Nine days after Hurricane Ida walloped New Orleans and the Gulf Coast with 150 mph winds and torrential rain, power is gradually being restored to the city and tourism representatives are hopeful for a quick rebound.
Parishes around New Orleans experienced flooding and more infrastructure damage, but most businesses and homes in the city did not take on water during the storm. As of Sept. 7, power had been restored to 73% of the city, including the French Quarter and downtown Central Business District, according to power company Entergy.
Kelly Schulz, senior vice president of communications for tourism-marketing agency New Orleans and Company, said a top priority is getting the message out that Hurricane Ida did not damage New Orleans like Hurricane Katrina did 16 years ago, and that the city will soon welcome visitors again.
"The biggest thing we want people to understand is, once the power is restored to New Orleans, we should be able to ramp back up relatively quickly as a tourism industry," Schulz said. "When I say Hurricane Ida was not a Hurricane Katrina-event for New Orleans, what I mean by that is we did not have our homes and businesses take on water. We did not have rescue operations for human life that were required. We did not have major infrastructure damage.
"For some parts of our state, sadly, Hurricane Ida was as bad if not worse than Katrina. So, I say that respectfully but just convey that there had been a lot of comparisons in the news to Katrina, but for New Orleans, our infrastructure is there. The city did not flood."
Schulz said the New Orleans and Company team is "battle-tested" after going through Katrina and other storms in the past and has plans in place to maintain lines of communication and get information out as quickly as possible.
Hotels in New Orleans are housing first responders and other critical personnel.
"The hotels quickly converted to a focus on first responders," Schulz said. "So they are housing emergency workers and the linemen working on power, and all of those people who are involved in the on-the-ground work taking care of medical needs and our residents. It is definitely not easy to be without power at this time of the year in the heat, so there are a lot of people working really hard. And there are a lot of our citizens, including our hospitality workers, who don't have power in their own homes. So that's also a difficult situation right now."
Schulz said it is still too soon to say when the city will be able to fully welcome visitors again. One key issue is staffing at hotels, restaurants, attractions and other businesses, and how fast employees will be able to get back into their homes and return to the workplace.
Most hotels in New Orleans are expected to reopen to the general public later this week or early next, according to New Orleans and Company. Many attractions are planning to reopen Sept. 13, and many restaurants have either already reopened or will do so this week or next.
After Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005 and an estimated 80% of the city flooded, it took five years for the visitation numbers to return to pre-Katrina levels.
Covid-19 still an obstacle
New Orleans and Company will now balance efforts to welcome back visitors and avoid a similar lag in the tourism rebound while also managing safety messaging related to the pandemic. A city mandate that took effect Aug. 16 requires everyone age 12 or older to show proof of at least one dose of a vaccine or a negative Covid test from the past 72 hours for entry at indoor restaurants, bars, gyms and entertainment spaces.
"We also are still dealing with Covid-19, too. So we have to consider that as well," Schulz said. "We have to make sure that with everything we're doing, we're not just trying to get past the immediate storm. ... We're going to make sure that, when it's appropriate, we welcome visitors back to the city in a way that's safe. And when I say safe, that includes the Covid-19 protocols."
After Hurricane Ida made landfall, the storm made its way northeast, causing flooding in cities like New York and Philadelphia. Schulz said the destination management organizations in those regions less accustomed to dealing with tropical storms should focus on clear, detailed communication.
"I think it's important that those destination marketing organizations be as transparent as they can with their customers about the status of the city," she said. "What we learned during Katrina is that many people don't necessarily understand geography. So, sometimes you see on the news the terrible flooding, and you may not have a clear understanding of exactly where that is.
"So, one of the things we learned is to be specific about the status of your city. And if there are parts that are damaged and you know are inaccessible for visitors, communicate that. If there are parts of the city that are not damaged and are business as usual, communicate that as well."