More News from New Orleans

7:54 a.m., Thursday, September 4, 2008
Reprinted with permission from the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau

THURSDAY'S DEVELOPMENTS:
The city of New Orleans and the metropolitan area continues to move forward wonderfully in its post-Gustav recovery. Residents from across the metropolitan area, including surrounding parishes, have begun to return to homes and businesses.

The biggest challenge remaining now for New Orleans after the superb execution of our emergency and evacuation plans is the restoration of power to neighborhoods, as outages still exist in parts of the city and in adjoining parishes. The greatest concern is to ensure that conditions with regard to electricity, sewerage and water throughout the neighborhoods are restored and that businesses that service our residents, such as grocery stores and gas stations are back operating. The downtown, business district, French Quarter, Warehouse and Arts District, Convention Center, Harrahs and the Superdome look terrific.

GOOD NEWS:

As our team walks around the French Quarter, Convention Center area, Warehouse and Arts District, and the downtown we see that the city looks amazing in the tourist corridor.

The only thing missing is our fabulous workers, musicians and especially YOU! All of that should change over the next few days as citizens and workers pour back into the city and head to work to prepare for your return.

There is little to no disruption in meetings and conventions scheduled over the next two weeks nor to special events. The Convention Center, Superdome, and major hotels suffered only minor damage such as a few window breaks and all repairs are expected to be accomplished in the next few hours to few days. There is no mid-range or long-term impact of any kind.

The Louis Armstrong International Airport is now operational and they expect to resume more routine airline traffic today. The first flight back in to New Orleans arrived Wednesday evening. The schedule today will be slightly reduced, but should resume a full schedule within a day or two.

The world famous Audubon Zoo sustained very little damage. All animals are safe and the Zoo hopes to re-open on Saturday.

The Harrah's Casino expects to re-open as early as Saturday.

The New Orleans Saints and the Louisiana Superdome announced yesterday afternoon that the Saints will open their NFL season on Sunday in the Superdome, playing Tampa Bay. A good number of restaurants are planning openings beginning Thursday and a large number should be back by the weekend.

We anticipate that in just a matter of days, New Orleans will be back in business! As more residents and employees from the various sectors of the hospitality industry are able to return, we expect the gradual reopening of hotels and restaurants. We strongly advise that anyone with plans to travel to New Orleans this weekend, whether for pleasure or business, consult with their respective hotels to check the status of each individual property. The CVB is assessing the status of the hotel community as well, but because the city enjoys so many wonderful hotel properties, it is challenging for us to keep up with the status each individual property and post accurate information. We will make every effort to do so as soon as possible.

Many hotels will open this weekend. Most others will open Monday or so. In fact a number of weddings are going on as planned this weekend in New Orleans. As well as the Saints game of course!