Faint hope flickering in Big Easy

NEW ORLEANS – It wouldn’t be a Saturday night in New Orleans without the neon lights of Bourbon Street.

The lights unexpectedly flickered on in part of the French Quarter at sundown Saturday, even though the mayor had said it would be more than a week before the city reopens the neighborhood. That didn’t stop Eric Clark from readying the three strip clubs he manages along Bourbon Street to open Monday. “We’ll have a few girls here,” he said, “some bartenders, some ice for cold beer.”

But for many business owners returning to New Orleans on Saturday, the damage left by looters indicated hopes for a quick recovery may be too optimistic.

Earlier in the day, Margaret Richmond stood with tears streaming down her face as members of the 82nd Airborne Division used a crowbar to pry open the door of her looted antiques shop on the edge of the city’s upscale Garden District.

The store, Decor Splendide, had been looted in the chaotic days that followed Hurricane Katrina. “What they didn’t steal they trashed,” Richmond said. “They got what they could and ruined what they left.”

It was a scene repeated over and over as business owners were allowed back in to some sections of the city to begin cleaning up and rebuilding.

Mayor Ray Nagin said this week that he wanted to prepare some of the flood-ravaged city’s dry sections for the return of up to 180,000 residents over the next two weeks. His goal was to begin the city’s revival by resuming a limited amount of commerce.

But the head of the federal disaster relief effort said Saturday that the plan raises concern because of weakened levees, lack of drinkable water and heavily polluted floodwater.

Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen said federal officials have worked with the mayor and support his vision for repopulating the city, but he called Nagin’s idea to return as many as 180,000 people to New Orleans in the next week both “extremely ambitious” and “extremely problematic.”

“Our intention is to work with the mayor … in a very frank, open and unvarnished manner,” Allen said from Baton Rouge.

Business owners, facing damage that could take months to repair, said hopes for a quick recovery may be little more than a political dream.