My Visit to New Orleans 9 months after Katrina
Apr 19
After so long, one would think that communities could be rebuilt and reinhabited. It is quite the contrary in surrounding New Orleans areas, such as the 9th ward, Chalmette and Slidell.
From what I was told, the rubble that is now piled in center medians, and where lush landscapes once were, at one point filled the streets. Boats still stray from the lake in distant fields and between houses, cars overturned, scattered, and left with the scars of having been completely under water for weeks. Houses from entire subdivisions nothing but damaged shells of buildings left only with a marker of how high the water rose and a vandalistic identifier of search and rescue crews scavenging where they could by boat, few personal effects remain within the houses, and toxic sediment settled throughout every surface some completely demolished by the torrent of water, others rocked off of their foundation and forced into neighboring houses, holes in roofs where people were forced into their attics and out through vents on top of their house.
Small cities of white trailers surround the empty neighborhoods, places for shopping, streetlights and traffic signals are scarcely available only one brand new Wal*Mart location exists in Chalmette as far as I saw and on their parking lot, tents for hurricane relief still stand and are filled with activity. The responses from the locals are mixed, and often display a morbid sort of humor which can only be credited to New Orleans residents, some holding the Army Corps. of Engineers accountable, others simply thanking the rescue services for their aid, but the general concensus of most seems to be a plan to return and rebuild.
The French Quarter and Greater New Orleans having been largely spared, still a bustling hub of activity, but one group of people are definitely missing from the experience, those being the artisans and musicians who lined the sidewalks adding soul and a certain ambiance to the city.
Nine months after a natural disaster and the dust has settled but a city is still in ruins, just weeks before the next hurricane season approaches. A broken levee system barely patched by steel pylons.
And myself, am left with mixed feelings of whether it is worth re-settling the most devastated areas, given that the calamity just may reoccur or whether it is a better idea for former residents to simply move and get on with their lives. One thing I do know is that since I am now sick after having driven through the affected areas, mold and other airborne toxins are not in short supply, further aggravating the reconstruction.
New Walmart
Floating Cars
Boats
