Normally, my commute is 10-15 minutes. However, after Katrina messed up the city, the Army Corps of Engineers and the City of New Orleans have been working on roads and levees and such. I know why they do it and don't want them to stop, but they MIGHT have coordinated their efforts a bit better.
Right now I have to avoid the picturesque drive along the shore of Lake Ponchartrain in order to take an inner road. This is because the Lakeshore Drive roads must cross levees in a couple of places so they have to be built up higher. Which means new foundations and new roadways with steeper slopes etc. BUT - the drive on Robert E Lee Blvd. (the next major street that goes where I want to go) is messy because THAT is under construction as well. The flooding in that neighborhood undercut many of the road foundations, leading to huge potholes from the weight of the trucks carrying the construction materials. So I have to pick my way through potholes that would swallow a tire whole.
Going further south from there isn't an option because of City Park and Bayou St. John, through which no major roads offer any decent passage. It is literally a couple of miles to the next reasonable crossing point.
I can hardly wait for the day when Lakeshore Drive opens up again. I'll be able to drive on a shore at sunrise or sunset depending on the season. It is always a pretty sight. But right now I can't get there from anywhere important.
I guess I'm spoiled because the commute is only about 5 minutes longer right now. But if I had to head over towards the Mississippi River area, potential flooding there would easily add 30 minutes to my time. It's a good thing that the pumps were upgraded first so that flooding now occurs less often.
The ultimate nightmare traffic jam was the Sunday I had to evacuate ahead of Katrina that hit on Monday. I went I-10 west to Lafayette, LA. That was bumper-to-bumper and maybe 40 mph tops. Once I hit the I-49 junction and could turn north, I could hit 70 mph easily. But that first leg was murder. Lots of overheated cars, lots of lines at the gas stations... a total nervous breakdown just waiting for someone. That one, I survived. I hope to never again have to face that kind of evacuation.