Quick New Orleans Trip

I had to go to New Orleans early Saturday to pick up Simon at the airport. He has been in North Carolina for the last couple of weeks visiting his Dad. He had a nice uneventful flight home and even arrived a few minutes early. John Michael and Thomas rode with me to New Orleans, and since we got there about an hour before Simon's plane arrived, we drove over to the Lakeview Neighborhood to see if anything had changed since the last time. Sadly, not much has changed, except our friend's house has been removed. I'm not sure what their plans are for rebuilding, but I sure wouldn't want to be in that neighborhood right now. What is so scary is this area of New Orleans is family oriented, hard working, upper middle class. People here had their houses covered with insurance, they paid for their own food, medicine, private schools, etc. They didn't receive any aid from the state or federal level because they don't qualify....They are too rich. I guess it really wouldn't matter anyway since there aren't enough contractors, construction workers, electricians, plumbers, or raw building materials in the nation to repair all of this. But looking here at some of these pictures nearly 11 months later...this neighborhood of abandoned homes and cars, grass and weeds 6 feet tall, and virtually no businesses reopening...it reminds me of what East St. Louis looks like. For all I know there are homeless living in some of these shells of buildings, or worse yet there are probably some victims that haven't been found yet. I was optimistic that New Orleans would make a complete recovery...I'm having my doubts now.