It has been eighteen months since Katrina devastated homes and businesses in the city and still hundreds of places remain closed.

Bob Parkinson / WWL-TV

Garbage is strewn inside of a Taco Bell that has gone untouched since Hurricane Katrina struck over 18 months ago.

Many local mom and pop shops don’t have the funds to reopen and their places remain abandoned. But most of the national chains that do business in the city of New Orleans and in other devastated areas have either gutted, demolished or reopened their stores.

With one notable exception: At least four Taco Bell restaurants in New Orleans East and St. Bernard remain much as they were when Katrina hit – laying wide open with rotted food, broken glass and piles of garbage.

Taco shells still lay on the counters, mostly turning a moldy blue. Cob webs cover the soda machines, packets of hot sauce are strewn on the ground and some food remained in the deep fryers. What was inside the stores either floated or was dragged outside, and the smell is hard to take.

The putrid conditions lie in contrast to Taco Bell’s fast food competitors, many of whom have reopened, and all that Eyewitness News saw, had either been taken down, or at the very least gutted.

Next to one closed down Taco Bell in New Orleans East, a local fast food chain – Burger Orleans – has come back and owner Peter Nguyen says that despite what you would think, the closed down competitor is not good for his business.

“They have the money. They don’t want to come back. I have no idea,” he said.

Taco Bell is part of a company called Yum Incorporated, based in Kentucky.

Tuesday they issued a statement to Eyewitness News saying they were looking into the issue, but that they were only reopening restaurants that made business sense.

Councilwoman Cynthia Willard-Lewis said there is no excuse to not at least have stabilized the situation.

“Certainly we would have hoped after the storm, the minimum of boarding up and stabilizing would have been done.”

Parishes like St. Bernard have condemned and fined some of the businesses that haven’t at least gutted their stores, but he said the issues aren’t always so cut and dried, even with what appear to be rich national chains.

“What we've found is some of the franchises are individually owned and don't have the financial backing we would expect,” said Councilman Craig Taffaro.