Storm makes quick departure
Posted: Monday, September 01, 2008 12:30 PM
Filed Under:
Hurricane
By Mike Brunker, msnbc.com writer
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| Jim Seida / msnbc.com
A couple walks down Chartres St. in the historic district of New Orleans as the last remnants of Hurricane Gustav blow through on Monday. |
As suddenly as Gustav smacked this emptied city, the storm was gone.
By early afternoon on Monday, relatively minor gusts were ruffling the palm trees along Canal Street and the rain had stopped. Forecasters said more of both were likely as the storm slid past to the west, but nothing like the intense winds and rain that pounded the city overnight.
The thermometer also began inching up from the relatively cool 70s and low 80s that accompanied the storm.
Most important, the city’s levees appeared to be holding, though officials cautioned that the water that in some places was overtopping them would remain high for hours.
While city officials were openly relieved that they had dodged a major hit this time, Gustav did leave a sizable mess in its wake.
Streets in neighborhoods and downtown were strewn with garbage, palm fronds and broken limbs. Downed power line, shattered traffic signals and uprooted trees weren’t hard to find, though damage that serious was scattered.
The few citizens who remained behind said the heavy police and National Guard presence, including regular patrols through outlying mostly vacant neighborhoods, was a vast improvement from situation after Hurricane Katrina.
“It’s a lot better than last time, said J.D. Furlong, 38, a bartender who stayed behind to work at a tavern in the Bywater neighborhood in the upper Ninth Ward that surreptitiously remained open during the storm.
“Last time there was mad looting here. I had to stand in the door with an assault rifle. I finally left after seven days because I figured I was either going to get killed or kill somebody.”
