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A Hurricane, a Pandemic, a Cruise Ship, and the City of New Orleans
How a disaster restored my faith in humanity.
As I write this, I’m sitting on the deck of the Bahamas Paradise Classica staring out onto the Mississippi River. It’s a strange place for a ship that usually shuttles vacation-goers back and forth from West Palm Beach to the Bahamas. It’s an even stranger place for me. After suffering through my last cruise, I swore that I would never set foot on one of these floating islands again. But here I am, sipping on watered-down coffee, 90’s pop music blaring in the background, and I couldn’t be happier.
The reason for my trip is hurricane Ida. My business partner called last Sunday, telling me our company had been hired to do Covid testing in New Orleans. After the hurricane, the city and surrounding areas had been without power since August 29th. The local electric company, Entergy, brought in thousands of electricians from all over the country to repair the lines and commissioned Classica as a sort of water hotel. Cruise ships have been used like this before, but never during a pandemic–which is where we came in. In order to safely board the boat, everyone had to have a negative Covid test.
