Mississippi River fully open to Traffic tonight at New Orleans

[BOSSHOG]

after being closed due to an oil spill last week. This is an extremely big deal to commerce in the United States.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,393422,00.html

[kestrel91316]

1. Bosshog, when I was in NOLA last week a local lamented to me that

even though tourism is up and running again, the import/export trade there still has not recovered from Katrina. True?

[BOSSHOG]

2. I'm not familiar

with raw numbers but river traffic is back to pre-hurricane levels (except when a tanker splits in half and dumps its load.) I can attest to the tourism being in good shape, restaurants, hotels and especially bars are doing a very good business. But the Lower Ninth and New Orleans East are still a mess, their recovery speed has been glacial.

Did you have a good visit?

[kestrel91316]

3. I had a great time, but not enough time, lol. Took 24 hours to get there.....

Had me an oyster po' boy at Mother's, Bananas Foster at the Palace Cafe, charbroiled oysters at Drago's, chicory coffee and beignets at Cafe Du Monde, and a fancy dinner of shrimp and grits at Mr. B's Bistro, among other things.......and seafood gumbo a couple of times.

Oh, and I got a muffaletta at Central Grocery. Liked it so much I bought olive salad and Italian bread at our local little Italian grocery in Encino and am about to pick up some cold cuts. I could LIVE on muffalettas!

[BOSSHOG]

4. Good for you

You crammed a lot into a short period. We love Muffaletta's too but slightly prefer Franks to Central. Franks is right next door to Central Grocery and they make an awesome Muff.

Shrimp and Grits and Muffalettas - OH MY!!

[kestrel91316]

6. I had the Bread Pudding for dessert at Mr. B's also.......

I was very naughty in NOLA.

[BOSSHOG]

7. Did ya get any Beads???

[kestrel91316]

8. LOL, nope. I thought getting beads when it WASN'T Mardi Gras

was improper. I may have to rethink that when I get back there......

I had the real deal from my visit there at Mardi Gras in 1980. From the big Tuesday night parade. They got purged in a move many years ago........

[BOSSHOG]

10. Something improper in New Orleans?

Thanks so much for the Wednesday afternoon chuckle. Just think of everyday as Mardi Gras in NOLA. We are going down this Saturday to enjoy Satchmofest; a musical extravaganza and homage to Louis Armstrong. Lots of great music and awesome food. We will probably be civilized and eat in a sit down restaurant, most likely Pralines, they have incredible chow. Technically the restaurant is not in the Quarter but its like two inches from it.

[kestrel91316]

11. I did notice that, at least on Bourbon Street, it looked like

Mardi Gras EVERY night.

[trof]

5. More about the spill.

One of my good friends (and a neighbor) has some Katrina restoration jobs going on at various former FEMA trailer parks. His primary business is disaster debris removal. He did some work on that following Katrina and the various town governments liked his methods and operation.
Plus he's just a very likable guy.

So they hired him to bust up and haul off concrete trailer pads, pull out all the temporary plumbing and wiring, and re-sod and generally restore the locations to what they were like before FEMA took them over.
Some are city parks, so he's building a couple of playgrounds too.

Anyway...
He said the odor of oil permeates everything.
Even his motel room in Algiers.

All the stern and sidewheeler excursion boats were docked. Employees laid off with no pay "until further notice".

He estimated 60-70 freighters anchored out in the gulf waiting for the port to reopen. This is costing shippers megabucks.
He used to ship timber all over the world out of the port of Mobile. Back then he said that for each day over schedule one of the vessels he was shipping on couldn't get into port it would cost him $40,000-$50,000 a day in transportation charges.
whew

Some of the towns along the Mississippi that get their water from the river are running out. Trucking it in at huge cost.

The local seafood industry is dead.

It's amazing how far reaching this thing has been.

[Brewman_Jax]

9. Glad to hear

and that the city is back. I haven't been since December 2004--great weather. :hi:

[RB TexLa]

12. They shut down part of it today didn't they?