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Article was summarized by Gary Polson RBBI
Almost all of the Riverwalk's 100 stores should reopen by the week before the Super Bowl. The most heavily damaged businesses will reopen late in the summer per Mall officials in a Monday media tour of the riverside center.
"We feel the (dates) are achievable but not definite," said Brian Lade, the Riverwalk's vice president and general manager. The mall's managers and merchants had hoped to reopen for the Sugar Bowl (Jan. 2nd) but the work to stabilize the building made that impossible. In addition to 90 stores about half the stalls in the Levee market on the mall's upper level and 30 pushcart merchants should be open the week of Jan. 20.
Monday workers continued to stabilize the building. A support column in the malls atrium had moved another inch Sunday. Workers also tried to restore utilities to the dark and damp shopping center. Stores in the middle sustained the most damage. Rouse Co., the mall's owner and operator will build a temporary corridor to connect the ends of the mall.
Unloading of the corn from the damaged cargo holds was halted Monday night after stevedores found they were digging into wet corn, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Work stopped at 7:30 pm after 400 tons had been removed , said Lt. Lonnie Harrison marine inspector. Water had seeped in through a 1-by-3 foot gash below the hold, he said.
Before the Bright Field can be moved special sonar must determine whether debris resting against the hull. If it is and the ship is moved the rest of the structure may come down said Bob Darcy, deputy chief with the New Orleans Fire Dept.
Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Doug Blakemore had said the freighter might be moved today if engineers conclude it is safe. It would be taken to Boland Marine on the West bank for repairs.
The freighter's owners, Clearsky Shipping Corp. of Liberia and COSCO, a Chinese shipping company have estimated in court papers that repairing the Bright Field will cost about $2 million. There have been no public estimates for the mall, hotel, condominium, and other properties, but one attorney has predicted property damage will top $250 million.
Monday, attorneys for the mall, the hotel, the merchants, the port, the Flamingo Casino, customers, bystanders, insurance companies, and the shipowners met for nearly three hours in federal court to iron our preliminary details in the main lawsuit over the crash.
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