The 11 by 20 block area north of Claiborne between the Industrial Canal and the railroad tracks along the St. Bernard Parish boundary took the worst hit of any area in New Orleans. Fourt and a half months after the storm it still looks like a bomb exploded here. You can sit in one spot and gaze across block after block of flattened homes and buildings.

The splinters have been cleared from the roads but several houses have not. One house sits on top of the car that was parked in the street in the front. An overhang from the now missing front porch stretches out over the road. More cars and trucks are recognizable than homes. Brick buildings fared much better than wood. Power lines are down everywhere. There is water running from some underground mains. I wonder that these are not disconnected, perhaps they are needed for fire fighting. Tourists, a few relief workers and the crews working on the levee to the west are the only inhabitants.

Jourdan Avenue parallels the levee. Between Florida Avenue and Claiborne Avenue the destruction is total. A few building look like they were blasted with a giant high pressure hose.

Outside this square there are a few signs of life. South of Claiborne the flooding was only about four feet deep, south of St Claude in the Holy Cross District only a foot or two. Cars are parked, not abandoned, in front of some homes and some heaps of debris indicate some level of rehabilitation is in progress. Holy Cross school will be moving but the campus looks like something is going on. Temporary buildings, not trailers, fill the parking lot. there isn't much traffic and no people to be seen.

Once across the canal and into the Bywater District you can see the life returning. Universal Furniture is closed but many other businesses are open and people are living in their homes.