Holidays Not So Big — Or Easy — For N.O.

A Cloud Of Uncertainty Still Hangs Over The City For Many Residents And Business Owners

(CBS)  CBS News correspondent Cami McCormick was on assignment in New Orleans from Dec. 16-20, 2006 and filed this report for CBSNews.com.

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During the week before Christmas in New Orleans, a heavy fog settled in each night. On some days, the fog lasted well into the next afternoon, becoming clear and warm afterwards. Other days, the weather remained cloudy and cool. The shifting weather reflected the mood of some residents in the days leading up to the holidays.

"Uncertain. It's that kind of season," said Kenneth Colin, a taxi driver who lives in a FEMA trailer in the Lower 9th Ward.

The holiday decorations in New Orleans are sporadic and toned down this year, even in the usually festive French Quarter. On the mule-drawn carriages in Jackson Square, only one of the mules sported reindeer antlers as a costume.

"I didn't put lights up this year. I didn't have the help," said Brian Dupepe, owner of the Hotel Provincial on Chartres Street in the French Quarter.

In New Orleans' Lakeview neighborhood, where the streets are still buckled from Hurricane Katrina and crowded with demolition and construction crews, newly rebuilt houses with Christmas wreaths and lights sit next to abandoned or demolished homes. Some residents are home for the holidays, but many of their neighbors are not yet able to return.

In hard-hit lower Plaquemines Parish, south of New Orleans, there are few buildings standing. The most visible work is being done by earthmovers, fortifying the levees. Many residents are waiting for that work to finish so they can rebuild. Their insurance will depend on it. In the meantime, only a handful of FEMA trailers in the town of Port Sulphur are decorated for the holidays.

Last year, Randy Gauthier strung Christmas lights on the shell of his destroyed seafood business.

"I used a generator to power them. But this year it’s just too much trouble," he said. His wife and children live an hour and a half's drive away so his daughters can attend school.

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Photos: Christmas In New Orleans

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Throughout the region, there is a mixture of worry and optimism about the year ahead.

"There is some uncertainty. At this point we would have hoped to see a clear way forward," said psychologist Joy Osofsky, who is working with recovery workers, schools and the elderly. "If it was really clear how things will be rebuilt, including the levees, you would see the mood improve. But it’s dragging on."

One thing she says the locals cheer is visitors. Even traffic jams are welcome.

And New Orleans tourism officials are hopeful that visitors will return in large numbers in 2007. Tourism accounts for 35 percent of the city’s budget. — and locals say the best way for Americans to help the struggling city now is to visit it. There are growing signs that is beginning to happen and New Orleans is prepared for it.

"Last year at this time, there were 9,000 hotel rooms filled primarily with FEMA workers and displaced New Orleanians," according to Sandra Shilstone, president of the New Orleans Tourism and Marketing Corporation. "Today, there are 29,000 hotel rooms."

Hotel occupancy is close to 50 percent.

New Orleans' Louis Armstrong International Airport is now servicing 109 flights per day. That's still less than the 162 daily flights before Katrina — but the increasing number of passengers could allow some shuttered stores and restaurants to reopen.

Shilstone admits it has been a challenging year.

[valendug]

I'll bet it's a good christmas for the wealthy, bourbon street, NO's thugz athletes, the casinos, and, best of all, the Nagin Klan.

[agnim]

"Angim, don't say you understand me when you don't even know what you are talking about. I don't know what absolutely perfect place for human habitation you live in, but would you please tell me?

Posted by russellvbrla at 02:42 PM : Dec 22, 2006"

Russell, I know you a lot better than you know yourself. LOL

You are in that New Orleans state of mind as is said about a man and bad woman: He knows she's bad for him; but he just can't resist her temptations and his attachment to her.

Trust me; if there were any other inauspicious places in the US that posed such CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER AS NEW ORLEANS GRAVEYARD, then my argument would hold equally well!

There are so many things wrong with New Orleans as a site to live that IT IS NO COINCIDENCE that New Orleans is represented as a big NO!

Again, Russell, take this sage guidance and RELOCATE your family from NO, from undersea.
If it's just you, then be foolish with your life alone!

