New Orleans is Coming Back

Friends in Virginia have been asking us how things are going in New Orleans. Is the city really coming back? Our answer is always a "yes" but with some qualifications, mainly that it’s a very slow process with many economic, political and bureaucratic roadblocks in the way.

We had the opportunity to see New Orleans in January, 2006 just five months after the Katrina flooding (some are referring to it as the "Federal Flood" -- see our earlier blog) and then to see it a year later when we returned for several months.

Businesses are reopening, homes are being gutted, raised and rebuilt, new homes are going up and public services are being restored. Here are just a few of the positive signs of the city’s rebirth.

–After months of debate, there is now in place a city-wide plan for rebuilding and a well-qualified professional--a redevelopment "Czar"--has been hired to implement the plan.

–The Army Corps of Engineers has been upgrading and rebuilding the levee system, although it still has a long way to go before it will fulfill a Congressional mandate to fully protect the city. There is growing support, including the Army Corps itself, for closing the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, a waterway that contributed to flooding along the Industrial Canal.

–The funds Congress appropriated to help home owners rebuild are finally beginning to be allocated. However, at this point 19 months after the disaster only about 10 percent of the qualified applicants have received their grants for rebuilding.

–The city has restored most public services: visitors to the French Quarter are amazed at how clean it is now. Twice daily garbage pick up in the Quarter and twice weekly garbage collection in the rest of the city has made a big difference in how the city looks and feels.

–Many of the public facilities that were damaged in the flood are building rebuilt. For example, the police department’s crime lab was destroyed, thus slowing criminal indictments. The crime lab has recently been rebuilt.

–Although it faces a serious teacher shortage and not all of the city’s public schools have been reopened, a new system of closely monitored, high quality charter schools has been filling the gap.

–City Park, a beautiful, 1400 acre facility is being reopened mostly with volunteer labor.

And on and on it goes. We came home very optimistic about New Orleans’ future and hope to return at some point to continue helping its rebirth.

This house, which is being built by Habitat for Humanity, is above the standing water line from Katrina.

Homes that were flooded need to be totally gutted . . .

down to the bare studs.

Many home owners are raising their homes in order to protect them and to qualify for flood insurance.

The Army Corps of Engineers has installed massive flood gates which can be closed if the outflow canals are threatened by a hurricane storm surge from Lake Pontchartrain.

The French Quarter has never been cleaner . . .

down to the last cigarette butt!

Last Day on Dale Street

Today was our last day working for Habitat on Dale Street. The eight houses on Dale and America streets that we have been working on since January are almost complete, and the dedications should be soon, but we'll be back in Virginia, so will miss the celebrations. On our last day we worked with "Team Yahoo" from Ohio, Maryland, and California. They were a great group and even went out at noon to buy extra plants for Natasha's house and a purple birdfeeder for her! We will certainly miss the work, Alisha, Pete, all the Habitat crew, and the volunteers from around the country.

Pete and Alisha, Americorps participants who have been supervising Habitat construction crews in New Orleans for 10 months

"Team Yahoo" planting their gifts for Natasha, and the newly "planted" checkerboard lawn. Keith is headed inside for a final adjustment on the bifold doors.

Make Music Not War

Is anyone surprised that Keith found the perfect t-shirt? Even though we get up at 6:30 to build houses, we rarely miss an opportunity to listen to music, and of course there are venues everywhere in New Orleans! Our favorite hang-out has been The Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street where we fell in love with the gypsy jazz of VaVaVoom and last night we were thrilled by The Panorama Jazz Band playing there. These and many of our favorite bands also played at the French Quarter Festival last weekend and we went to the Quarter all three days--rain or shine. The music was varied (although all with New Orleans connections), lively, and even though we came home exhausted each night, we didn't scratch the surface of what was available. So here's a pot pourri of music in the Big Easy. Warning--expect another blog about music since we'll still be here next weekend for the first half of Jazz Fest which is just three blocks away.

Panorama Jazz Band playing at the Spotted Cat. Some of you may also recognize the sax player who sometimes sits in with VaVaVoom.




The New Orleans Helsinki Connection (and several other bands with European connections) play the jazz that old-timers remember from their youth.

Even during French Quarter Festival the street musicians find a spot.


Dancing in the streets to New Orleans Po Boys

Sun shining on the John "Kid" Simmons New Orleans Jazz Band

The Pfister Sisters at the Jackson Square stage during French Quarter Festival

The woman in the middle has 6 kids, has been living in a FEMA trailer, finally moved back into her home but her husband (an electrician) hasn't hooked up the kitchen yet, their three-year-old had brain surgery recently, and she's still singing and smiling! Only in New Orleans.

