I have to thank both Jule Lang and Phillip Lege for telling me that I could get up on the levee by Holy Cross School and see towards New Orleans. I parked at the end of Reynes Street and walked up the bank of the levee. The fog on the river was thick but low. I could see the top of a tug boat.
Mississippi River, Holy Cross, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Mississippi River, Holy Cross, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Mississippi River, Holy Cross, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
I walked along the levee towards the Industrial Canal. The view of the city is spectacular.
Mississippi River, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
What I assumed was a recycling barge pulled out.
Mississippi River, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Mississippi River, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Mississippi River, New Orleans. LA, January 11, 2013
The Industrial Canal connects Lake Pontchartrain with the Mississippi River. Walking along the levee, I started to get in a visceral way the idea of the levee system that protects New Orleans.
Levee, Industrial Canal, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
It was along the Industrial Canal that the levees were first breached during Katrina.
Industrial Canal, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Walking southeast from Reynes Street along the levee, one soon comes to the Andry Street Wharf.
Andry Street Wharf, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Andry Street Wharf, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
From the wharf, you can see one of the Doullut Steamboat houses.
The view looking back towards the CBD of New Orleans.
Mississippi River, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
In the early afternoon, I went to the Lower Ninth Ward on the other side of St. Claude Avenue. No amount of reading about the damage prepared me for the eerie emptiness of this place.
Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Of course, there is rebuilding going on. and one could do a whole photo essay on that.
Caffin Avenue, Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
But what struck me as a first time visitor was just how much was still empty seven years after the storm.
N. Dorgenois Street, Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
I was amazed that the city doesn’t seem to maintain the side walks or the roads here at all. I understand that since the city is built on sand when you press down on the read surface nothing presses back and this makes it very fragile so that roads are hard to maintain in NO everywhere. We have Edgemere in NYC so I guess I should not be shocked.
Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
At the end of Caffin street and Florida Avenue, there is a sign for the Bienvenue Bayou. According to several men that I met, the look out here was built in the last year. I went up and looked over at what is marked on the google map as “Main Outfall Canal.” It is a triangular body of water. the people I met all told me that this has been a cypress swamp but that the salinity that came in when MRGO, the Mississippi River gulf Outlet was built in the 60s killed all the trees.
Bayou Bienvenue, Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans, LA, January 11, 2013
Beautiful photographs! I’m heading to that neighborhood from Brooklyn later this week and appreciate the inspiration.