I am not even going to try to define "held up" as it will not be correct in the eyes of some. Just like posts indicating a particular business or building is "gone", only to later see a picture of damage (severe in some cases) but by no means "gone".

I have seen the same pictures and posts most others have. I have directly communicated with a couple of friends who live on the island and continue to try to do so but without any luck today.

One local friend who lives in French Quarter personally told me he had "some damage" to his dwelling and "some damage" to his taxi van.

I think it is pretty obvious the damage ranges from complete destruction to minimal in some cases. An awning being down or an entry way being down may look bad but until you investigate further, that is not a good way to assess the damage.

Have you ever been in a meeting or training where one of the exercises is to pass a short statement around the room (in silence/whisper and no writing) from one person to another? Put 15-20 people at a table, do this exercise and the end result is almost NEVER the initial statement coming out as it started. Most times it is wildy different than how it started and not even close.

I think a lot of this is happening with reports about this. It is severe without a doubt but by the time it gets passed on from one person to another, one social media site to another it is often not as how it started out.

As long as one sticks with the facts, a lot of the misinformation could be avoided.