[Leica] Divided D-76 and the lower 9th ward

[Engl6914 at cableone.net (Lee England)]

I've driven down twice to New Orleans with camera in hand, and I can tell
you there's a barrier to documenting what I saw.  I went to medical school
in New Orleans, and I know the city intimately.  I exited the expressway at
Loyola and into downtown and went through three intersections before I
realized the traffic lights had no power (this in November).  Stop signs had
been torn off their poles and nailed to saw horses and put in the
intersections to notify this was a four way stop.  The busiest intersection
I remember in New Orleans (Canal St. and Claiborne Ave.) had no traffic
lights, but it didn't matter.  There was a four way stop, but absolutely no
traffic (the Saturday following Thanksgiving).
    I went first down into the French Quarter to see if A Gallery for Fine
Photography was still open.  It was; just the owner, though.  No employees.
A sign said "Open Fridays through Mondays, and some other days."  Afterwards
I drove out Canal St. and into the Mid-City area where I used to deliver the
mail when I was working my way through school.  Four hundred yards from the
French Quarter (which looked almost undisturbed except for the trash that
there weren't enough workers to pick up) there was nothing--rien.  Just
homes with water lines on them and spray paint to indicate there were or
were not dogs there, or cats, and mounds of debris piled everywhere as high
as the houses.  The doors swung open and the windows, too; there wasn't
anything worth taking.  For mile after mile after mile it was all the
same--no one.  Cars ruined by the flood were everywhere--it's said there're
350,000 of them.
    I took pictures in the French Quarter because it looked like it always
did, just without people.  But out Canal the thought of taking a picture
simply didn't occur to me.  It was too awful.  I don't care what you've seen
on TV, it's worse--16 times worse.  Finally I got out to the cemeteries at
the end of Canal St. and things looked again like they used to.  It's an
attractive spot for artistic photographers.  So I started shooting some
more; it's just that the grass was all dead and the flowers left in August
were all wilted.
    That was my first visit.  I went back a few weeks ago, and this time I
was able to take some pictures in the devasted areas.  But I can tell you
there's a barrier to taking them.  It takes time to overcome.  Maybe I can
put some up in the PAWs.

Lee England
Natchez, Mississippi