Ours was a quiet and relaxing morning after which we took a short trip to see the Hurricane Katrina ravaged section of New Orleans, the 9th Ward, where recovery has been a slow and painful process. We also wanted to see the homes that Brad Pitt had committed $5 million to help build for some of the homeless families in that area. It was a sobering experience.
The scene while driving around the neighborhood was one that revealed many different outcomes for the recovery. There were many homes where people just walked away and abandoned their homes, either as a result of no insurance, or just not wanting to take a chance on going through the same experience again someday. These are some shots of some of those abandoned homes:
Then there were areas where the homes were just torn down, leaving nothing but a foundation:
Another objective we had was to see where the levee break had occurred during the storm and to see the new, stronger levee that was built to replace the fractured levee. We could visualize the horror that must have swept through the area when we arrived at the levee. This first shot is taken from the street level and one can see how much higher the levee sits above the road:
There was a section at the end where we could drive up to take a couple shots from the "inside" of the levee where you can see, clearly, how much higher the water line was above the homes:
Finally, we came to the area in the lower 9th Ward, on Tennessee St, where the new homes were being built by Brad Pitt's "Make it Right" foundation:
The construction methods are said to be state of the art and an example of how construction techniques will be followed in future developments. This shot shows the method, using R-Control foam panels and this was exactly the material that we had used in the construction of Nan's home that was attached to ours in Lake Tuck, WA. I guess we were ahead of the curve for construction techniques:
There was still so much to remind people about the devastation to the area. We took this shot of a sign, still standing, that was placed there by a frustrated resident:
You really learn to appreciate your own situations as you see the difference that this tragedy has made in many people's lives. There is still a long way to go for this area to fully recover, and it may never happen.
While walking around the French Quarter on Saturday, we saw that there was a Harrah's Casino at the edge of the French Quarter. Of course, we had to visit that before leaving the area. We paid a visit there at around 5 PM and played until after 9 PM. We didn't do as well as the experience in Tunica, MS, but we played for 4 hours before our money ran out. Each of us had found some fairly good machines to play, but they just never "hit" the bigger jackpots.
Our goal today is to do the rest of the French Quarter and prepare for departure tomorrow. It has been a very different and wonderful Christmas holiday for us...
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