Can't go past Katrina

We chose a city tour which included visits to the eastern area of New Orleans where the levees broke when Hurricane Katrina struck 5 years ago. Twelve feet of salt water from the Gulf of Mexico hung around for 3-4 weeks, imagine the mud, the stench! Many people have not returned.

While people were offered $150,000 to rebuild it came with conditions, namely you had to prove ownership. Since many homes had been passed through generations, deeds weren't available.They went to city hall looking for assistance only to find that ownership registration documents were stored in the basement which, guess what...was flooded. Talk about a Catch 22. No home to call their own and no money to rebuild. This is the situation in the 9th district. I'm not sure exactly how but a little matter of inheritance tax also prevented people from returning to their homes.

Fats Domino, the famous R & B man, with income second only to Elvis according to our bus driver, refused to leave the 9th ward when Katrina struck.  He was rescued and his house rebuilt in 2009. Not sure if he lives there but there's no mistaking who it belongs to.










Apparently the French Quarter has never flooded.The bus took us away from the 9th ward to a middle class area that was also flooded...different story there. No sign of empty streets and boarded up residences, plenty of new homes in evidence. I guess their deeds were readily available.


A heartening thing is that volunteers continue to work to rebuild.There is an invitation in the Official Visitors Guide 2010 and an organisation called Katrina's Angels still recruiting, at:.http://www.katrinasangels.org/
We saw some on our tour.

Also famous people like Brad Pitt and Angeline Jolie have bought a residence on Decatur Street and  contribute to rebuilding. He has founded an organisation called 'Make it Right' to build sustainable and affordable houses.  Website: www.makeitrightnola.org







Note the colour of Brad and Angie's house. It is white which indicates English speaking folks in Creole code. According to our tour guide, Creoles paint their houses different colours. He pointed out many examples. Now I've been looking on line for proof of this and have not found it so was he having us on? I don't know. He also told us that Creoles invite you into their home via the bedroom door.



We drove by a project instigated by Harry Connick Jr another celebrity from New Orleans along with Branford Marsalis who have created the Musicians’ Village, a cornerstone of the New Orleans Area Habitat for Humanity (NOAHH) post-Katrina rebuilding effort. It  is designed to both construct a community and preserve a culture, and provide a home for both the artists who have defined the city’s culture and the sounds that have shaped the musical vernacular of the world: http://www.nolamusiciansvillage.org/about

While I'm on the subject of fame and all, must show you Sandra Bullock's pad in or near the Garden District which she and the now departed Jesse James snapped up for a couple of mill, and in which she now resides as a single mom. Couldn't help comparing it with my first residence as a single mom, a hot, small and noisy apartment in Pinetown, South Africa! It's not clear whether Sandra bought the place for altruistic reasons or because it was a bargain after the floods.

The latest disaster in the region, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico does not seem to have affected the city except that they're buying their oysters etc from further afield. The estimated 4.9 million barrels of crude oil washed up further east in Mississippi and Florida.

That's all for now. Will get onto the subject of New Orleans renowned cemeteries next blog.