Driving around New Orleans 9 months after Hurricane Katrina is like driving through a war zone.  I’ve heard others who’ve been here say that, but I never knew what they meant until now.

New Orleans is a huge city and I’ve driven (and gotten lost) through quite a bit of it these few weeks.  While driving, I am still in awe of the destruction.  At least every 5 minutes of driving, no matter where you are, you will see a deserted and destroyed neighborhood.  Think about it next time you drive through your town.  Imagine every few miles, randomly all over town, you will see complete subdivisions empty, closed up houses with a yellowish “water line” mark on the side of it, and spray paint from the Coast Guards’ indication of people in the house. 

Many houses have not even been gutted yet.  They are sitting there, many never even opened, full of belongings that were under water for 2 weeks and have now re-shifted to wherever in the house they came back down to.  Refrigerators on top of kitchen countertops.  Recliners wedged in between bunk beds.  Pianos on top of couches.  In many cases, the owner has not even returned since the hurricane. That really perplexed me for a while.  If it were my house, I would’ve run over here as fast as I could to see what damage was done and see if I could salvage anything. 

But, after talking to a few homeowners and seeing some of the destruction, I’m beginning to understand.

The worst damage was done in the lower 9th ward.  This is a low-income area of New Orleans that is the area just below where the levee broke.  The levee broke  at 10am the day after Katrina had ravaged through New Orleans.  This is part of why so many people were taken by surprise when the water flooded through because it was several hours after the hurricane had passed.  This "surprise" contributed to many of the deaths.

The area there is like nothing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.  There are literally houses on top of houses.  On one spot, you’ll see what looks like two houses, a car, and other debris piled on top of each other.  Next to it, you’ll see an empty slab of concrete.  I would not even go near the houses because it might fall on me.  It is so unstable, but amazingly still sitting there amidst the wreckage 9 months later. 

I honestly don’t know why so much is still left un-cleaned, but when you go around the city, you see that this is the case everywhere and even if the city cleared out and cleaned up 30 houses today, it would only be a small dent in what needs to happen.  Also, many homeowners have spray painted on their homes, “no bulldozing” or “no trespassing”. 

In some senses, it’s laughable because there is clearly nothing else to do with the house except bulldoze it, but they have a right to their property.  So, what is the government supposed to do about that??  It’s a mess!

So, I think that is why so many people have not returned.  It’s depressing to see all that they lost...I mean everything...your house, memories, neighborhoods.  It motivates me even more that my home is in heaven, not here.

There are positive things going on which I’ll have to write more about soon, but for now that is my first glance at New Orleans!

We have very limited internet access, so I will probably write most of our summer experience here when I get back and hopefully put pictures too!