After about 2+ weeks or so, some semblance of order to the city was restored.  There was still no power, but all the big hotels had permanent emergency generators and they started to “sort of” open up – officially closed, but with a “nod nod, wink wink” they’d rent a room even though there was no power to the rooms, just emergency lighting in the hallways, stairwells, etc.

I got a room in a hotel on the beach which would have been fabulous for a vacation in normal times, but it had been damaged, water had damaged the drywall in the hallways, no elevators were working, there was no service, I was simply camping out but glad to be out of the convention center.  For lighting I simply set my flashlight on end, shined it on the ceiling and it was good enough to get around.

But there was no hot water and showers were COLD! In and out fast!

This was the view from my room during daylight hours…

This was after dark…

Very eerie feeling that everything was so dark. Only emergency lighting along the strip of the hotels and restaurants trying to get back into business again.

This was the drywall outside my room – I could have pulled it off…