New Orleans, Katrina and the Army Corps of Engineers

Images of a flooded New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina Levee breaches
(photo: Dallas Morning News)

It’s well understood that the city of New Orleans is situated between two bodies of water, a river and a lake, and that much of the city lies below sea level. When hurricane Katrina hit the city, levees broke and the city was flooded. I (Keith) am frequently asked, why would anyone build a city in such a location in the first place, and more pointedly, why should the American taxpayer pay to rebuild it. If I have the time to explain and the audience is open to it, here’s my reaction. First some history...

The Mississippi River since the last ice age had for centuries, that is until recent years, created natural "levees," sometimes hundreds of yards wide, as periodic flooding deposited river-born silt along its banks. These elevated areas became the location for early settlements along the river with New Orleans, founded in 1718, being a good example.

Early maps of the city show its development along the high ground of the Mississippi. The maps also show that between this early city and Lake Pontchartrain were several square miles of wetlands. Over the decades as the city expanded as a major sea port, there was no way to expand except northward into these wetlands in the direction of the lake. To do this the wetlands were gradually drained over the decades by canals that flowed in to Lake Pontchartrain. And today that’s how the city and much of the metropolitan area is kept dry-- by a series of drainage, or outflow, canals that empty into the lake. The drainage is facilitated by massive pumping stations located inland from the lake.

There is another type of canal that alters the New Orleans landscape, the Industrial Canal, a waterway that was dredged in the 1920's as a link between Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. (Lake Pontchartrain is not truly a "lake" but a brackish, inland bay that’s connected to the Gulf of Mexico through Lake Borgne, another "lake.") More recently, in the 1960's, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dug a canal that connects Lake Borgne and the Industrial Canal to shorten the distance for ships going up river by about 100 miles. This is the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet canal, referred to not-so-affectionately as "MR-GO."

Along both types of canals, the outflow canals and the Industrial Canal, the Army Corps of Engineers, has constructed a levee system to protect the city from flooding. Since 1927 when Congress charged the Army Corps with the responsibility of protecting life and property along America’s waterways, this organization has designed and constructed thousands of miles of levees and floodwalls to do just that. The New Orleans area has 350 miles of the Corps’ levees.

When Hurricane Katrina struck it actually sideswiped the city of New Orleans as it headed to the east toward the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As the storm passed over Lake Pontchartrain, however, its high winds pushed a surge of water backward up two of the major outflow canals with such volume and force that the levee system failed. Eighty percent of the city was flooded. A surge of water was also pushed up the MR-GO into the Industrial Canal where the levees protecting the upper and lower Ninth wards failed.

The Corps’ levees consisted of two parts, the levee itself which is mounded up soil and a flood wall made of concrete that sits on top of the levee. In some of the levees steel pilings are driven into the levees to support the flood walls. In the case of the Industrial Canal, the flood walls were overtopped by the surge so that the soil behind was scoured so badly the walls simply collapsed.
Subsequent investigations by both the Corps and an independent team of experts (see the Team Louisiana website http://www.publichealth.hurricane.lsu.edu/TeamLA.htm) showed that the levees along the outflow canals were poorly designed, built on sandy and porous soils with pilings that weren’t nearly deep enough and that they failed to meet minium safety standards. They were not overtopped, but rather just collapsed as a result of poor engineering. (See the photos of the 17th Street canal and the London Avenue canal levees.) The disaster that hit this city in August, 2005 was a man-made disaster, not a natural disaster.

Team Louisiana researchers discuss forensic developments at a section of the 17th Street Canal breach (photo: Team LA 2005)


Damage to the London Avenue Canal at Robert E. Lee, Hurricane Katrina (photo: Team LA 05)

As mentioned, by a long standing act of Congress, protecting life and property against flooding along the nation’s waterways is a Federal responsibility. The national government failed to protect New Orleans and has, in my opinion, an obligation to rebuild the levee system so that it won’t fail in future storms. And there is an additional obligation–in the form of direct compensation–to help this city rebuild.

(Bev and I both would like to recommend a book that discusses the impact of Katrina on the city and the failure of the Army Corps of Engineers to do its job of protecting the city. See Jed Horne’s Breach of Faith, Random House, 2006.)

