No trip to New Orleans is complete without a cemetery visit. Ours included three (or four as some blend right into the next). The above ground burial sites make for impressive splendor in the grave.
After wandering through the classic cemetery above I crossed a four-lane and stumbled upon a Katrina memorial. There are at least six solid marble boxes each housing 18 bodies of those who perished in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and were never identified or claimed. It's a somber memorial holding no names, just the bodies of the forgotten.
Our next cemetery held no above ground graves and the Katrina flooding swirrled headstones and remains into a jumbled mess. Much has been put back in place as best possible but there are surviving signs of toppled headstones and crumbled concrete. The simplicity and originality of the markers made me feel much more at home here than in the marbled mortuary.
New on the New Orleans tour list is the Lower 9th Ward. No one made a trip over here pre-Katrina to see densely packed homes but now that 4000 were destroyed, some completely washed away and others rotting for over a month in standing water, we come to see. 
Through the work of the Make It Right Foundation new homes are just beginning to spring up in this wasteland of demolished and deserted homes, with a few restored homes dotting the landscape. But with 1000 people from this neighborhood having perished and many more dispersed to places like Texas and Michigan with no means for returning to an empty lot, it's hard to imagine this area will ever be fully restored.
In the swath of land nearest the breached levy, there is newness and vitality. The Make It Right homes, designed by leading architects and featuring the latest in green technology bring signs of hope and regeneration. Indeed, as we rounded a corner where two school-girls bounded from a bus, an ice cream truck blasting happy tunes raised spirits of youthful optimism. 
1 comment:
Wow...those photos are really amazing. Those poor people.
Post a Comment