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La. Officials Tell Evacuees It's Too Early to Return Home
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In Cocodrie, a fishing community on the Gulf Coast where Gustav made landfall, residents were breathing a huge sigh of relief.
"Normally you couldn't drive down this road the day after a hurricane," said Donna Domangue, who has lived on the bayou her whole life. "It's full of water."
But Tuesday, she and a few of her family members drove their small pickup along the bayou that empties into the Gulf of Mexico to check her restaurant and other family businesses and houses. After worrying about forecasts of storm surges of up to 20 feet or more, they stood on dry land. Around them, water lapped three or four feet high against the 20-foot stilts that elevate restaurants and homes.
"It may not look good, but to us this is good," Domangue said.
In New Orleans, things began to return to some semblance of normalcy Tuesday. The National Football League announced that the Saints, who had been practicing at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, will return to the Superdome for their Sunday season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Many of the estimated 10,000 residents who rode out the storm emerged from their homes, relieved at the city's narrow escape. Under partly sunny skies, they walked dogs, cruised the empty streets on bikes and sought out restaurants, which were reopening in increasing numbers.
On Deslonde Street in the Lower Ninth Ward, where in 2005 Katrina unleashed some of the city's most devastating floods, Ottley "Big O" Smith and his mother, Elizabeth Smith, celebrated the passing of Gustav, which left their neighborhood with hardly any damage.
Ottley Smith lighted a charcoal grill in front of his house to cook pork chops for his family. "I'm living!" cheered Smith, wearing a T-shirt that read "Thank You Jesus."
Hedgpeth reported from Houma, La. Staff writers Peter Whoriskey in Baton Rouge; David Montgomery and Philip Rucker in New Orleans; and Spencer S. Hsu, Dan Eggen and Howard Schneider in Washington contributed to this report.
