Hurricane Issac on the Streets with the Weather Channel

The night before Hurricane Isaac made landfall last week, I was contacted by The Weather Channel to go out with crew for three days to show them an inside view of how we prepare for hurricane's and to get some interviews with locals on the streets to get their thoughts, past and present. The night before Isaac hit they picked me up at my studio in the Bywater around 11:00 pm and we headed over to Frenchmen Street first and it was apparent to me immediately that Katrina has had a profound impact on how we react to storms in a post-K world. To my surprise Frenchmen Street was eerily quiet and completely boarded up except for a few clubs, The Spotted Cat, Apple Barrel, Maison and dba. I assure you that in a pre-Katrina world, the streets would have been packed with “Mardi Gras” like revelry goin on, especially since the storm wasn't predicted to make landfall till the next day. Not this night though, and what was even more stunning is the quiet and calm around Jackson Square and Cafe du Monde, which was shut down for the first time I can remember in my lifetime, except of course immediately after Katrina. You could have dropped a pin on Decatur St. and heard it a block or 2 away. We left the Quarter and proceeded Uptown to to catch Papa Gros Funk killin it at the Maple Leaf where there was almost as many people there as I saw on the streets in the Quarter, but still not a normal crowd by any means......We talked to my friend John Gros, who had recently returned from the road, after the gig and Micheal Wong with the Weather Channel did and interview with John about his Hurricane prep et al…..I have also added some pics taken around town thru 9-1-12 Jerry