If you arrive in New Orleans and hitch a taxi straight in to the French Quarter or the Garden District you might not even notice the effects of Hurricane Katrina or the subsequent flood that  engulfed eighty per cent of this most foreign of American cities. You would perhaps only get hints  of what happened.

 You could walk up Canal Street and notice the many businesses that are boarded up - maybe as many as a quarter of the shops that made this a bustling avenue. Where there was once a flock of salesmen who would chase you out of a duty free shop with the promise of an irresistible bargain there are now only a few left who will beg you to help them save their businesses.

 You would find that the St Charles streetcar, which just last year still offered one of the most beautiful rides in the world for only a dollar and a quarter, has been replaced by a bus because the line is down and the track is under repair. Tennessee Williams' streetcar named Desire disappeared many years ago when short-sighted politicians allowed the tracks to be ripped up so that cars could rule the city and now the St Charles route stands as just one of many marks of last year's natural devastation. 

 As you stroll through the Quarter you will see some of your favourite cafes entirely gone or with reduced opening hours and with a staff shortage so severe that they cannot even open longer to cater for the increased crowds that Jazz Fest has brought.

 Workers will tell you that they are living in hotels or with friends or out of town. One taxi driver relates how he has been in 17 different hotels since September, while many others have already shifted cities and are only back here for the Fest. Some companies are offering bonuses of between US$2500 and US$10,00 to sign on to work here.

 These days 43% of the population of the city is Hispanic and while I am in the Mexican-run Country Flame restaurant on Iberville Street a feature comes on the CNN about the proposed changes to laws affecting illegal immigrants in the US. "We are the only ones who will do all this work down here," asserts a waitress. You have to think that the shift in demographic will alter the city over time. I wonder who will be the first Mexican-American Mayor of New Orleans.

 A very few workers are living in FEMA trailers which apparently cost $21,000 to build but are generously supplied to the agency - some say by a company run by one of George W Bush¡¦s cronies - for $96,000. The infamous name Halliburton is murmured often ¡V the word has become the worst epithet you can use here.

 Try to get a cab prior to the festival and you could be standing - as we were - for half an hour during peak hour vainly searching for any sign of such a vehicle when only last year Canal Street teemed with them. The waiting gives you a chance to notice that there are new palm trees being planted - a hopelessly inadequate cosmetic applied to a crumbling façade.
 

 Walk along Canal to Claiborne, where the I-10 cuts through a swathe through the city like so many US freeways, and you will notice thousands of cars under the overpasses - trunks and bonnets popped, wheels or tires missing. Cab drivers laugh that when they need spare tires they will pull up here. We hear that someone offered to come in and remove all the wrecks free of charge but was rejected while the city waited months to sort out a tender contract to a company that charges hundreds of dollars per car. "Guess whose friend runs the company?" asks someone cynically.

 Nearby you can see the Superdome with its damaged roof and workers clambering atop, apparently wearing no safety harnesses at all. The Dome opens again in September for the New Orleans Saints to play their home games in the coming American football season. That will make more than a year after it was struck by the hurricane as it sheltered 20,000 people who could not get out of the city because they did not have cars and no-one organised the buses to evacuate them. You might recall that when Melbourne¡¦s MCG was out of action prior to our Commonwealth Games they built an entirely new grand stand in a year!

 As you continue your stroll you will notice occasional road works but there are is barely a sign of any maintenance  - apart from Canal Street - and large potholes gape in the narrow Quarter streets. Sometimes there is a red and white warning barrier but often there is no warning at all. You will see an accident where a car has bounced out of a pothole and skewed off into another vehicle. The driver sits on the sidewalk head in hands waiting for an ambulance as his car lies wrecked.

 The footpaths are any city council's worst nightmare. In the Quarter, the paving stones are often higgledy-piggledy, jutting out at odd angles. Never well-maintained at the best of times they look like scrabble pieces on a board that has been thumped by an angry fist. You wonder how many lawsuits are waiting to happen. Or is there some clause that prevents people suing here? You can imagine the rash of claims that would occur back home by old aged pensioners come to grief with their canes, walking frames or wheelchairs and from unsuspecting pedestrians or joggers crippled by the jagged stones or gaping holes.

 Then there is the rubbish. Everywhere.  There has always been the detritus that has piled up along Bourbon Street after each night's debauchery in this famous icon of hedonism. You can always smell the wine, beer and vomit on any morning and see the results of the evening's revelry. Now other streets have joined the queue in getting their waste removed. There is the rubbish left over from the hurricane damage, there is the building rubbish and then there is the garbage piled up in plastic bags along the streets.

