New Orleans - Day 4 - L9W

Our final day in New Orleans. We had an 11:00 flight back to Salt Lake, so we had a little bit of time in the morning to do a little more exploring. I really wanted to drive around and see some of the remaining destruction from Hurricane Katrina and what was being done to rebuild the area.

We decided to go to the Lower 9th Ward, which was the hardest hit area. I know there is a lot of controversy about whether it is "appropriate" to drive around the destruction or not. A lot of people feel that it is not a tourist attraction and instead of driving around looking, you should get out and help. I agree with this to a point, but at the same time, I think it is important for people to see the destruction that did take place. Anyway, here is what we saw:

This was a KFC building that was all boarded up with visible damage remaining.

Most of the houses have not been repaired yet.

All of the houses had markings like this on them. I researched the markings to find out what they all meant. They had an extensive code to label when the house had been searched, who searched it, and what they found. Many, like this one, had something about dead pets that had been found inside.

We took this picture for Joe, the leading mold expert.

Along with the destruction, we wanted to see the various projects that were taking place to rebuild the area.

Musicians Village is a rebuild project by Harry Connick Jr. It is a place for artists and musicians in the area. We thought we had found it and took this picture, but then found out that this actually wasn't it. But it does look something like this with the very colorful homes.

We did successfully find some Make it Right homes. This is probably the most well known rebuild project, because it is lead by Brad Pitt. These homes were very interesting.

Seeing the redevelopment that was taking place was a great positive note to end the trip. We quickly headed to the airport and we were on our way home.

The whole trip was amazing! I loved the city of New Orleans. It is so unique. The food is delicious, the culture is interesting, and the people were so nice. Thank you Jarvis' for a fabulous time. We will never forget our trip there.