Today is Monday, September 5th. My name is Noelle, & I am in Ft. Worth posting updates for Katherine until she, Kellie, and Ashley return from New Orleans. I just spoke with her on the phone, and she made it into her apartment in uptown this morning!!! Kellie and Ashley live in an apartment in the same building. Again, they live on the corner of Cherokee and Burthe, which is 2 blocks west and 3 blocks north of Loyola Law School.
Everything was fine with their apartments!! They noticed that someone had definitely tried to jiggle their locks; they had a little trouble with the keys, but they were able to open the doors and get in. They discovered a few leaks coming through the roof, but only small ones. In Kellie's & Ashley's apartment, there was a little bit of dripping from the roof as well as a broken window pane of glass (possibly from flying debris), but that was it! They were incredibly relieved!!!
They began walking around to survey the area. There are currently no gangs and no floods. About 7,000 military personnel are stationed in Audubon Park. St. Charles Street and Carrollton Street are both clear of debris and trees. Things are better than they expected. Some streets are perfectly fine, but others are completely destroyed. People are just rebuilding outside, raking lawns, and cutting down trees. The Jesus statue still stands in front of Loyola.
They dropped off supplies (Ice and bug repellant) for Drew, a native who had weathered the storm with his 75 year old mother on Napoleon a block from Tchop. He has been walking around in the area, reporting back to his sister, Erin, in St. Louis throughout the past week. They never lost their land line phone nor their gas.
There's a very strong presence of military in the area and they continue to arrive from Texas. They are now loading up all three cars with their belongings and will be returning to Ft. Worth in the next day or so. I will be posting more info as I receive it. Pictures of the area will be posted soon.
~NOELLE B.
