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Bone-tired, but glad to be home amid the papier-mache mascots

By JENNIFER LIBERTO
Published September 27, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - Beetle Bailey lost an arm. Tarzan lost a leg and Darth Vader lost his shirt.

But that didn't matter so much to residents of the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans who lost homes, jobs and friends to Hurricane Katrina.

In the shadow of the towering blue steel Mississippi River bridges, battered yellow warehouses that protect the embodiment of Mardi Gras - several hundred carnival floats and their figures - were no match for the storm that stripped rainbow papier-mache, nails and 2-by-4s from float trailers.

Over the past few weeks, residents of Algiers have trudged to Blaine Kern's warehouses, transformed into an emergency staging ground for supplies of ice, water, rations and diapers.

Monday marked the second jump-start of a phased-in repopulation of New Orleans, which began last week. About 50,000 Algiers residents who live across the Mississippi River about 10 minutes from the French Quarter, slowly trickled home.

Residents of the drier parts of the ravaged St. Bernard Parish were also allowed in to check their damaged homes, many of which were uninhabitable.

Algiers weathered the storm better than most parts of the New Orleans area, mostly because the river levees held up against flooding and storm surge. Yet powerful wind gusts tore roofs and gutters from homes, making many of them unlivable.

Most residents who recently returned said they're glad to be home. But they are bone tired.

Chanda Terrell had evacuated to Lake Charles, La., when Hurricane Katrina hit. And in the wake of Hurricane Rita, she had to evacuate to a public shelter in Bunkie, a tiny town in central Louisiana known for its speed traps.

"I couldn't take it anymore," said Terrell who packed up her three boys, mother and aunt and drove them back to Algiers late Sunday night to sleep in a house racked with mildew. "It's good to be home, but we all have headaches. I don't know if it's the air, stress or dehydration"

Moldy refrigerators, tree limbs and garbage lined the residential streets of Algiers, which otherwise appeared the most salvageable part of the city.

Traffic lights work. The water is drinkable. And the local newspaper appeared on doorsteps Monday for the first time in a month.

Lines were only 20 minutes long at the Winn Dixie grocery on MacArthur Boulevard, which still had plenty of Community Coffee, Tony Chachere's spices and Zatarain's potato chips.

Officials originally opened Algiers last week. A third of the residents moved back. As Hurricane Rita steered for Louisiana, officials called for a voluntary evacuation, which was largely ignored.

"We figured we'd wait it out, because we had nothing else to lose," said Amy Rye, whose ceiling collapsed in her home.

Many others who waited out Hurricane Katrina had harrowing tales, such as Raymond Williams, 53, of Algiers, who was armed with nothing but the deepest, most intimidating voice he could muster.

"They tried to kick in my front door and steal my car," Williams said. "The gunshots went all through the night."

Lynn Pitre, maintenance manager at the Blain Kern warehouses, abandoned his own home to guard the Mardi Gras floats from looters and arsonists. He didn't get a full night's sleep for five days and kept firing his .22-caliber rifle in the air whenever he heard voices.

While 200 floats suffered major damage, they are only a small percentage of the overall number of floats ready for the 2006 Mardi Gras season. Most survived with minor damage. If parades roll, they'll just be shorter.

"We'll have them ready, if they want Mardi Gras," Pitre said. "We need something to lift people's spirits here."

[Last modified September 27, 2005, 02:45:31]