if you are evacuated, national guard rounds you up and takes you out or you risk the chance of being stuck in your home, trying to survive, ride out the storm on your own. i spoke with a shop owner says he has been in that location 20 years, never seen it this empty on a saturday morning, never seen so many people afraid of the storm because they all remember hurricane katrina. it is empty, the streets there. as you point out, anybody that s been to new orleans on saturday morning, your time, 11:00, noon on the east coast, it would be jam packed with tourists and others enjoying the beautiful city of new orleans, right? reporter: absolutely, wolf. i mean, we are a block away. i will show you, this is cafe dumond. it is like 24 hours. it is a must do on your list when you come to new orleans. we re just a block from there.
long line outside cafe dumond, people waiting for half an hour to get beignets and coffee. claudette came ashore in southeastern louisiana. the main concern has been heavy rain. the storm caused flooding in sl idell on the other side of lake pontchartrain. most of the rain has receded but they had to clear 40 to 50 vehicles that got stuck in the floodwaters and they rescued several stranded motorists including a woman who was on the way to the hospital because she afeared be going into labor. because of the lopsided nature of this storm, the worst rain extended far east from the center. some residents shored up homes and businesses with sandbags. their concern was the storm would add more water to drainage
but our big challenge which is hamper iing recovery is the oil drilling moratorium. it s an economic disaster here and completely unjustified. you know the president s own panel of experts did not recommend that. eric: talking about economics, we had trace gallagher a moment ago. i was down in new orleans recently. you can get the beignet at cafe dumond, the restaurants are pack and bourbon street is full. is it completely back? there is sadness still ongoing, not only on this day, on the anniversary, but somehow in general? we re not completely back, but we re getting there and better than ever. strength, reform, not just the physical upgrade. it s political reform, too, in a lot of different areas. we re getting there better than ever. but we have further to go. but economically, the dark cloud, the major threat is this moratorium.