Pictures of New Orleans

So I'm finally publishing some pics from the New Orleans trip.


Here is the jazz funeral that took place my first night there. I received my 1st three strands of beads from this one.


This is part of the memorial to Katrina victims that is in the lower 9th ward. There were 1600 victims. 300 of those died when they fled to a local elementary school, thinking they'd be safe. Instead, they all drowned.


This is also part of the memorial. Thomas, my professor, is sitting in the chair to the right. Clockwise, Paul, then Jackie, then Shane, and then Kelly are around him.


Here is another view of the memorial (sans people). It is an incredibly accurate depiction of what a wrecked home may look like, except as you'll see in later pictures, the concrete steps, porch, and stilts are the only things remaining of most of the destroyed homes. Perhaps this is supposed to be a home in the process of being rebuilt.


Here is a gas station that never re-opened after the hurricane. The price of regular unleaded gas in the lower 9th ward on August 28, 2005, was $2.55 a gallon.


This house was originally attached to the porch steps you see on the right side of the picture.


The steps of 1630 Reynes Street. The tilted house may have belonged to this lot, but there were two sets of steps and only one house left.

A closeup of the house that possibly belongs to 1630 Reynes.

This brick house was across the street from 1630 Reynes. Brick houses held up pretty well to the flood, mainly sustaining roof and window damage. However the house itself held up, the cross next to the window on the right indicates that someone died in that house during Katrina.

A pile of debris at the side of the road. It contains a child's toy frog, a video tape, some broken vinyl records. A photograph. It is unlikely (though not impossible) that this pile has been there since the water was pumped out, but it is very likely that the people who owned what is now in this debris pile still haven't returned home, likely don't have a home to which to return.

The man on the right owns this home. His friend is helping him begin to clean it up. They have only recently been allowed to return to the property, and have received no money or help from the government to fix his home. Even though they weren't allowed back, the man on the left (I regret not having caught their names) said, "We keep the flower beds up because we trying to let people know we coming home." Again, notice this is a brick house. I am ironically reminded of the three little pigs.

The wolf knocked on the door and said, "Little pig, little pig, let me come in." "No, no," said the pig. "Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you come in." "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in," said the wolf. So he huffed and he puffed and he huffed and he puffed. But the house of bricks did not fall down.

You can see that the center of this building has collapsed. What you cannot see because it is no longer there is that the foreground of this picture is the spot where they found a barge in the aftermath of Katrina. That barge ran into the levee, causing it to break and initiating the great flood that caused all this damage.

This is the inside wall of the levee that broke. You can see the canal to the left. The canal swelled up against the levee, allowing the barge to make its way all the way over and smash the levee down.

Someone painted on the outside of the levee in Spanish, "New Orleans gave me patience and passion."

Here is the levee wall as it appears to those in the neighborhood. Ching Mae and Chris are walking along next to it.

Thomas and John are standing atop the levee with the bridge behind them. Over the bridge is the upper 9th ward. The flood waters rushed into the lower 9th ward and then when they had no place left to go, backtracked and came into the upper 9th. The upper 9th did not see the flood waters get nearly as high as in the lower 9th.

The only organization doing any work in the lower 9th ward is Common Ground Relief, a grassroots organization started up by hurricane survivors and sustained by donations from individuals. No government or larger nonprofit agency has helped at all.

This home is nearly rebuilt, thanks to Common Ground. A 99-year-old woman lived here before the hurricane. She will be 100 later this summer, and thanks to Common Ground, she may celebrate that birthday back in her home.

In front of the home is a sunflower garden, part of the Meg Perry Healthy Soil Project. Meg Perry was one of the first Common Ground volunteers and she died in a car accident in New Orleans in December 2005. Sunflowers draw lead out of the ground, and there are several sunflower gardens throughout the Common Ground work area that are part of this project. It must look spectacular in July when they are all in bloom. Also above the garden notice the solar panel on the wall. This provides the only source for electricity.

This is Malik, founder of Common Ground Relief. The sign in the background says, "I am coming back! I will rebuild! I am New Orleans!" These signs are on homes throughout the lower 9th ward.

