Where People & Piggies Thrive

Newbie or Guinea Guru? Popcorn in!

Register for free to enjoy the full benefits.
Find out more about the NEW, drastically improved site and forum!

Register

New Orleans trip down into the Lower 9

VoodooJoint

Cavy Champion, Previous Forum Moderator!
Cavy Slave
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Posts
8,865
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Messages
8,865
On March 15th my husband and I finally gathered the courage to make a trip down into the Lower 9th Ward neighborhood.

The Lower 9 is, in general, a poorer neighborhood. It is rich in history and character though. This is the neighborhood where the Mardi Gras Indians live and march. It is the home of Fats Domino, who despite his fame and fortune, still resided in his original meager home, now destroyed.

It is the place you saw again and again on the news. This was the main neighborhood filmed for the news. The place where the Industrial Canal broke and washed away homes and flooded the homes up to the rafters. The place where people begged for their lives on rooftops and eventually where the helicopters swooped in to air lift people out.

This place is less then 2 miles from my home.

Today it is a wasteland. There is no birdsong. The only noise there is the buzzing of flies, the sound of heavy machines as the demolition starts and occasionally the bark of a cadaver dog as it searches for bodies.

On March 15, the day these pictures were taken and I was there, 2 bodies were found. A few days later 3 more were found on one of the very streets I walked down while taking these pictures. They are averaging 1-2 bodies found a day. This is 7 months after the flooding.

I only saw 1 animal while down there. A cat, who you will see in the pictures, who refused to be caught (I left food and water for her). I heard a Rooster crowing a few blocks away and tried to locate it but as I neared the area it stopped crowing and I couldn't find it.

These pictures can be disturbing. There are many pictures of houses marked as containing bodies and the destruction is horrible.

Keep in mind that these are homes that people loved. Places where births were celebrated and arguments fought. A neighborhood once known for bubbling with life is now a graveyard of rubble.

Please don't forget New Orleans. We are far from okay down here.
https://flickr.com/photos/lgmaistros/sets/72057594083097751/
 
Amanda
  • Post hidden due to user being banned.

VoodooJoint

Cavy Champion, Previous Forum Moderator!
Cavy Slave
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Posts
8,865
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Messages
8,865
Amanda said:
BTW what does GPS mean on those buildings?
Probably the code for the search crew that searched the house.

As far as the Xs you see on the buildings

In the spaces the X creates:
The top is the date searched
The left is the search crew code/name
The right is either if there was or wasn't and answer to thew yells and knocks of the search crew or NE means "No Entery" as in they did not search.
The bottom is how many alive and dead such as 0L and/or 0D or 3D (the L in the "live" may instead be a V for viable)
 

citronsoul

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Posts
903
Joined
Jul 16, 2004
Messages
903
I had no idea it still looked like that. I would have expected some kind of clean up to already be in progress. I found the pictures of the childs toy & the guitar quite saddening. It makes you wonder where the original owners are.

What is this area going to become? Are they going to rebuild homes on it? Or are they going to keep it clear?
 

VoodooJoint

Cavy Champion, Previous Forum Moderator!
Cavy Slave
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Posts
8,865
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Messages
8,865
citronsoul said:
I had no idea it still looked like that. I would have expected some kind of clean up to already be in progress...
What is this area going to become? Are they going to rebuild homes on it? Or are they going to keep it clear?
They just have started demolition of the area. It's a slow process as each home (and surrounding debris) needs to be searched by cadaver dogs before it can be torn down.

It is not just the Lower 9 that looks like that still. A few days ago I drove through the Lakeview neighborhood. Lakeview also had a major levee breach (17 street canal). I didn't have my camera with me so I have no pictures but it looks about the same as the lower 9th.

~60-80% of the city is uninhabitable because of the flood. Very little is being done to clean it up but there are so many other things that need to be done and resources such as money, workers, and equipment is short.

