Baton Rouge & New Orleans

The first time I was in New Orleans was 3 years ago (around August 22, 2005). Katie and I drove down there from Philly with 2 other friends from college. Our friends were to enter graduate school at LSU in Baton Rouge, about an hour drive from New Orleans.

3 years ago, despite being in Baton Rouge for a few days, my time in New Orleans was spent only in the airport to return back to Philadelphia. At that point, I was a little upset that I did not get to see the city, but figured I would get back there in the future.

One week later, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit, New Orleans flooded, a majority of the city was decimated, and thousands of people were displaced.

3 years later on August 8th, my friend was graduating from LSU. Katie and I flew down in support.

Here is the LSU Tiger.
There's the graduation girl (with parents).
And some delicious breakfast after graduation... grits, eggs and biscuit.
The day after graduation, we went over to New Orleans for some site seeing. I believe this is one of the famous/old sites in the city.
Typical street in New Orleans. In the past, New Orleans had been "owned" by the Spanish, French and then the Spanish again, before it got into the hands of the US in the Louisiana Purchase.
After strolling around New Orleans proper, my friend Adam took us on a tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. This is where the levee broke and heavily flooded the area.

Currently, the Lower Ninth is fairly empty. There are many empty plots of land of where homes once stood and people once lived. If homes have not been demolished, they may look like this. The Lower Ninth is for all intensive purposes one step away from a ghost town. But there is a bit of construction occurring. Not nearly enough though. And then there are homes like this. Completely dilapidated and which need to be flattened. It's amazing to think that people once lived in this structure. It's even more amazing that no person or developer has come into this area to rebuild it.
The levees have been rebuilt but nearly nothing else has. Are the new levees strong enough or tall enough? These are the thoughts that fill my mind as Hurricane Gustav approaches and is about to reach land on September 1, 2008. This new Hurricane while predicted to make land fall weaker and farther from New Orleans than Katrina did, is still a concern (with massive potential downpours). After all, predictions are just that and there is no predicting what could occur to New Orleans again. Granted, there will be much less destruction, due to a smaller population and less buildings; but there is a feeling that history will repeat itself and too soon.

I hope one day there will be a solution for this beautiful city. A city in which socioeconomic status plays a part in its past and hopefully less in its future.