Our New Orleans Neighborhood

As we walked back from sipping our morning coffee/tea and reading the paper at our neighborhood coffee shop, I thought about "our neighborhood" and how different it is than the farm. Yes, sirens and loud cars have replaced the frogs and spring peepers as we head to bed, but I (Bev) have been surprised that I love city life, and our New Orleans’ Faubourg St. John mid-city neighborhood in particular.. We have several wonderful restaurants within walking distance, visit with the neighbors as we come and go, are a 5 minute drive from the French Quarter and a 10 minute walk to City Park, have fascinating architecture to observe, and the spring flowers are spectacular. Life is good.

Scott and Charlie at sunset in City Park

Micah and a new friend in City Park

Gumbo and music at Liuzzi's By the Tracks, near the gate to Jazz Fest!

Our favorite pizza cafe--La Vita on Esplanade

Our neighbor, Gaynell, listening to Micah read the book she gave to him

Visit with Mother

On our way back to New Orleans we enjoyed stopping in Madison, Mississippi to visit Keith's mother. At 95, Frances is in good health and fun to talk with. She spends her days reading mysteries and the newspaper, working crossword puzzles, and cheering for Tiger Woods and the Atlanta Braves. On the day we arrived her niece Janet had just taken her to the dentist and she couldn't say enough about how wonderful Janet is to take her to appointments. It's true that she gets lonely, but she continues to keep up correspondences with friends she hasn't seen in over 30 years. May we all age as gracefully and beautifully as she has!

Mother treated us to a delicious lunch at The Strawberry Cafe where we all enjoyed the sweet potato fries.

All of us enjoyed seeing Ann (Keith's cousin) and Jim's new business selling architectural salvage items.

Spring has certainly arrived in Mississippi

View across the lake at St. Catherine's Village, where Keith's mother lives

We know what it means to miss New Orleans!

April in Virginia? We returned to Blue Heron Farm for a week so that Bev could take care of things at Basic Necessities while Kay went to the beach. Keith planned to do a lot of spring garden clean up. Who knew that it would be winter up here?

At least Keith got to wear his new hat!

Flowers we left behind in New Orleans--

Actually we did have two beautiful days to work in the garden before the cold snap arrived.

Tilling the weeds between the strawberry rows

Wooster in New Orleans

Despite the windy day, we had to include our traditional St. Louis Cathedral picture with our most recent guest, Carol Vagnini, Bev's dear friend from Wooster. Carol, a Montessori teacher, used her spring break to come and work in New Orleans. She was very clear that she came to work, but of course we convinced her that it was her "duty" to support the local restaurants and musicians. (Is this beginning to sound like a refrain?) I think Carol wins the prize for the most bands in one night--Liuzzi's By the Tracks, The Mid-City Rock 'n' Bowl (Zydeco), and Vaughan's (Kermit Ruffins)--all after a hard day of painting and knowing that we'd be up early the next day.

Waiting for the greeting and safety lecture at Musicians' Village before we head to work

O.K. Ken, now you know that Carol is a "master painter" and you'll be able to save lots of money at home.

The "gypsy jazz" group, Vavavoom, is one of our favorites

Wooster friend, and self proclaimed "Jazz Buff," Julie Fishelson, treated us to great Creole food and traditional jazz with 95-year-old, Lionel Forbos on trumpet at the Palm Court.

Julie's French Quarter retreat

Spring Week with Jill and Bob

Our Nellysford neighbor, Jill Averitt, and her father, Bob Johnson from Wisconsin, joined us for the perfect spring week. They came expecting to work hard building, and they did, but we also found plenty of time to enjoy this enchanting city. It is clearly our duty to support the restaurants, shops, museums, theaters, and musicians. We did it all!

Most of the week we worked with a group from Howard University. The neighbors must have enjoyed their rap music since one woman cooked them red beans and rice plus fried chicken for an afternoon snack.

One day was spent near Musicians' Village, building a porch.

Bev and Jill were assigned to interior detail work where Jill used her art background to touch up walls.

Bob, a retired marine engineer, educated us about the dredging of the Mississippi and the various engines involved.

Jill, who is in the process of building a new home in Nellysford, kept her eye out for architectural touches that might work on their home. What do you think of pink, Richard???

Springtime in New Orleans, across from Liuzzi's By the Tracks, where they serve the best gumbo in New Orleans.

Discovering the tacqarias for lunch was a real treat,

but lunch at Cafe Amelie in the French Quarter was delightful too.