New Orleans

These pictures were taken by a man in Magee , MS where the eye of the storm passed thru - what an experience. Magee is 150 miles North of Waveland , Mississippi where the Hurricane made land fall.





Unlike many of our stops to date, New Orleans was a planned destination. We felt the educational opportunity was too good to pass up; and we have learned a lot!

On our first day in New Orleans we booked a "Katrina Tour" with Greyline (a bus tour company). We spent 3 hours touring the areas of the city that were hit the hardest by the hurricane.

This picture was taken from the third story balcony of Saint Stanislaus College located next door to Our Lady of the Gulf church in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi on the morning of August 29th, 2005. This is believed to be the initial tidal wave from Hurricane Katrina. The tidal wave was approximately 35 to 40 feet high. When it slammed into the beach front communities of Bay Saint Louis and Waveland Mississippi it completely destroyed 99% of every structure along the beach for 9 miles and over a quarter of a mile inland. The destruction only started there. The flooding that continued inland destroyed the contents of all but 35 homes in these two communities of approximately 14,000 people.

While these pictures are not of storm damage in New Orleans, they are of Katrina and the damage she caused, which was actually much more severe in Mississippi. We plan to head this way next week to view the actual damage.

Back to New Orleans: Here is a picture of a couple of FEMA trailers. They are everywhere! We are staying in a KOA campground of about 150 sites. 100 of these sites are taken up by FEMA trailers. I do not think the inhabitants are paying anything to stay here. Some locals have expressed the fact that many of these people have lost the incentive to find work and/or a place to live since they are being taken care of.

Only 40% of the pre-katrina population has returned to the city. Many businesses can not find employees, and many potential employees can not afford housing

since the rents have skyrocketed. A pre-katrina apartment that rented for $600 a month now rents for $1,800 a month.

This picture is of a shopping center about the size of Southcenter (That store is a "Dillards", similar to a Bon Marche). The entire shopping center has been abandoned! There is a six flags park just down the street: abandoned!

Square miles of homes, abandoned!

This is one of dozens (if not hundreds) of FEMA trailer parks. This one has about 300 trailers that have been "installed" in the parking lot of a governmental building (civic center) that has been abandoned.

They are packed in here like cord wood (but, oddly most people drive pretty nice cars: look at the Acura NSX below).

This particular area (above) is in Saint Bernard Parish; which was hit very hard by tidal surge. I would guess that 85% of the homes were destroyed here (I think this is also the infamous ninth ward). The city leaders are bulldozing homes here if the owners have not started re-building.

The only area that was not flooded is the central business district and the French Quarter. Although there was a lot of damage from winds. This office building is still riddled with broken windows (the white windows are all broken out), and it is not the only one that has yet to be repaired.

Just up the street is a 40 story hospital that looks similar (and it is also vacant). I understand that there is only 1 hospital open in New Orleans, and it just opened the other month.

So, here is a summary of some of the local attitudes: Many folks are very upset with the Army Corps of engineers who built and maintain the levees: and yes, many of these breached. The Army Corps also is responsible for dredging the Mississippi river, and they created a direct shipping route (called Mr. Go) from the Gulf to Lake Pontchartrain, effectively eliminating the bends and twists of the Miss. River and cutting off many miles for the freighters that come into the city (New Orleans is the fourth largest port in the world). This ingenious plan created a straight shot for the storm surge to travel from the gulf right up to lake Pontchartrain, just north of the city. This storm surge would naturally have been reduced to a fraction of its size had this direct route not existed (this is what wet lands can help with). In addition, growth has eliminated many of the remaining wetlands in the N.O. area. The highest waters were over 20 feet deep in a subdivision of $5,000,000 homes; built in an area 12 feet below sea level (and no, no one has returned to these homes). So, the storm surge traveled up Mr. Go, to Lake Pontchartrain, which is where the water from the areas of the city below sea level (which is all of it) is pumped. The storm surge roared down the drainage bayou's and several of the levees were breached. The water actually entered the city from the north.

OK, so there is a lot of blame to go around. Insurance companies are contesting many claims. New Orleans "Road home" loans have only been distributed to 44 homeowners to date, and, yes, the Army Corps definitely made some huge mistakes.

The lesson I have learned: Don't fool with mother nature, and don't build your house below sea level.

We hope you'all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

The Paton's