[russellvbrla]

Angim, don't say you understand me when you don't even know what you are talking about. I don't know what absolutely perfect place for human habitation you live in, but would you please tell me?

If you take your argument to its "logical" conclusion, then North America should be entirely abandoned. If the only spot in North America that is unfit to live in is a three hundred year old city then where else in this geologically unstable land mass should Americans go? Why do you think there were no European-like "civilzations" in North America when the first settlers arrived? Should we just abandon America altogether? Lets all go back to Mesopotamia or Mama Africa with Angim since that is the only safe place on earth according to Angim.
And thank you for comparing me to a dolphin and not whatever species you belong to.

[agnim]

"If the city is not fit for humans then why would greedy corporations build condos there? What an idiot! You should marry Angim and have brain-dead babies with him.

Posted by russellvbrla at 02:23 PM : Dec 22, 2006"

Since Agnim is to be married to Cathleen, then may be you don't mind Agnim answer the brain dead question?

Corporations would build condos FOR THE MONEY!

There is a lot of money earmarked for the place.
And greedy corporations will flock to money like flies flock to chit, even if the chit was in a GRAVEYARD, which NO IS!

[agnim]

"Agnim is an idiot. Tell you what Agnim, we'll abandon our city when Miami, Manhattan, Washington, DC, Houston, and Mobile abandon theirs. Also earthquake prone cities like Los Angeles and Memphis should be abandoned too. The entire midwest should be abandoned also because of the constant tornado threat."

Posted by russellvbrla at 02:18 PM : Dec 22, 2006"

Russell, you listen to me and listen good: You and other New Orleanians should grab your families and get the hell out of that WATERY GRAVEYARD you misnamed a 'city'!

New Orleans is UNDERSEA!

Russell, you are not a dolphin, even though you may have their level of intelligence!

There is enough free and far more auspicious land space in which to house those who are now foolishly clamoring for the New Orleans WATERY GRAVEYARD! And it would be a whole lost expensive.

I understand your attachment to the place and I feel your pain of not wanting to run from N O.

However, New Orleans IS AN INAUSPICIOUS SPACE FOR HUMAN HABITATION FOR MANY REASONS!

Heed this piece of wisdom, and RUN from NO!
And run to YES!

[russellvbrla]

Cathaleen, you make no sense. If the city is not fit for humans then why would greedy corporations build condos there? What an idiot! You should marry Angim and have brain-dead babies with him.

[agnim]

"Mean spirited posts like those below make me even sadder.

Posted by oleander8 at 01:16 PM : Dec 22, 2006"

LOL

If one is so sensitive as not able to handle simple truths, then one is better off locking oneself in a room and just have a good cry. It may make you feel less 'sad'.

[russellvbrla]

Agnim is an idiot. Tell you what Agnim, we'll abandon our city when Miami, Manhattan, Washington, DC, Houston, and Mobile abandon theirs. Also earthquake prone cities like Los Angeles and Memphis should be abandoned too. The entire midwest should be abandoned also because of the constant tornado threat.

Now to the humans that read this article: Thank you CBS for remembering us every once in a while. I can tell you that the people who now live there embody the true pioneering American spirit. And we will accomplish everything on our own since the current American spirit means not helping fellow Americans and instead sending money, treasure and lives to Iraq to be wasted.
And to all those who leave here so they can have easy lives elsewhere i say "goodbye and good riddance. We dont want you here."
And to things like Angim: when a catastophe visits you or your hometown, I will be there to laugh at you and mock you. I look forward to it. I wish nothing but ill will to things like Angim masquerading as a human being.

[oleander8]

I feel sad everytime I think about what has happened to New Orleans and it's citizens. Mean spirited posts like those below make me even sadder.

[cathaleen]

For once I agree with Agnim - New Orleans is not a
fit place for humans = but the greedy corporations will go in a build and build regardles of the danger to people. Also watch for the super expensive condos and townhomes that will be built for the rich and then the levees will be rebuilt because rich white people need to be safe.

[agnim]

Americans with an ounce of sense WILL ABANDON THAT NEW ORLEANS HELL HOLE PRONTO!

New Orleans is a very very very INAUSPICIOUS site!

For one thing, humans were not meant to live 'undersea'!

How many more drownings must it take before we abandon that SUNK SHIP!