Oh, New Orleans, you are the little city that I hate to love...and yet I do (love you).
You have your issues - there is this little thing with water and hurricanes...
and we hear about your crime all the time...
 |
| the hurricane katrina X |
But, what we may not hear about is your unwillingness to give up no matter what the odds.
My husband and I traveled into NOLA this Saturday so I could get some photos for a series I am doing on local antique stores. The store I am going to feature this week is in the Bywater District which is down the Mississippi River from the French Quarter.
Even though Bywater wasn't the hardest hit neighborhood (in regard to flooding after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on Labor Day weekend of 2005) it still received damage and you don't have to drive far to see the haunting reminder of the storm...
the Hurricane Katrina X.
(Keep in mind that after the Levy's breached, 85% of New Orleans was flooded...many buildings had water as high as their roofs and were submerged for weeks.)
The graffiti- like symbols were spray painted on the fronts of flooded buildings as a code among search and rescue teams to advise that the building had been searched and to identify what was found inside...specifically had a person or pet perished.
And now, six years later...
Many, many buildings in the city still wear these symbols proudly as a badge of honor, as a memorial to the people lost after the storm, as a way of telling the world that
New Orleans will never give up..rebuilding, renewing, recreating itself.
So, New Orleans, I'll keep coming back for more.
More spirit. More diversity. More ENERGY. More beauty.
More you.
Just keep doing what you're doing...recovering!
Just keep doing what you're doing...recovering!
If you're from this area you've heard all of this...been there, done that...
but if you are curious about the events before the storm, the predictions of the eminent danger of the flood walls breaching long before the hurricane hit NOLA, the recovery process, a good source of information is PBS
The more affluential neighborhoods have made significant progress in rebuilding, but there is still alot of work to be done in Treme, Gentilly, 9th Ward (just to name a few)...
and if you are interested in learning more about a very famous (and handsome) movie star's contributions to the city and specifically the 9th Ward you might like to read this:
Habitat for Humanity, as you might expect, is very involved in providing quality shelter for the city. Their website is:
Last I have to mention Anderson Cooper from CNN who brought the events of the storm into our livingrooms...(we were living in Houston, watching CNN around the clock...) and who tirelessly begged for help on behalf of the residents of New Orleans...
ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2010/.../hurricane-katrina-then-and-now/ -
The above mentioned may be a lending a hand, or a voice for New Orleans but it is the drive of the residents that gives this city its spunk and determination to keep on goin'!
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