Even scarier

In this post I shared a few of the sights I found in post-Katrina New Orleans after returning from exile in Jackson. One of those sights was this:



That's the steeple for St. Stephen's Catholic Church, across the street. I was noting in particular how several copper panels had been ripped away by the wind, exposing the wood underneath. The light areas are exposed wood, as the copper had darkened into a rich green patina in the more than one hundred years since the church was built. This shot, from another angle and greater distance, gives a better picture of the height of the steeple:








I wondered how they were going to repair this damage, whether they would replace all the copper, or just the missing panels. That would of course give the steeple a rather piebald look, with shiny new copper mixed in with patinaed old copper. For that matter, I wondered just how they were going to physically do the repairs. The spot is not exactly accessible.

Well, on Feb. 21, just before Mardi Gras, I got my answers. New copper mixed with old, and here's how they were doing the repairs:



















Don't see them? The construction workers in their mountaineering equipment? Well, take another look at the long shot above, to remind yourself of the scale, then check them out here:


















Even if I were a husky 29-year-old construction worker, there is no amount of money in the world that would make me take that job.

Later, Mardi Gras pictures.