NEW ORLEANS -- You can see this dangerous situation from several blocks away. A large section of the rear of this New Orleans East home has collapsed, and chunks of the debris have fallen into neighbor Deborah Maxwell's yard. Some of it hit her house. She couldn't believe it when it happened almost a month ago.
"I'm shocked and distressed," Maxwell said. "I don't sleep well at night because I don't know when the rest of this property is going to come down, and I'm concerned for myself, and my child, and others in the neighborhood."
Maxwell said the owners of the house never returned after Katrina. The front door is wide open. Inside, you can see that it was gutted, but water leaking through the damaged roof has caused the wooden support beams to begin rotting, even breaking, indicating more of the structure is going to fall.
"It was unbelieveable," she said. "I said I can't believe this. I thought it would be down by now, because I started this process in May of '08, reporting this property."
This is the view through Deborah Maxwell's window of the debris in her yard, and what landed on her house. She doesn't know how much damage has already heen caused to her home. But she can't understand why the city has not helped her.
"August the fifth I went down, and they came out, and they said it was an 'imminent danger' (of collapse), and they said it would be torn down in about a week. Well, that's been three to four weeks and nothing has happened. And I've called and I've gotten non responses, or they said they're working on it."
Maxwell is worried that wire is the only thing holding this wall up, keeping it from collapsing against her house. She is so worried she won't even let the gardener come into the backyard.
And the biggest worry of all is when will the rest of the structure come down, how much more damage will her house have? So I'm contacting the mayor's office, asking them why they haven't already taken action on this, but to do something as quickly as possible.
"I will shout and dance for everyone in Louisiana. It will be great to have it down."
She is also worried about the house on the other side, where a section of the roof has already collapsed. That building belongs to the Louisiana Land Trust program, so I will be contacting them as well. I'll let you know what happens.
