Karen Gadbois and the neighborhood of NW Carrollton pulled together in the early morning hours today to assist neighbors who suffered damage from last night’s storm. I spoke to my close contact at the National Weather Service and he said he was working the radar and it was, in fact, a tornado, probably F1 or F2 based on the Fujita Scale.
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From nola.com
Two doors down on Burdette Street, Noel Reid, 73, weathered the onslaught from his bedroom, located on the north side of his wooden shotgun double.
“I heard the glass shattering and the walls started moving,” said Reid, a retired Irishman who teaches Irish dancing at a neighborhood studio. “The first thing I looked for was me fiddle. I was glad to see it was OK.”
Was the second thing he looked for his box of Lucky Charms?
Click on these images for a larger view of the damage in the Carrollton area from last night’s weather. It’s a mess.
These pictures were taken near and along Freret, between Carrollton and the universities. Power was out to about 16,000 customers, largely from about St. Charles and about Calhoun, through Carrollton and points farther up toward Mid-City. Lots of folks milling around, basically dumbfounded and trying to clear stuff out.Many of these homes have just gotten their roof repaired after Katrina and now the owners are facing it again. There’s all kinds of crap hanging in the trees over an area of about 5-6 blocks square and damage is also evident on St. Charles at about Broadway (trees down).
Hizzonor C-Ray and Councilwoman Shelley Midura were out, talking to the media on neutral ground outside O’Henry’s. We were too far away to hear what was being said.
More detail and a broader assessment of damage here and here.
Last night’s storms did a lot more damage than anticipated, with things torn up from Westwego, across the river to the Carrollton area and into Gentilly and New Orleans East.
There’s one reported death so far — but property damage is extensive. A lot of the damage has been in some areas left pretty much alone by Katrina, but some other recently-repaired areas have also seen some destruction. About 16,000 are without power in the Carrollton area alone. An entire motel was destroyed in Westwego and the Westbank Expressway has been closed in that area.
We’re okay in our Irish Channel neighborhood. I got up in the middle of the night and heard some thunder, but went back to bed. Had I known, I’d have stayed up. We’ll try to get some pictures later this morning.
This line of storms is pelting the Florida Panhandle this morning.
I happened upon this nightmare today when I drove by Napoleon and Magazine this afternoon to visit the costume shop, it’s time to get that costume together. Ms. Mae said this incident happened about 9:30pm on Sunday night, the driver, a woman, got out and ran away. The car is not reported stolen so they’ll catch up with her. No one was hurt. I watched the tow guys remove the car which was hung up on the concrete post supports. Pretty good work on their part. The balcony of the bar was already secured by temporary bracing and open for business. Ms. Mae is a regular rider in the krewe of Orpheus, she loves it. Because the riders are required to wear masks, you have to spot her big hairdo . . . .
I went to see Excalibur in Metairie on Friday night. I’ve only lived here in New Orleans for about 3 years now and I never saw a need to leave uptown during the Gras unless it was to see Krewe de Vieux or Barkus. So Excalibur was my first Metairie parade and a real treat, I tell you.
The parades in Metairie start later, which in my mind is a good thing because you can be a little bit lazier about the parade prep. We parked at the Lakeside Mall and watched from Severn. I noticed there were some elements of an uptown parade not seen in Metairie, such as flambeaus and brass bands. However, there are some things Metairie parades have that uptown is missing::
Copeland’s Monster trucks
Copeland’s speed boats
Copeland’s motorcycles
A daiquiri in every adult hand (no one seems to bother with a cooler)
Adult dance teams (?!)
Yes, that’s right. I said adult dance teams. They don’t need a school to show their spirit - they have the unabashed love of dancing to keep them going!
Mostly what I learned from my Excalibur experience is that Metairie rocks just as hard as uptown, just in a very different, much more Metairie kind of way.
The lack of public information being released by the NOPD about crime has been lamented several times in the past on this blog. It looks like concerned citizens are starting to take this matter into their own hands and implement solutions. The website http://www.citizencrimewatch.org/ intends to eventually map all NOPD incidents via the google maps API, as well as allow citizens to share other information such as blighted property reports and other quality of life concerns. Currently the site only contains homicide information, which seems to be the only thing reliably reported to the public by the NOPD.
If you are interested in helping or learning more, read below.
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Grand Time: Thanks to Ray “Undisclosed Location” Nagin’s stellar inability to get things done, New Orleans’ Municipal Auditorium remains out of commission, so we held this year’s Mystic Krewe of Satyricon bal masque in a warehouse space that no one in the krewe was very excited about. And wouldn’t you know, it was fan-freaking-tastic. Maybe the best ever. The Boyfriend got some beautiful pics. Me, not so much.
Grand Guignol: On behalf of crackers everywhere, I would like to apologize to anyone born south of the Rio Grande for the allegedly journalistic, allegedly comic writings of irrelevant lunkhead Angus Lind–in particular, today’s “guide to all things Mardi Gras”, intended for New Orleans’ “new Hispanic neighbors”. Although Lind tries to play up the quirks of Carnival à la Nouvelle Orléans, in the end he sounds like a fatass gringo in some Tijuana cantina who’s had one too many shots of tequila and is now dancing an atrocious hat dance around a novelty sombrero.
While standing on Canal waiting for Pontchartrain to roll by an interesting thing happened. The police cars had already passed by at the beginning of the parade, then along came a truck pulling a long flatbed trailer filled with children and chaperones, followed by young men on horseback. (I am sorry I don’t remember the name of their organization.) Just as the truck began to pass in front of me, five police officers ran up to the truck and told the man to stop. They asked for his license and registration after looking over these documents they asked him to exit the vehicle. At this point people were getting a little pissed off as down the street came about 9 other officers to stick their noses in the business and get a piece of the action. I should note that whatever this man did or did not do he was fully cooperating and not causing any ‘action’ to warrant a total of 14 officers to handle him. After about five minutes of holding the parade up, they took the man over to the side and an officer drove the truck onto the neutral ground. While this was happening, the children in the back of the truck looked confused and possibly a bit scared. I wonder how long it took someone to relay the message to their parents as to why their kids are in the neutral ground and not at the end of the parade. I do not know what happened to the man and I do not know why they ‘pulled him over’ but I would be willing to bet they could have waited until the parade was over. Maybe be waiting for him at the end, hey there’s an idea. I am sure if they put all 14 of their heads together they could have figured out how to do that.
The morning show at the radio station came up with this idea awhile back because of another crime wave. After the last couple of days and with Mardi Gras starting today, we thought we would bring it back. A listener this morning suggested we hand these out as tourists get off the plane, much like you get a lei when you get off a plane in Hawaii.
Welcome and enjoy our fine city!!!!!!
