We left New Orleans this afternoon. Before we did that, however, we walked around a bit more. After yesterday's muggy, overcast weather, the area looked really different in sunlight. It was a beautiful day out, and we really enjoyed just walking around and seeing the different buildings, shops, and people.
We drove from the French Quarter to the Ninth Ward, the part of New Orleans worst hit by Hurricane Katrina four years ago. What we saw was a mix: on the one hand, there were many houses that looked totally ruined and uninhabitable, some totally missing with only concrete steps or a foundation left on the lot; on the other hand, there was a lot of reconstruction going on and many new, colorful, well-designed houses going up. Apparently, Brad Pitt has done a lot of work with Make It Right, an organization working to rebuild areas of New Orleans devastated by Katrina.
The houses looked really cool, raised up and with solar panels on the roofs. As one of the workers told me after I mentioned where I'm from and why I was taking pictures, the Ninth Ward is "the real New Orleans." While I'm not sure about that, it definitely seemed like a different city compared to the French Quarter.
We then drove up to the levy on the Mississippi. It was mind-boggling to see the river on one side of the levy and the neighborhood on the other, and very easy to imagine flood waters breaching the top and then pouring down and inundating the houses. Pretty scary stuff.
We're really glad we were able to see at least two different sides of New Orleans. It's a really cool, unique city, and well worth rebuilding.
Neat to see more pictures of New Orleans. I'd love to go someday. I read an interesting article in the last Atlantic about the new architecture there, or at least the mixing of the new with the old, and the influence of celebrity. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200911/curtis-architecture-new-orleans in case you're interested. I agree that it is worth rebuilding, but carefully.
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