The Long Road Back
Rick Torres owns Freret Hardware. The business has been in the family since 1938, and he was damned if he was going to let floods or looters shut it down. Looters hit the place right after Katrina; then the flooding stopped the looting--and filthy water covered the place with what has come to be known around the shop as the "Katrina patina." Torres had no flood insurance and was told that the looting wasn't covered by theft insurance because looting, according to his insurer, is "social unrest." Torres appealed and won, but he's disgusted. "You've got to be a lawyer and a scientist," he says, to deal with the insurers.
Skip Henderson and his wife are both Crescent City natives, but they've come to the conclusion they just can't stay. With a 6-year-old and 3-year-old twins, it's just not safe, they say, living in a place where the government won't erect levees to handle nature's most violent storms. They have begun looking at schools over in Alabama, and though it breaks their hearts to leave, Henderson says he has no choice. Katrina and Rita, he notes, boiled up out of the superwarm summer waters of the Gulf of Mexico. That water, he notes, "isn't getting any colder." And, he adds ominously, it's only three more months until they start naming hurricanes again.
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ROAD TO RECOVERY
The Freret Jet makes its daily runs, but many of the homes and businesses that it passes are abandoned. Still, each month new signs of life emerge.
1. KEIFFER HOME
Sarah and David Keiffer returned from Baton Rouge last month to their un-flooded home so their daughters could attend their recently reopened school.
2. FRIAR TUCK'S
Jason Blitch maxed out his credit cards to fix up his flooded business, a local bar popular with students from Loyola and Tulane universities.
3. FRERET HARDWARE
Rick Torres reopened his family's flooded hardware store (circa 1938), in October-with an assist from church members to clean and ring up sales.
4. KEHOE AUTOMOTIVE CO.
Thomas Alexander's shop was robbed of all of its tools, but he reopened in October. Lack of manpower has forced him to turn away some business.
5. DUNBAR'S CREOLE COOKING
A neighborhood gem since 1985, Dunbar's was flooded and is closed. Celestine Dunbar hopes to one day offer her famous fried chicken again.
6. BLUE BLOCK PROJECT
Developer Greg Ensslen has cleaned up and rented out all of his storefront space. Coming soon: a coffeehouse, an ice-cream shop, and a tattoo parlor.
7. NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSING SERVICES (NHS)
The community development organization was pleased with progress before the flood. It has relocated for now.
8. BLOOMIN' DEALS
In December, the Junior League thrift store-which was flooded- opened its doors again. It remains a beloved spot for bargain hunters.
9. DENNIS BARBER SHOP
Dennis Sigur's shop was looted and flooded. He refurbished with new barber chairs and hung out his shingle again in December.
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