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In reply to the discussion: DUers post the thing about post Katrina that shocked you the most [View all]X_Digger
(18,585 posts)A friend of a friend of mine was in the superdome with his son, and I went down to pick them up with my friend.
It took forever- there were no signs or barricades on many back roads, you'd just pop around a corner and part of the road would be underwater. You'd have to back up, turn around, and try another road. When we got past the worst part, I remember sharing our map with scribbled X's with a guy and his family heading the other way.
When we finally made it to within a couple miles of the superdome, we had to park and walk. Trash and the funk started about 1/3 mile from the superdome itself. At 5-6 blocks, the people heading to the dome started getting thick. Took almost 3 hours to go that last 1/3 mile. Natl guard folks seemed to mean well, but really the left hand had no clue what the right was doing.
God damn, that smell. Rotten baby shit, dead fish, a chemical / electrical burnt smell (I was told later that was due to water getting into the electrical substations), and general body funk. Knock-you-down-puking strong.
We got the hell out of there as quickly as possible. They ended up staying with us for almost 7 months. They're living up near Denton now, and don't plan on moving back. (They got a partial settlement from their insurance company a couple years ago, they used it for a down payment on a place here.)