The last time the Rude Pundit visited New Orleans, back in December of 2005 (chronicled in five parts in January of this year), he saw a place that simply wasn't a real city anymore. It was small islands of life in the middle of miles and miles of utter destruction and decimation. Ghost towns in a wasteland. The worst thing that one can say now about New Orleans, almost a year after the big storm and the broken levees, is that it looks a hell of a lot better than it did. If nothing else, you can get through the streets.
Over the next couple of days, the Rude Pundit will show you some places you've seen before and some you haven't, and he'll take you to the outside of one of the largest FEMAvilles in the country.
For now, some of the signs from around the devastated areas of New Orleans:
Outside a gutted house in the Lakeview area, where the 17th Street Canal's levee wall broke. In case you can't see it, the "Before" is of the house in its pre-Katrina state.
A just re-built house about a block away from the other one in Lakeview.
Outside a gutted church in the Lower Ninth Ward.
A "house" in the Lower Ninth Ward.
Tomorrow: Lakeview and the waterline.