 It is difficult to imagine the area in Australia run by the worst local council in the nation being anywhere near as depressing as what you see in New Orleans mid-2006. You would think that someone - the Governor, the Mayor, maybe the Chamber of Commerce - might have tried to clean things up a little for the major musical event that occurs this time each year.

Then it gets worse! A trip through the Ninth Ward is so staggering as to be mind-boggling.

 If you are a Melburnian imagine driving from the city out to Clayton along Dandenong Road and seeing nothing but ruined houses. Or if you are Sydney drive along the Parramatta Road for half an hour and imagine that a neutron bomb has exploded - leaving the building damaged but killing most of the people.

 Someone will mention that there are 190,000 damaged and scarred houses. On many of them you can see the tell-tale painted crosses of the rescuers who bravely scoured the city for survivors. Dead In Attic is the title of a recent book about the flood. Even our apartment in Ursulines Street has the cross with the words 'one pet, no power, no water' scrawled over it. Our landlady's son tells us how he holed up with his guns and ammunition (some of which he loaned to the police) for a week before escaping north out of the city as panic set in.

You will see a little work going on, some residents who live in a few trailers cleaning up and the occasional building team. But it is like being in some science fiction movie about the end of the world.

 I have travelled in so-called Third World countries but I have never seen anything like this. I have often jokingly spouted the theory that the Americans never landed a man on the moon. Now it comes home to haunt me. "Your theory is looking pretty solid," says one of my travelling companions.

 Our tour guide, a Louisiana native who lost her house in the flood, tells us about the neglect and the incompetence of the 'Americans.' Of course, she is referring (as does our landlady) to that vast mass of the population outside Louisiana. It is easier to understand what happened when you think like that.  

 Five years ago the 'Americans' in Congress and the White House rejected  a US$7 billion plan to strengthen the levees. Now that looks like chicken-feed compared with the many billions more it will take to fix this disaster. They are spending 10 times that much in Iraq each year. But you cannot find anyone who takes responsibility. The Mayor is running for office again. The Governor has gone quiet. FEMA has a new chief and no credibility.

 Compare this to the massive efforts co-ordinated by the UN that went in to rebuilding after the tsunami hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and other areas of South East Asia. They say New Orleans is the most foreign of American cities and it certainly seems that it would have been better helped if it had been in another country. People are wearing t-shirts that read 'Buy Us Back Chirac.'

 For the first time ever I hear Americans reviling their President. "Do you hate him as much as we do?" asks one girl I meet at a gig who has heard my accent and seeks my opinion. I hear these sentiments often during the trip and I am surprised. I tell the story of the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy in 1974 and how people were upset and wanted Gough Whitlam to resign because he did not return from his European tour quickly enough.

 George W. Bush arrives in Louisiana for a flying visit and his photograph is on the front page of the Times-Picayune (which has won two Pulitzer's for its post-Katrina work). George is shown with his arm around an African-American woman who has lost everything. She looks uncomfortable and you can wonder if he is holding her to try and stop her getting away. George has nothing to learn about staged photos from John Howard! I can't say that I hate him but I don't live here. I do think he makes our PM seem like Albert Einstein in comparison. 

 In 2002 Bonnie Raitt performed Mose Allison's 'Everybody Cryin' Mercy' at Jazz Fest to a frosty reception - either people didn't care or they disagreed with the sentiments. A couple of years back one of our group wore a Kerry For President badge and was assailed by Bush supporters - now you can't find any supporters. Rolling Stone has just run an article on why Bush is the worst President in US history. Just prior to Bruce Springsteen¡¦s set at Jazz Fest a plane flies over the Fairgrounds towing a sign that reads 'Impeach Bush.' It receives a rousing, standing ovation.

As we travel around we can see that the levees still are not fixed. One of the walls teeters at a precarious angle inwards - towards the suburbs! A friend emails me, 'Please keep in touch. I hope we survive hurricane season as it starts June 30th. I'm really not worried, but I guess I should be.'

 If you didn't know people here better, if you had not experienced the resilience of the local population, their joi de vivre, their tolerance and kindness you would have to truly believe that this was the end of New Orleans. But despite the neglect or connivance of politicians you know that New Orleans will survive - but it will be a different place. What can you do? Try to help by visiting and supporting an event like Jazz Fest and hope that another disaster doesn't happen again this year.