Lakeview and West End... A Vast Wasteland

I don't even know where to begin.

I guess first everyone needs to know that this is where I have a home. This is where my sister, her husband and their two month old baby live - in the house where my father grew up. This is where countless friends of mine either live, race or live on sailboats. This is where I spend 80% of my time.

I'm a little surprised as I went through the pictures this evening... I only took about eight. I think I was in a state of shock as I walked around West End Park, Bucktown, Orleans Marina, Municipal Harbor, New Orleans Yacht Club, Southern Yacht Club and Lakeshore Dr. for the several hours I was there...

I'll try to take you through it.

Bucktown remains largely intact, but has become an enormous heavy construction zone at the point of the breach in the 17th St. Canal. The new Coast Guard Station weathered the storm perfectly, not losing a single window, and is now a HQ for all the construction efforts for the canal stabilization. There are probably 40 mobile homes and winnebagagos set up for worker's housing, of which there are plenty. The land that was built up for the new Bucktown Marina has become a massive heliport for Chinook helicopters, who were taking off and landing at the rate of one every couple of minutes. The security is heavy, but again I finelgeled my way in.

You'll notice in the second picture, to give you some scale, on the left there is a small yellow building right in front of that huge pile of debris - that's Two Tony's Restaurant.

I walked over the levee and along the road where to the right would be 50 or so shrimp boats parked in the canal, and then off to your left would be Sid-Mar's Restaurant and a bunch of houses. All of that is gone. All of it, down to the cement foundations. Complete loss.

In the third picture, I have but one comment about the water pipe draining the city -- they had better get more of those going, or else we will be under water for months. I understand about the pumping stations, but hell - there should be 30 of those pipes pumping out water!

Before I continue, I should let you know about the smell. Imagine a pile of crawfish left over from a boil which is allowed to sit in the sun for ten days, and then throw in a little raw sewage and you'll get the drift. And the bugs. There are swarms of biting flies.

On top of the pedestrian bridge over the canal, which is mangled but walkable, you can truly appreciate the destruction. Every stick and piling of The Dock, Jaegers, Brunings, and the constantly under construction Augie's is gone. The little odd decaying snowball shacks that had sat vacant for years are all gone. It's like there was never anything there except that old cement WPA railing. The parking lot is covered in debris, sand and mud. There are plates from Brunings, metal poles, beer cans, ripped cloth, pieces of ice chests... flotsam and jetsam.

I walked back up the other side of the 17th St. canal on the levee past the Coconut Beach Volleyball Courts, which are nothing but stinking mud and debris now, until I hit West End Tennis Club. It and the tennis courts are now under two feet or so of putrid blood brown water. Along the left side of the levee, starts a massive pile of debris stretching straight to the flood gates. At the gates it rises easily twenty feet high - made up of broken lumber, toilet seats, insulation, and countless artifacts of what is now crap.

The 3-story condos (in picture 4) which are directly to the right of the drak grey 3-story condos in the picture have had most of the top floor ripped off, yet other than the chest-high water in the Pier 8 condos - they appear sound. Also the two large condo developments, other than the water in the ground floor, appear to be perfectly healthy.

I went into Orleans Marina, and this was truly a sign of victory. In the well protected and built marina, I'd say 80% of the boats are fine. The ones that are not are obviously the ones where the asshole owners did not properly secure them and now their sailboat or powerboat rests oddly crooked into space and water or resting on top of their neighbors boats. Municipal is a whole different story... for pictures, click here.

I meandered through gates, fences and through the condo complexes until I finally got onto Lakeshore Dr. I headed down to the West End and Robert E. Lee Blvd. Intersection. The height and expanse of water is just bizarre. My family's house is right over there. Right over there through that water and through countless little bungalows that are other people's homes - filled to the eaves with that skanky water.

Turning back down Lakeshore Dr., here again were small victories. My favorite bar, the Hong Kong, though gutted, still stands. Unfortunately that foul restaurant, Joe's Crab Shack also survived.

I climbed up on the levee, fighting this weird urge to be mad at the lake and discovered at my feet amongst a ton of random debris, a long and heavy wooden plank that still held three of the original six silver plaques honoring Southern Yacht Club's sailors who won the Lipton Cups throughout the late seventies. It looked like it had been run through a sink disposal.

I took it with me and carried it back, retracing my meandering route in order to swing back towards West End park and the still standing New Orleans Yacht Club and the burned out husk of Southern Yacht Club.

What's shocking is that around West End park and the point, almost all of the boat houses still stand. Unfortunately, a fair amount of the great old-growth oak trees are down, some crushing cars that were already totaled and kicked around in the rising water.

I eventually climbed the stairs into NOYC, happy as I could be that the club was still there and placed the trophy on the bar. Next to it there were a few empty beer bottles, and I smiled knowing that someone, either alone or with another had toasted the club for surviving with a hot beer.


























































A couple of final thoughts... All of the wild Bruning's cats are probably dead. There is a huge developing issue regarding left behind pets... more on that tomorrow.

Finally... The trophy that now sits atop NOYC's bar will, in time I hope, sit back on the walls of Southern Yacht Club along with many other rediscovered historic items that lie on the levees and in the piles of garbage from this storied club's past.