a few months you will look back on this........" I NEVER want to look back on this. Not only is my personal life and the lives of some of my children in an uproar with hurricane damage, but the entire City of New Orleans is suffering and in shambles. Slowly, day by day, electricity is restored to some parts of the City but the peoples' lives are in despair. Many people died during the hurricane and some bodies are still being found, nine weeks later. Many areas of the City are completely destroyed and some, such as the toney section known as Lakeview, will not have electrical power for eight months.
I am grateful to the workmen who are working 18-hour days to help get people back to their homes. Workmen are hard to find as so many people lost their homes and left the City. I have yet to see an insurance claims adjustor. Our ethnic environment has changed greatly in the past few weeks as Mexican workers have flooded the City. They are hardworking people and I welcome them.
So, I take pictures of pretty scenes to ease the pain and wonder which is the dream--this oasis off of St. Charles Avenue or six blocks north where not one blade of grass remains or one house without 10 feet of mold in it. It is somewhere in time.
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Joshua and The Swans