A closeup of the mural on the side of the house. It was painted in September of 2006 to mark the one year anniversary of Common Ground Relief. Besides the tremendous rebuilding effort the organization is undertaking, its buildings are rich with artwork.
There is no electricity and no running water in most of the lower 9th ward almost 2 years after the hurricane. As you recall, solar panels help with the electricity bit; Common Ground has set up these barrels to process rain water.

This solar panel heats water so that relief workers may take a hot shower.

No running water means no sewage either. This is a composting toilet. The front of the outhouse contains a barrel of soil, which you add to the bucket once you've done your business.

Here is another concrete porch with steps. The house that belongs to it is in the background. At the top of the picture is the bridge where the levee is located.

This is the front of Common Ground's headquarters. Posted is a list of supplies that are needed.

Next to the headquarters is another soil project.

There is a fine line between being a gawking tourist and someone who wants to truly understand and appreciate the horror and tragedy that occurred in the lower 9th ward. Those who live there believe many things. They believe that the barge was cut loose on purpose to flood the 9th ward and save the rest of the city from the worst of the damage. (This may sound very conspiracy theory to you, but their belief is founded in fact: In 1947, as a major storm approached, members of the upper class living in the French Quarter spent days wiring the levees at the 9th ward before blowing them up and flooding this poor area to save their own home.)

They believe that the city is actively fighting any rebuilding efforts to preserve the damage as a tourist attraction. Tour buses drive through these streets several times a day. Still, it seems to me that all these people want is for their story to be heard, to feel like someone cares about their plight. Once we approached Malik and the two residents on Reynes Street and told them we were volunteers helping to rebuild, they were more than happy to tell us their stories. The men on Reynes talked to us about the best places to visit in the city and wanted to know when we would come back. They don't hate tourists. They hate being an exhibit. Talk to them. Tell them about yourself and ask them questions. You will have a richer experience and they will have a completely different attitude about you being there.

About the only thing FEMA provides is canned water. There was a lot of FEMA water in the upper 9th, but in the lower 9th all I saw was this canned water donated by Anheuser-Busch.

This is where Common Ground decontaminates work equipment every day.

Another piece of Common Ground artwork.

Contact Common Ground Relief's website to see how you can help.

The X on the side of this house is on all houses in the 9th ward. When clearing houses, this was the mark made so that the same house was not cleared again. When someone entered the house, they made the first slash. When they left, they made the second. The top quadrant contains the date of clearance. The left contains the initials of the group or National Guard unit that did the clearing. The bottom contains the number of bodies found. Thankfully, most have a 0 in this quadrant. Many buildings are marked by the SPCA or the Humane Society, indicating dogs or cats found, or bodies of dogs or cats found.

A fire hydrant now at a 45 degree angle.

This is the other side of the building from an earlier picture with the middle collapsed. You can see from this side that it was a church. Locals have returned the steeple and stood it up next to the building.

The night after we went to the lower 9th ward, we took the free ferry across the Mississippi. The building that is second from the left is the World Trade Center, where the Baptists use three floors as the Volunteer Village. We women had the 5th floor for our dormitory.

Later that same evening, there was a parade down Canal Street. Louis Armstrong was apparently the Grand Marshall. Here I got several more strands of beads.

Still later that night, I had a glass of Absinte, a weaker version of Absinthe (which is illegal in the U.S.). Preparing it is quite a production. You pour the Absinte over the sugar cube then light the cube on fire. Finally, you pour a bit of water over the cube to finish dissolving it.

This is the patio I built during my last two days of work in the upper 9th ward. See the two levels? I had to find a concrete slab that would fit into each section and then make sure each slab was level by itself and then level with all the slabs surrounding it. It could take 15 to 30 minutes just to lay one slab.

Okay, so maybe I didn't build the patio all by myself. There were lots of people helping to move the slabs and dig dirt, but it takes a special skill and patience to be able to lay the slabs. Only John (pictured here with the tape measure) and I were the master craftsmen up to this job.

And now I am back home.

With Andy the cat.

And Chloe the cat.

And of course Goober the dog.