Weather, Lessons & Geography

Rain is in the forecast for the entire week and a tropical event is trying to become a depression and swirl into a tropical storm, but chances are still slim. Flooding, however, has an excellent chance along the Gulf Coast.

My mantra has become: “There is one reason you are here and that is to report.”

Imagine my pride when the first entry mentions the ever more tawdry Bourbon Street but ignores the refinery, dinner on Jackson Square at Café Pontalba in the oldest continuously occupied apartment buildings in the country, and the mandatory stop at Café Du Monde for beignets.

Oh, great! A flash flood watch has just been issued and an 80 percent chance of rain up to 2 inches, more in some locations.

So the lessons: When you are instructed to dress for heat-stroke hot weather and humidity, don’t pack jeans. When you are told to pack an emergency rain poncho, don’t leave it back at the hotel. When someone tells you they are going to keep pushing water at you, consider that you might want to keep up a regimen on your own.

Beautiful sunrise in this eccentric city where the sun rises over the West Bank.

While half of the group went south to the Delta, D.A. and I toured Lakeview where homes were devastated by the breach in the 17th Street Canal. The neighborhood is rebuilding with faith they will survive and prosper here.

Everywhere the spirit of rebirth and renewal is evident. Those who have chosen to stay have been bolstered by those who have come to assist.

Parts of the city are even more vibrant than before Katrina but that’s a mask to the great swathes of the city still silent and empty. We’ll visit a few more of the hardest hit areas and then move on to Mississippi.

On to Mississippi.