I'm very lucky that my home did not flood. I'm 2 blocks from the Mississippi river Levee and relatively high ground (about 8-10 feet above sea level). Of course if the levee at the end of my street had breached my home would look like the houses in the pictures I posted. Luck of the draw I guess.

Even though my neighborhood is habitable life isn't normal.
-I, and others, have extensive wind/debris damage and our insurance companies do not want to give us our money.

-Grocery shopping around us is closed because of building damage and looting. I have to drive 20 min - a half an hour to get groceries.

-The power goes out regularly but at least it no longer stays off for a day and a half. Now it's just 2-6 hour blackouts.

-Trash pick-up is irregular at best. Right now the trash and debris piles are stacking up (and smelling) outside my house.

-The water is so highly clorinated I will not let my family or pets drink it. I can't even use it to water my houseplants as it's killing them too. I have to buy water 5 cases at a time.

-The city is overrun by "strangers". Most of them work crews here to make some money. I have no problems with that. We need to get the work done but they have no idea how we do things down here. New Orleans is different. Our mannerisms, style and ways are different then anywhere else. We are feeling a bit harrassed by the large amount of visitors and it's stressful, like being invaded by a foreign army.

-Driving is dangerous. The visiting work crews drive dangerously, blowing through stop signs (where the traffic lights still don't work) and blowing off the ones that do. Speeding not only on the highway but down neighborhood streets. Drinking in the French Quarter then driving around drunk and being very offensive in their driving habits. Add onto that the debris that is blown from haulers that litters the streets and you are lucky to get anywhere alive.
 
Last edited:

JennG

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 20, 2005
Posts
4,155
Joined
Jul 20, 2005
Messages
4,155
Oh VJ! I wish there was more we could do. I wish the gov't would get off their butts and do something more. I think our troops are needed here instead of other places. But I won't say anymore. You all are in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you for sharing those pictures and reminding us that life may never be the same for those folks.
 

suzilovespiggie

Cavy Champion, Previous Forum Moderator
Cavy Slave
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
Posts
2,752
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
Messages
2,752
Unbelievable. I had no idea. Thank you for the update. May you and your family stay safe. Is there anything we can do?
 

My Baby Mu

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Aug 4, 2004
Posts
2,095
Joined
Aug 4, 2004
Messages
2,095
Thanks for the update. I didn't know 60-80% of the city is still uninhabitable. You are in my thoughts and I hope you and your family stays safe. I wish the government would do something for New Orleans instead of other places.
 

ScottandDebbie

Cavy Champion
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Posts
798
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Messages
798
I have CNN on often throughout the day.

I just don't get it!!!!!!

What is up with the Government not getting help into this place??????
We are talking about people lives *here* in the USA, not some foreign country.

What does it take to kick them into gear?
 

oceansoul41

Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Posts
19
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Messages
19
Hiya everyone. First of all fantastic pictures. Oh I wish there was no need for them. I love New Orleans. I love and admire the people of New Orleans. I have never been so gripped with anger, shock, fear, sadness, as in the days following Katrina. I complain daily about my nursing job in a hospital, but had a slap of reality watching the abandoned staff of the hospitals doing anything and everything they could to make it, and do their jobs. I can not imagine what yall went through. I sometimes feel like the press used New Orleans for ratings, and now that there isnt people stuck on roof tops or wading through muck, the 9th ward isn't a "story" anymore. >>Clean up stories...yawn... are soooo boring... like the tsunami<<<

As someone not from New Orleans, I feel like pictures, like yours, should be pasted all over the place, ran on the news daily, to make people remember the tragedy, and be aware of all the work that needs to be done. Are there plans for revitalization of that area? What is going to happen?? I mean we are not talking about a couple of blocks of houses like after a tornado. (I live in an area hit by a tornado, so I can say that) That is a large area!!!

