The devastation from Katrina remains
01/07/2008 18:13
By Tony Barnhart | Monday, January 7, 2008, 09:34 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-Because I had, like you, seen the horrifying images on television day after day I thought I a pretty firm mental grasp on the devastation that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on this city in late August and early September of 2005.
I wasn’t even close.
Until you see it up close, the human mind cannot conceive of what really happened here about 27 months ago.
College football will celebrate the end of a season to remember tonight when No. 1 Ohio State takes on No. 2 LSU for the BCS championship. It will cap a stretch of 10 days where hundreds of thousands of fans poured into the city, first to see the Sugar Bowl and now for biggest game of the season.
They have seen a downtown New Orleans that has recovered nicely from Katrina. The French Quarter is just as lively as ever and our hosts here have put out the hospitality as only this wonderful city can. It has been an impressive show. Hosting these two BCS games, which will pump about $300 million into the local economy, is a big part of the ongoing recovery effort.
But drive less an 10 minutes from my very nice hotel and you will see pieces of this community that will move you to tears.
On Sunday I traveled with a group of journalists on a tour sponsored by the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, whose heroic deeds in covering Katrina were more than worthy of the Pulitzer Prize they received.
The reality of what we were about to see hit home when we traveled to Lakeview, a middle class neighborhood that was badly flooded. Our tour guide was Living Edtior James O’Byrne who took us to an empty lot that was surrounded by houses in various degrees of damage and repair.
The empty lot was where O’Byrne’s house used to be.
Then we went across the street to see a house where the floodwater had risen to the ceiling. The floors were buckled. There were faded photo albums on the floor. It was clear the house would have to be torn down.
“This,” he said. “Is one of the better ones.”
With each stop the neighborhoods got poorer and the devastation grew worse. And when we reached the Lower Ninth Ward, where the poorest of the poor once lived, the enormity of it all hit home.
The small houses that were not completely swept off their foundations by the floodwaters have pretty much been gutted out. The image that will stick with all of us on the tour was the black “X” on each door. It was put there by the National Guard search team to signify what they had found in the house. The number on the bottom of the X represented how many bodies were in the home.
But there is hope. Actor Brad Pitt, who now lives in New Orleans, stepped up and bought 150 lots and is raising money to build low cost homes. Among the grayness and despair of the Lower Ninth Ward is an incredible village of structures covered by pink tarps, each one representing where a house will be built. One those homes are built, the hope is that the rest of the area will begin to regenerate.
When our tour was done, we didn’t have to drive long before we ran head on into streets blocked by Ohio State and LSU fans getting ready to party the night away. The contrast to what we just witnessed was very sobering.
The point is this. Tonight’s game should be a celebration and the folks who have come here should enjoy every minute of it. This city has survived and has recovered from an unthinkable horror and still works every day to get better.
But not everyone has recovered here in New Orleans and we shouldn’t forget that. There are people here whose lives are not even close to being normal over two years later. And the sad truth is they may never be normal again.
I’ll come back later today once I get to the Superdome with some final questions to ponder before kickoff.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
New Orleans-Because I had, like you, seen the horrifying images on television day after day I thought I a pretty firm mental grasp on the devastation that Hurricane Katrina inflicted on this city in late August and early September of 2005.
I wasn’t even close.
Until you see it up close, the human mind cannot conceive of what really happened here about 27 months ago.
College football will celebrate the end of a season to remember tonight when No. 1 Ohio State takes on No. 2 LSU for the BCS championship. It will cap a stretch of 10 days where hundreds of thousands of fans poured into the city, first to see the Sugar Bowl and now for biggest game of the season.
They have seen a downtown New Orleans that has recovered nicely from Katrina. The French Quarter is just as lively as ever and our hosts here have put out the hospitality as only this wonderful city can. It has been an impressive show. Hosting these two BCS games, which will pump about $300 million into the local economy, is a big part of the ongoing recovery effort.
But drive less an 10 minutes from my very nice hotel and you will see pieces of this community that will move you to tears.
On Sunday I traveled with a group of journalists on a tour sponsored by the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper, whose heroic deeds in covering Katrina were more than worthy of the Pulitzer Prize they received.
The reality of what we were about to see hit home when we traveled to Lakeview, a middle class neighborhood that was badly flooded. Our tour guide was Living Edtior James O’Byrne who took us to an empty lot that was surrounded by houses in various degrees of damage and repair.
The empty lot was where O’Byrne’s house used to be.
Then we went across the street to see a house where the floodwater had risen to the ceiling. The floors were buckled. There were faded photo albums on the floor. It was clear the house would have to be torn down.
“This,” he said. “Is one of the better ones.”
With each stop the neighborhoods got poorer and the devastation grew worse. And when we reached the Lower Ninth Ward, where the poorest of the poor once lived, the enormity of it all hit home.
The small houses that were not completely swept off their foundations by the floodwaters have pretty much been gutted out. The image that will stick with all of us on the tour was the black “X” on each door. It was put there by the National Guard search team to signify what they had found in the house. The number on the bottom of the X represented how many bodies were in the home.
But there is hope. Actor Brad Pitt, who now lives in New Orleans, stepped up and bought 150 lots and is raising money to build low cost homes. Among the grayness and despair of the Lower Ninth Ward is an incredible village of structures covered by pink tarps, each one representing where a house will be built. One those homes are built, the hope is that the rest of the area will begin to regenerate.
When our tour was done, we didn’t have to drive long before we ran head on into streets blocked by Ohio State and LSU fans getting ready to party the night away. The contrast to what we just witnessed was very sobering.
The point is this. Tonight’s game should be a celebration and the folks who have come here should enjoy every minute of it. This city has survived and has recovered from an unthinkable horror and still works every day to get better.
But not everyone has recovered here in New Orleans and we shouldn’t forget that. There are people here whose lives are not even close to being normal over two years later. And the sad truth is they may never be normal again.
I’ll come back later today once I get to the Superdome with some final questions to ponder before kickoff.