Former WDSU Reporter Turns A Lens On His Ida-Flooded Neighborhood

Gerard Braud, a former environmental reporter for WDSU, the NBC affiliate in New Orleans, proves that once a reporter, always a reporter.

Even though Braud hasn’t worked in news in 25 years, “I have a journalism degree that lasts a lifetime,” he says.

Braud has been posting Facebook video reports about his neighborhood in Mandeville, La., since Hurricane Ida came ashore over the weekend.

Hurricane Ida wasn’t the worst case scenario. New Orleans missed that by about 40 miles, he says.

The worst case scenario is what New Orleanians characterize as “when the big one hits,” as Braud reports in this WDSU story from 1990.

Braud worked at WDSU in the early ’90s and is currently the CEO of Braud Communications, which specializes in crisis planning and communications.

One of Braud’s beats as the environmental reporter at WDSU was Lake Pontchartrain, so I guess it should come as no surprise that Braud lives not 50 yards from Lake Pontchartrain in Mandeville, on the lake’s north shore, accessible from the city of New Orleans by a 25-mile causeway.

Braud says he and his wife evacuated on Saturday morning.

“I always evacuate when there’s a hurricane,” Braud says, making sure he’s on the road before any mandatory evacuation.

When Braud was returning to Mandeville after Ida from his daughter’s house in Chattanooga, Tenn., he described what he saw as looking “a lot like Katrina as far as the number of trees that have fallen and crushed homes.”

He says the power infrastructure is destroyed and estimates it will be two to three weeks before power is returned.

Braud says Hurricane Ida wasn’t the worst case scenario which New Orleanians describe as “when the big one hits.” New Orleans missed that by about 40 miles, he says.

However, in Mandeville, “the water is as high as it’s ever been,” Braud says, about eight feet.

When he got to his house, he found his new $13,000 generator didn’t work, leaving him with a hot house and spoiled food.

But many others are worse off, Braud says.

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