Photo du Jour: 17th Street Canal Breach Panorama

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This past Sunday was one of those typical overcast January days in New Orleans where the weather can't decide if it wants to be warm or cool. On days like this the humidity is so bad that my carport and driveway sweat to the point where it looks like someone purposely hosed them down. Also typically accompanying the humidy on South Louisiana mornings like this is fog. The above panorama was taken from a work platform connected to the pre-KTMB "floodproofed" (ha ha) Old Hammond Highway bridge facing towards away (to the south) from Lake Pontchartrain. The floodwall breach seen about 1/4 mile to the left has now been cut off from the canal with a weir dam made from metal sheeting. While there I talked with a Red Cross volunteer from Southern California for a few minutes. He echoed what nearly all people visiting New Orleans (beyond twenty minutes on St. Charles Avenue in the Garden District) since KTMB have said: the scope and magnitude of the destruction within New Orleans cannot be fully understood by simply seeing images on television. Seeing it firsthand sheds a whole new light on how widespread and bad it really is . . .