Part eleven, the last chapter, of Submerged: An evacuee’s journal by Michael Tisserand The devil stood in the middle of the street, refusing to budge. “I don’t care if a car hits me,” said the devil, tightening up her face. “I’m just going to stand here.” It was Mardi Gras afternoon, and my family was […]
Michael Tisserand
Posted inNews + Opinion
Leaving
Shortly after I arrive at the party in New Orleans, a woman hears that I’m leaving town. “So why are YOU moving?” she asks, narrowing her eyes. Her meaning is clear. Why am I not pulling on my gloves and strapping on my facemask and pitching in to help clean things up on Magazine Street, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Ground Zero
My wife spent yesterday in New Orleans, getting the house ready to put on the market. She woke up at 5 a.m. to drive in with a friend. She cleaned the kids’ rooms, hung the pictures back on the walls, stacked the Saturday, Aug. 28, issue of the Times-Picayune — the one with the “Katrina […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Calculated risks
Chalmette, Louisiana A few slabs of brick wall are all that remains of the De la Ronde mansion. Pieces of rusted iron fence are broken and lying on the ground. A bent sign along the St. Bernard Highway announces this as a site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans. The major conflict here is […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Sugarcane Academy
My friend sits out on his back deck, where he would normally be grilling the hamburgers. The tiny pool is ready for our kids. The fence is propped up with two-by-fours. The house is clean, the toys are on the shelves, ready for an onslaught of little hands. But our kids aren’t there. Not only […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Normal
New Orleans, Louisiana The waiter pours an inch of Blackstone Napa Merlot into a plastic cup and offers it to me. I swish it around. “Very good.” We’ve landed here at Vincent’s, an old-line Italian restaurant where Dean Martin plays on the jukebox. The doors open to the rumble of the St. Charles Avenue streetcar, […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Toxic art
I love New Orleans. But after anchoring myself there for half my life, I still don’t understand it all that well. If this city has a soul, I think I’ve only caught fleeting glimpses of it. One of these glimpses occurred in 1993, when I had the chance to interview musician Danny Barker. He was […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Part 3: Just a little while to stay here
Lafayette, Louisiana She just stares at me, the Iowan volunteer. Silver and green Mardi Gras beads drape around her neck. She pushes a blank form across the table. “It’s been a long day,” she says. Sitting next to her, another volunteer quickly smiles. “Welcome,” she says. “You came to the right place.” I tell them […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Part 4: The new New Orleans
“Why is this our problem?” I say this to Cindy. My family and I have been in her home in Carencro, Louisiana, about 150 miles west of New Orleans, for a month now. I say this to her when she brings up the matter of the various children in our evacuee household, trying to plan […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Part 1: Getting out
“Some people got lost in the flood, some people got away alright.”—Randy Newman, “Louisiana 1927” New Orleans is gone. I left it behind me on Saturday, with my two kids in the backseat, the soundtrack to Shrek on the CD player. My wife, a pediatrician, was on call for the weekend and stayed behind. She […]
Posted inNews + Opinion
Part 2: City of the dead
“I can’t go back there,” says my wife, Tami, talking on the cell phone. We’re driving from Carencro into Lafayette to find an insurance office and check out the food stamp line. She listens to the caller, a friend of mine from high school. “That would be great,” Tami says. They’re talking about Minneapolis. Every […]