A Phone Call to Algiers Point, New Orleans

We Just got off the phone with a friend in Algiers Point.  He can take calls, but can't dial out.

He has had little contact with the outside world since Katrina and the flooding ravaged New Orleans.  He seemed to be unaware of the devastation on the other side of the river, since the West Bank has not experienced such extensive flooding.  We were the first people to tell him that there is a massive evacuation of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes.  He is not ignorant, dumb, or senile, but this is the current state of affairs in the city.

More after Flip:

He told us that there is group calling itself the Algiers Point Militia patrolling the neighborhood.  He said at least one person had been shot for what he described as looting, and that there was probably more bloodshed.  He hears gunfire regularly. He told us that Oakwood Mall in Terrytown is burning to the ground.  This mall is in Jefferson Parrish, but is not to far from Algiers Point.  He explained that a man in night vision goggles, a weapon, and a camouflage uniform walks the streets as if he were the military, but he is not.

He did explain that they had heard the National Guard was supposed to be arriving soon.  They keep seeing helicopters overhead and hoping that they will land.  He then said we should tell my mother-in-law that it would be safe to return soon.  We tried to explain that when the Guard did arrive it would be to evacuate them not to make it safe for people to return.  He did not believe us on this point, but his partner did and is desperate to get out of New Orleans and has been for some time.

We were happy to discover that he is alive, but we fear for both his safety and his state of mind.

•  Good luck to your friend & his partner

  please find some official statements and some news articles to read to him over the phone to impress upon him that the area is not going to be functional again quite literally for months and he is not going to have much choice but to leave.

  by Elizabeth D on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 03:47:43 PM PDT

  •  We are trying to do this....

    While also trying to keep my love's mom, who is in Baton Rouge now, from trying to drive back and save what has sadly become and imaginary life, a life that is now in the past, at least for the time being.  People are in shock and they are acting out from mental illness.

    I am in shock and I am 2000 miles away.

    by beagleandtabby on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 03:54:34 PM PDT

    •  I'm pretty sure I would feel that impulse too

      to go back and see what's left, to try to pick up the pieces. It has got to be unbearable to be left stranded away from home, with basically nothing, and not knowing what's going on. Courage and good wishes to her...

      by Elizabeth D on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 03:58:21 PM PDT

•  Great

  the yuppies of Algiers point turned vigilante...

  Your friend sounds pretty out of it, but they were lucky to have a place on high ground.

  by playon on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 03:50:46 PM PDT

  •  sounds like it may be GUPPIES..

    not yuppies.

    by billlaurelMD on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 03:59:43 PM PDT

  •  In my experience....

    there were a lot of wealhier people in Algiers, but my mother-in-law is a working class painter who bought her house at auction for 500.00 back when the neighborhood was a dump.

    It is also a LGBT community with many lower to working class artists.

    Take a drive through and look at the kind of cars parked in front of the houses.  Some yuppie, but a lot of working class.

    by beagleandtabby on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 04:03:30 PM PDT

•  What exactly is Jefferson Parish

  Is this essentially the suburbs?

  by Ben P on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 03:52:35 PM PDT

  •  Yes....

    Dancing Larry had a great diary yesterday which had a map of the parrishes surrounding New Orleans.  Algiers Point is a neighborhood in New Orleans.

    In Louisiana instead of counties they have parrishes.  New Orleans is Orleans Parrish, many of the surrounding parrishes are just as devastated, if not more.  The ones that butt up against Lake Ponchetrain are 75 to 90 percent destroyed as far as their viability for use to human beings at this point I hear.

    by beagleandtabby on Thu Sep 01, 2005 at 04:00:30 PM PDT