One way to help New Orleans - Plan a vacation there

My husband and I are planning a trip to NOLA in Feb/March. Just like New Yorkers asked for tourists to spend money and support their restaurants and tourism industry - NOLA will need the same.

So, instead of Disney, Yosemite, or even like us - a trip home, plan on a trip to the Big Easy. I lived there for two years and can vouch - they will be back swinging by Mardi Gras. And we plan on eating our weight's worth in beignets and po boys!! Won't you join us?!!

even if you live in the states, not everyone is able to go and help. We've donated money - not much else we can do from here. I simply offered a suggestion since we were planning a trip home for Christmas and intend to save it for NOLA.

We used to live there - Mardi Gras is not just a big party. It is a community event that last all year long. It is a social phenomenon no other place in the US has.

Excuse the hell out of me for trying to be positive - if you know people who own restaurants, work for tips, sell their art - you'd want to hear that people will be back visiting as soon as possible.

but somehow I doubt Mardi Gras will be taking place there next year. Or that it will ever be the same. I doubt that I, for one, will be able to think of Mardi Gras without thinking of this week's tragedy.

Hopefully the tradition carries on somewhere else.

If you mean 2006 I think you ought to make other plans. New York had one exceptionally large office complex destroyed in a huge city. New Orleans is a medium sized city that's going to need pumped out, damage assessed and repaired or rebuilt. While individual buildings *may* be in good shape by next year some time (having dealt with insurers and contractors I don't expect it to go that fast for most people,) at best the city will be a huge construction site.

"we will rebuild, bigger and better"....like Florida. Then about half way through the rebuilding process, another comes along and pops them.

I hope you will be towing a boat.

Haven't you seen what has been said by people on the spot about this? Forget visiting New Orleans in six months. It isn't going to happen.

And piss on this thread - wish I could delete it.

but I have to say, as someone with a son lost in the disaster that is New Orleans, and with a lifelong knowledge of the city, that I am even more upset at the thought of anyone even considering vacationing in New Orleans while people are dying there at this very moment, trapped in attics, dying of dehydration on overpasses.

Considering boosting New Orleans' economy in the future is fine, but there are people here on DU who have relatives in New Orleans, including myself, who cannot reach them and have no idea whether they are alive or dead. The reports and images from the city are devastating. It has been announced that it will be months before anyone will even be let back into the city.

Sorry I can't work up any enthusiasm for anyone's New Orleans vacation plans.

I was just thinking of planning a trip once the rebuilding and clean-up allow. It also depends on the husband's work schedule. He may be sent off on a couple of long work trips in a few months, so we'll have to figure that in along with getting the grandparents to watch the kid.

And yeah, I think the people there will be determined to have their city back in time for Mardi Gras...

As much as I'd love for the city to be just fuctioning well by early 2006, I don't think that's going to happen. Maybe 2007, but not next year.

As many have pointed out, New York lost a large office complex; New Orleans, for now, is lost itself. It will be a while before it can be inhabitated, before enough people even want to move back, before the dead can be buried.

and think of it as a working vacation, because, they are still going to be getting over typhoid and dengue fever in 6 months. I know. I survived Marilyn in St. Thomas, another category 5, which destroyed the island. Sewage flowed over the island for months, and I got so accustomed to the sound of gunfire, that I could instantly calibrate it's direction of origin and juxtaposition to my children's position. Post hurricane disaster sites are like war zones. We waited 6 months for electricity, and a year later it was still raining on us inside the supermarket. We each got dengue fever twice. Every building on our island was damaged, and most destroyed, but, at least we still had the island. In the case of NO, I do believe the ocean has claimed some of the land it used to occupy. If you go to NO, you can only go to help, not party.

too optimistic that New Orleans will be ready for tourists by then.

If you wanted to go to help, that would be fabulous, cause I think they will either still need it, or the city will have begun the bulldozing once they get everyone out and no one is there to see it happen. It will not be ready for vacationers.

We thought we would go in May, and that was Tuesday morning early, then we started seeing the real extent of the devastation, and knew it would be too early. Same idea as you though, to pour money into their economy, but I do not even think that they even will HAVE an economy, by May even.

At this point, I do not know if the city will be allowed by DC to be rebuilt.

God, we got our pictures out of NO last night while watching the news coverage and just cried for the folks there.

I've been real impressed with Governor Blanco and the Mayor of NOLA. I've always love the city...and am sure once all this said, drained and dried out, the Let The Good Times Roll attitude will be there again.

I told a friend tonight to keep their plans for Mardi Gras next year...they'll be the best ever.

Cheers...

the right place.

I doubt it'll be possible in 2006, but maybe by 2007, who knows?

Don't take all the naysayers too personally.