Superdome opening game for Saints and Buccaneers is on in post-Gustav New Orleans

New Orleans’ power grid is coming back to life, with 65% of residents having electricity Friday morning, including all of the tourist-vital French Quarter and most of downtown. The city was going ahead with preparations to host Sunday’s NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the opening game for both teams.

Visitors heading to New Orleans were encouraged to check in with their individual hotels before traveling. Many of downtown’s major hotels, including the Sheraton and Hilton Riverside, still faced staffing shortages and were not planning to reopen until Monday.

Meanwhile, the French Quarter’s Royal Sonesta and Ritz-Carlton had reopened, with limited food services. The W New Orleans, also in the French Quarter, was to reopen today.

The city’s Convention & Visitors Bureau was compiling a list of hotel and restaurant reopenings. When finished, it will be posted at neworleanscvb.com.

Wind damage to the French Quarter and other areas of the city was mostly light, but the power outages affected water and sewerage in many parts of the city, slowing reentry for many workers.

Doug Thornton, regional vice president of the company that manages the Superdome, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune that fans would not notice any difference inside the stadium, site of Sunday’s game. The only possible exception, he said, might be at some specialty food stations, where staff shortages could slow prep times for po-boys and pastas.

Hurricane Gustav knocked out all 14 of the transmission lines between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Outages could linger for days, authorities said.

– Chris Erskine, Los Angeles Times deputy Travel editor

[Photo: Residents line up for a free meal Thursday outside the Superdome in post-Gustav New Orleans. Mario Tama / Getty Images]

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 at 11:49 am by Chris Erskine and is filed under New Orleans & Louisiana, News, Tips & Advice, Southern States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.