Post-Katrina Explorations: Days Inn
Gause Blvd. is one of the main roads in Slidell, so it's good way to assess the post-hurricane progress in the town.  My parents used to report to me which restaurants had re-open over the past few months.  Many of them still haven't.  A lot of the damage has been cleaned up or businesses have been boarded-over if they weren't easily salvaged.  However, this Days Inn was hit harder than most and has just remained as an example of among the worse Katrina could do.  I couldn't help but swing by and check it out.
As you can see, the roof of the front building was hit pretty hard.
Here's a view from the back.  Note how the fence was knocked down back here as well.
Of course, that's nothing compared to the motel buildings. 

Where's the roof?  I couldn't even find a trace of it among the debris!

Odds are Katrina took some towels and the little shampoo bottles as well, that bitch.
Here's a look inside one of the rooms.  As with a lot of the other abandonments throughout the area, all the doors were wide open.  So was the ceiling in quite a few places, incidentally.
Like here.
And this is what it looked like below the hole. 

Just think; this is on the first floor where there was at least some ceiling left.

Also take a look at the air conditioning unit.  All along this section of the motel they were pushed into the rooms like this.
I don't know what happened to the top mattress or why the chair was on top of the box springs.

Possible explanation: In many rooms there were beer bottles and cans on the tables. 

Because it's always a good idea to kick a few back right before you're planning to drive in bumper to bumper traffic among throngs of panicked evacuees.
Here you can see through the windows and right out the top of the rooms upstairs.
Continue to Part II