...Ok angela, turn off ramble mode... this *IS* your first post. :eek:ptimist:
 

ScottandDebbie

Cavy Champion
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Posts
798
Joined
Oct 4, 2005
Messages
798
Hi Angela.... First post huh?
Glad you posted.

I'm a nurse also.
A frustrated nurse I might add.
(That's a different issue all together though.)

People *Need* to get their "panties in a wad" over this whole mess.
We need to find our voice and speak up. We depend too much on *someone* else to get the job done for us.

Yes... I agree. This story should be a headliner *everyday* until this situation is cared for properly. The media goes for stories that sells the rating, but so does our government.

If our officials can't relate.. we have to *cause* them to understand that they are representing "We The People."

*Are we, as a nation too Compliant?
*Are we soft in all the Wrong areas, and not our heart?
*Is it easier to turn our head rather than address a difficult problem?
*Do we take the attitude that "It's someone else's problem?, Let them deal with it."

I think these are all questions that all Americans need to answer.
And Importantly we need to ask our selves...
What have *I* done to help this problem be resolved?​

I find it very frustrating when our "so called" proper avenues to express our grievances seem to be blocked by a trash of beauracy. In order to be heard, we have to climb on top of the garbage and shout.

What is Wrong with that picuture?

Thanks for the post Angela.

P.S.
I get updates from CNN
(broken link removed)
Also I get e-mail alerts and podcasts.
 

Susan9608

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Posts
3,342
Joined
Oct 8, 2004
Messages
3,342
Angela - welcome fellow Texan and Nurse! We've got quite a nursing unit on staff here at cavy cages. :)

I know just how you feel - I used to complain about my nursing job, too, until I heard and saw pictures of what those hospitals in New Orleans had to go through.

The hospital I currently work for actually sent several of the medical transport teams into NO to airlift many of the premature babies. It's really neat to be able to get the first-hand account of what it was like flying in - the destruction, being shot at, the conditions of the hospital. It's gut-wrenching. The hospital I worked for when Katrina hit received several of the preemies in their NICU; you should have seen how all the nurses fought to be assigned to those babies.

Which hospital are you with, if you don't mind me asking? Did you all receive any of the NO patients?
 

oceansoul41

Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Posts
19
Joined
Apr 5, 2006
Messages
19
Hiya,

I work on the Medsurg floor (for 7 years now) at...ok heres a mouthful... Baylor Medical Center at Southwest Fort Worth.... grrrr. We used to be All Saints Cityview until Baylor bought both our Ft. Worth hospitals. As far as the Katrina patients, NO, we stayed almost double staffed, on alert, for three days, for the patients administration was told "Were on their way."

Yeah as a mother of a Preemie, born 3.5 months premature, the stories of the preemies hit too close to home for me. I cried and cheered as I watched their rescues. I too recently remember the ups and down of the NICU experience. I can not imagine... in my wildest dreams... what the parents of the Katrina preemies were going through...

~angela
 

VoodooJoint

Cavy Champion, Previous Forum Moderator!
Cavy Slave
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Posts
8,865
Joined
Sep 5, 2004
Messages
8,865
Here's a really good video about our attempts at recovery in the New Orleans area.

A couple of things you will want to know when you see this film.

-This is mostly about St. Bernard Parich. The suburb just east of New Orleans, called Chalmette. It was 100% flooded by Katrina.

-When they speak of "parishes" down here they aren't speaking about churches. Parishes here are the same thing as Counties up north.

-This footage was filmed in December 2005. There has been NO noticable progress made in any of the areas shown.

(broken link removed)
(broken link removed)
 

JennG

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 20, 2005
Posts
4,155
Joined
Jul 20, 2005
Messages
4,155
Well that sucks! I couldn't get it to work. I'll keep trying.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.

Similar threads

JaneDoe
Replies
1
Views
626
Guinea Pig Papa
Guinea Pig Papa
Sakano
Replies
1
Views
576
Rosiethecutepig
Rosiethecutepig
Top