Got the following from Ed Urrutia of Denison Parking, Inc. Ed lives in the New Orleans Area
I was actually trapped in Metairie, a suburb, for a week after the storm. Did not get out until last Monday. Much of the CBD was under two to four feet of water. Our garage had three feet at least on the first floor, and I assume that most of the office related parking between Poydras and Canal and Claiborne and the River had the same fate. The French Quarter was spared the flooding in most cases. To be tongue in cheek, parking is dead in the water, and probably for some time. Given the flooding in the CBD, most generators sustained major damage to their ground floors and will be out of commission for a while. It will take as long as two months just to restore basic utility services.
Access to the city is off limits by virtue of Marshall Law at this point, and that will remain the case until the city is drained, which will take sixty to eighty days by most estimates. After that, the clean up and restoration of utilities will be a massive task. So I would say the parking industry is totally shut down for at least three months, and that could stretch into six to eight months. After that, one has to wonder how long it will take for tourism and conventions to return. Those activities drive a major portion of the local economy including hotel and French Quarter related parking. I would venture to guess that it will be a year to establish any sense of normalcy, and that parking demand will suffer for quite some time after that.
Friends of Ed who would like to contact him directly, should contact me and I will forward his contact info
JVH
