Mayor: French Quarter will reopen in a week and a half

NEW ORLEANS — Mayor Ray Nagin announced Thursday that large sections of the city will reopen next week, and the historic French Quarter the week after that. "The city of New Orleans ... will start to breathe again," he said.

The announcement came amid progress in restoring electricity and water service and the day after the release of government tests showing that the floodwaters contain dangerous bacteria and industrial chemicals but that the air is safe to breathe.

The first section to reopen to residents will be Algiers, across the Mississippi River from the French Quarter, on Monday, the mayor said. The city's Uptown area — which includes Tulane University and the Garden District, a leafy neighborhood of antebellum mansions — will be reopened in stages next Wednesday and Friday, he said.

The French Quarter — an exuberant and often bawdy neighborhood of Napoleonic-era buildings that serves as the capital of Mardi Gras and is the very heart and soul of the city's rollicking tourism industry — will follow on Sept. 26.

"The French Quarter is high and dry, and we feel as though it has good electricity capabilities," the mayor said, "but since it's so historic, we want to double- and triple-check before we fire up all electricity in there to make sure that, because every building is so close, that if a fire breaks out, we won't lose a significant amount of what we cherish in this city."

The mayor also said business people will be allowed into the central business district on Saturday and Sunday. But he did not address whether that section would be reopened.

The reopened areas generally suffered little or no flooding and were among the least-damaged parts of New Orleans. They represent 182,000 residents out of a city of nearly half a million.

"We will have life. We will have commerce. We will have people getting into their normal modes of operations, and the normal rhythm of the city of New Orleans that is so unique," the mayor said. He added: "It's a good day in New Orleans. The sun is shining. ... We're going to bring this city back."

Nagin said there should be power in most areas where people will be allowed back. But the water in some places will be good only for flushing toilets, not for drinking and bathing, he said.

The mayor said major retailers will use the city's Convention Center to supply returning residents with food, wood and other things they will need.