The forgotten Katrina devastation

Apologies in advance for the poor formatting - still getting the hang of picture posting.

Over in Australia we heard a lot about the damage that Hurricane Katrina caused to New Orleans, and the terrible conditions the newly homeless were forced to endure. What I didn't realise until I arrived in Louisiana was that the hurricane did not directly cause the damage in New Orleans. The flooding in New Orleans was caused when the levees failed, which happened after the hurricane had already gone through & the wind changed direction.

Other parts of Louisiana and Mississippi felt the full force of the hurricane. The city of Slidell, to the east of where we're currently living had the eye of the hurricane pass across it. And further to the east in Mississippi the coastal towns of Gulfport and Biloxi had effectively a 10 ft high wall of water swamp the sea front.

Last weekend Gator Girl & I drove down to the casinos on the Mississippi coast. About half-way to Gulfport we came across the sign on the left. This is on a major highway. I don't know what happened to the bridge during the storm, all I know is the only evidence that there was a bridge at all is the cranes currently rebuilding one.



What I like most about the second picture is the woman in the foreground picking up rubbish. Doesn't matter how devastated the local area might be, people have a real sense of pride in their local area.






And finally, if you turn around from the road closed sign, this house is what you see. The entire street contains houses that are in similar, if not worse, conditions.










And then further down the road where we filled up with gas we found.....


















The fast food strip along the coast didn't survive the wave. For some reasons the pylons holding the signs held up better than some of the buildings.














Not that the buildings that survived did so in any usable fashion. I imagine the only solution with the entire beachfront will be to bulldoze and start again.


To be honest, that's enough depressing photos for one post. But I think it makes my point: New Orleans wasn't the only place that was devastated by Katrina. These people have lost everything they owned, and are the victims that a lot of the world doesn't really know about. Yet despite everything they've gone through, the general feeling by talking to the locals is that they are upbeat, keen to come back and rebuild. They've developed a real sense of community which means that they are friendly to neighbours and strangers, and that's something we could probably all stand to learn from them.

The other important lesson is not to build on a swamp in a hurricane zone.