New Orleans - 12 Dec

We took a guided tour of some of the City’s best known sights this morning including the French Quarter, Cemeteries and the Garden District.  The tour itinerary took us into the 8^th District to look at the impact of Hurricane Katrina. To our shock, eight years after the hurricane did its worst, there remained abandoned homes in various states of disrepair or destruction. Our guide explained that because the homes had been handed down from generation to generation they were often owned outright and the occupants did not have building insurance. Families traumatised by the event left and never returned.  Where the owner does not pay their council taxes (rates) for a period of more than three years, the local authority can take possession of the properties and sell them.  This is what has happened and in many cases the buildings require extensive repair or demolishing. Homes still have the X painted on them which represents a home that had been searched by emergency authorities for either survivors or bodies.  Most that died in their homes did so through electrocution as the water reached power sources. We stopped at abandoned houses where you could see how the occupants had hacked their way out of the roof to escape the flooding. I was extremely shocked at the story the guide told of how people who wanted to help were kept out of the effected districts (suburbs) as the police (those that had not left) were not to be trusted as they protected the areas using guns against looters.   The 8^th wasn’t the worst effected area that was the Lower 9^th.

Garden District Home

8th District Hurricane Katrina damage

One of many cemeteries in New Orleans

 The afternoon we spent on a leisurely sail on board a paddle steamer named the Natchez 9 on the Mississippi River.  According to the guide it is one of only two remaining paddle steamers left in the US.

Paddle Steamer Natchez 9, Mississippi River, New Orleans

Not the Natchez 9 but another paddle steamer powered by diesel engine