Warning - longest post ever
Surreal.
While grossly inadequate, that is the only word I can fathom to describe the last 5 days. I was staying in Baltimore, but towards the end of last week I became unbearably anxious to return to New Orleans and assess damage and determine the viability of remaining in this city. I was so eager to get back, particularly after Rita brought 5 feet of water into the lake, that I drove from Baltimore to New Orleans stopping only twice for gas. I drove into Metaire, LA (a New Orleans suburb) across Lake Pontchartrain on the Causeway Bridge. Normally, that drive is highlighted by the brightly lit New Orleans skyline. On Saturday night, the city was completely dark ? nearly a month after Katrina. When I arrived at New Orleans at four in the morning I crashed briefly at my girlfriend's apartment and was heading to the boat before eight.
When I arrived at the Lakefront on the Metairie side of the 17th Street Canal (if that sounds familiar, it?s the spot of one of the major levee breaches). Army Chinook helicopters were flying back and forth transporting huge sandbags trying to fill the breach.
I walked along the top of a pier wall along the 17th Street Canal, sneaking past armed guards, to get into the marina. The pier was gone, as were almost all of the shrimp boats that were normally tied up there. To the left, the row of homes and restaurants was?vanished. Fall off to the right and I?m in the Canal.
I crossed over a damaged footbridge into the marina area.
The scene was one of total devastation. The entire area was swept clean. The restaurants and music clubs were marked only by the pilings they once stood on.
I passed what used to be the New Orleans Power Squadron on my way to the Municipal Yacht Harbor
On my way to the harbor, I passed by overturned trees and boats blown from the marina into the park.
I couldn?t reach my boat by walking out onto my pier because there was a huge pile of boats blocking the way. That pile is shown on an earlier post. Instead, I climbed over the seawall and onto the boom of a sunken Islander 30. The same Islander I and the live-aboard owner drank a beer on the night before while pondering what Katrina would do. From the Islander I climbed onto the flybridge of an old Hatteras and then onto my pier.
Once on the pier I saw the harbor view for the first time in person. It makes your hands shake and your heart pound. This was the marina I?ve been my entire life. I know these boats and their owners. It was unrecognizable. Huge boats were on piers and lying on their sides, many were stacked like toys in piles, masts stuck up through the water, and NOT ONE SINGLE BOAT was undamaged. At least 50% are total losses. Of the remainder, about 45% have major damage. I, incredibly, am in the 5% minority that suffered only cosmetic damages.
The Islander 36 that didn?t want to tie his boat up right is paying dearly for his cavalier dismissal of the power of a Hurricane. His boat has had its bottom torn out by the pier which is holding half submerged with its bow pointed skyward. Its bizarre.
The Triton was holding on with one line. I tied it up with four lines leading bow and stern and four springs. The only one holding was the portside bow line. The Islander was responsible for the starboard aft and spring lines. I pulled the starboard bow line from the water and this is what I found:
That?s the dock cleat. Notice the rotten screws. Is that how this marina is put together?
Photo below shows the snapped port stern line:
Good news once aboard the Triton ? the cockpit locker lid that had blown off was lying on the cockpit sole. I resecured the Triton as best I could, which wasn?t very well. I ended up with port side lines only ? bow, stern, and spring. I did my best to keep it off the Islander. I?ll go back this weekend and move it one slip over. My neighbor?s Chaparral is holed and on top of a couple sailboats about 30 yards away.
After leaving my boat I went to check out what was left of the Yacht Clubs. Southern is a burned out shell. New Orleans, to which I?m a member, is a wreck, but can be fixed up. Here are a couple shots.
I could go into great details about the condition of homes that, like mine, were submerged. The mess is unbelievable. Refridgerators?unspeakable. But this is a boating forum. I?ll say only that it is impossible to conceive ? whole areas are gone. My entire neighborhood will, according to some, be condemned. St. Bernard, another New Orleans subdivision, is effectively gone and with it the homes of 80,000 people. It staggers the imagination.
