From Devestation to Standing Ovations

Day 100 - New Orleans, LA - Cloudy Low 50's:

YAHOO! Day 100 and we’re both still alive and still love each other.

Today we woke up early to have breakfast and head downtown because we had scheduled a Katrina/City bus tour for 11:00. We had some time before the tour so we explored the Jax Brewery and Harrah’s Casino. Heather had heard that the casino was really nice but it was pretty much just like every other casino I had ever been in. We played the slots for a bit and limited our spend/loss to only five dollars. We were proud that we actually only played our allotted five and didn’t go over at all!

After about an hour it was time for the tour and we headed back to the brewery to meet the bus. We boarded a Grey Line bus and were quickly given some city background information.

• Louisiana became a state in 1812 and had the first pharmacy and apartment buildings in the US.
• The current population of New Orleans is 300,000 down from 485,000 people pre-Katrina.
• It is one of the top ten busiest ports in the world and one of the top five in the US with over 6,000 cargo ships on average docking per year.
• It has the longest wharf in the world.
• A lot of homes within New Orleans are built elevated in some way, whether with a first floor basement or homes actually on stilts), because the average rainfall is 65 inches per year, which causes lots of flooding.
• New Orleans is home to the largest coffee roasting plant in the WORLD; there fore they always wake up with Folgers in their cup!
  
• You may also remember that in the wake of Katrina, the reliance on New Orleans as a crude-oil hub was made very clear.

We then road over into the Lower 9th Ward which was one of the hardest hit areas during Katrina and had over 12 feet of standing water at the peak of the flooding. During Katrina there were 33 breaches in the levees around the city and about 80% of the city was flooded. We toured the lower 9th ward and saw the complete devastation that still exists in the area as only about 15% of people returned to 9th ward post-Katrina. We saw where “Fats” Domino lived and recorded his music prior to Katrina, as he was one of the people not to return to the lower 9th ward. We then drove past the “Make it Right” houses that Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have pioneered. Brad has donated upwards of 8 million dollars out of his pocket and together he and Angelina have raised money to rebuild houses for residence in this area. They are looking to build 100 of these “green” houses here at an average cost of $150,000 each and give them to the truly needy families trying to move back to the lover 9th ward. You should really check out the website as it has some AMAZING information regarding the uniqueness and cutting edge work in this neighborhood…Make It Right.

A note about the markings: We have all seen the large X’s on the homes from Katrina. This was a notation system used by volunteers to communicate findings. Here is the breakdown of what they were for: The X was to indicate that the home had been visited. The top of the X was the date, to the left of the X was an indication of who the person/unit was that visited, to the right of the X were notes indicating the status of the home (NE - No Entry, INT – Interior, EXT – Exterior, GL – Gas Leak), and the bottom indicated findings (0 – No bodies, 2D – 2 Dead, 2A – 2 Alive). Homes with more than one X are homes that were visited more than once. There was also a marking TFW, that stood for Task Force Washington…men and women sent by the government. Finally some buildings have what appear to be circles and not X’s. This is because there were so many volunteers initially that they did not all have the same system. This quickly changed and all homes were uniformly marked.

An interesting post Katrina note: In addition to the devastation to the homes the school-system has also had a very tough road to get back on track. In New Orleans over half of the 122 schools that were open prior to Katrina haven’t reopened.

Next we stopped by a graveyard in the city and we informed that because so much of the land is below sea level the graves (tombs) are built above ground. Many of the tombs costing upwards of $60,000 and hold upward of 6 people. Many tombs only have one casket and the most recent death being placed in it while the other remains are placed in a body bag. Also, if you can’t afford to build your own tomb the cemetery have a “low rent section” where you can lease a vault for a specific number of years and remain in your casket. However, once your lease runs out you are placed in a body bag and placed at the back of the vault where you stay for the rest of your time at the cemetery.

From the cemetery we made our way north to Lake Ponchartrain and saw some of the levees that were breached during Katrina. The Lake is 633 square miles with an average depth of 16 feet. In contrast to the lower 9th ward about 80% of the people returned to the Lakeshore and Lakeview areas. These tend to be the wealthier parts of town. Lakeshore escaped almost all of the Katrina flooding due to its higher elevation near the water. Lakeview was one of the harder hit areas as once the water got in it had nowhere to drain and stayed for three weeks. As we drove through you could see the water lines on some of the homes that have not been returned to.

Our final ride on the bus was St. Charles Street. This is considered to be the wealthiest parts of town. So wealthy that there is a club for men where you have to be a millionaire to apply…no worries a few blocks down the street is a club just for millionaire women. St. Charles Street is also where the Real World New Orleans House was located.

After the tour we walked around the French Quarter and explored more shops and bars. It was then over the Café du Monde so I could grab some beignets and coffee. This is a must try place in New Orleans because the beignets are amazing and loaded with powered sugar. After our short rest we went down to Canal Street to grab a spot to watch the Saints Superbowl parade. There were people everywhere but Heather said it was nothing compared to the Patriots first parade. However, we met some nice local and said they have been waiting their whole lives to see the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans. We were also informed that the crowd was bigger then any Mardi Gras parade and it was the first time ever that competing Mardi Gras Krewe’s signature floats would be in the same parade. Each of the Krewes donated their float for the team to ride on. In all there were 12 floats and 15 marching bands in the parade. It was an amazing night to see the whole city come together and celebrate. After the parade we made our way back to the hotel for the night.