The polar vortex has pursued us throughout this trip, from the time we first encountered it in Chicago, through bursts of record low temperatures in Duluth, Minneapolis and unbearably cold conditions in Dubuque. We have been in towns like Hannibal when they warned everyone to stay indoors. In St. Louis unaccustomed heavy snowfalls shutdown and disabled the city.
Now we are in New Orleans (where it "never gets cold"!), the vortex has caught up with us with a vengeance. A sudden state of emergency was declared, everyone was told to stay at home, most of the downtown businesses were closed, schools and government offices were closed, and street-cars were cancelled. The interstates were closed. We think the City was spooked by a lesser cold snap earlier in our stay here when were so many ice-caused accidents that they had to belatedly close all the (many) bridges. This time, with Winter Storm Leon, they were taking no chances! But there were limited resources - this city doesn't own a single snow plough or ice-salting truck, so de-icing was an unfamiliar uphill battle.
We tried to go to the movies to fill the time. Unfortunately, the downtown cinemas were closed too, although it took them a long time to remove the program from websites. Our discomfort was compounded because just a day or two earlier we had posted 33lbs of winter clothing and boots home (postage a mere $280) figuring we wouldn't need it any more, and knowing that Caribbean airlines are very restrictive on baggage.
Unfortunately, the state of emergency closed the airport, so our scheduled flight to Miami was cancelled, as was the later flight American Airlines rebooked us on to. We spent an extra day longer than expected in freezing New Orleans. Luckily for NOLA, 45,000 car dealer delegates at some huge convention had mostly left the city before the shut-down. We managed to get away on a flight the next day, although the state of emergency was still in place and freeways and bridges remained closed. The self-claimed "reliable service from professional drivers" of the Airport Shuttle we had booked didn't eventuate. This pathetic company did not even bother to inform us they had cancelled their service, and we only found out when we enquired. Instead, we caught a taxi who stuck to the surface roads in light traffic, for lower cost. We hope our refund from Airport Shuttle materialises!
We remain quite surprised at the City's extreme response to this situation. It dominated the news for days. But as we heard a lady at the near deserted airport say on TV, "in Michigan, we deal with worse weather than this all the time". But one differentiating factor is that, apart from the scare a few days prior, such weather is totally out of the box for New Orleans, and the ice-storm, once forecast, had to be defended against. With the temperature cycling below and above freezing, the wet pavement turns to treacherous ice really quickly. Dare we say it that we still think the airport was closed too soon on the day of our scheduled departure, because the ice storm conditions did not arrive until near dusk. Our flight, at 12:30pm, should have been OK, but they closed everything at 11am. The next day, driving conditions were perfect, and the airport airstrips appeared to be totally dry and free of ice. Closing the overhead roads and bridges may have been prudent, but we think the general state of emergency was an over-reaction. Of course, New Orleans is a city very sensitive to any criticisms of its emergency response.
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