Blue Tarps and White Trailers

On a whim, I decided to go to New Orleans this past weekend for the Mardi Gras Marathon. A good friend was going to run the marathon and I was going to run the 5K while also supporting her in the last couple of miles of the marathon. Unfortunately, it ended up that she could not run the marathon because of a lingering injury. We both ended up doing the 5K, which was a lot of fun (the weather could not have been better - blue skies and a cool breeze). The run was also was a nice punctuation to a wonderful weekend.

It was an eye-opening weekend.

We took Saturday to drive around the city of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish. Folks, their ordeal is no where near over. The city is heavily dotted with blue tarps covering half-blown away roofs and white FEMA trailers parked in "trailer cities" as well as in front of once water-saturated homes. The strange thing is the eerie quietness of the city. Entire subdivisions still do not have electricity and there are no inhabitants. The other odd thing is that no one seems to be occupying the trailer cities. They are barren. Cars are parked outside of homes. Not because their owners are inside, but because they have not been moved from where they were before the water covered them.

I took some photos. The link is at the left.

It's been 5 months since Katrina and Rita. Let's not let time fade our memories and still us from action. They still need our help.

All for now,
Lisa