1. Six Months After Katrina…
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Six Months After Katrina…
…slow Recovery in
New Orleans
Thomas McGuire, Author, Amsco School Publications

2. The Big Easy - pre-Katrina
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The Big Easy - pre-Katrina

3. New Orleans is known for all kinds of local color…
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New Orleans is known for all kinds of local color…

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…including Mardi Gras!

5. New Orleans has expanded from the natural levees
Construction of levees along the Industrial Canal connecting the Mississippi River with shore areas to the east.
New Orleans has expanded from the natural levees
(the high ground) near the Mississippi River into lower, former swamplands drained and now protected by high, man-made dikes.

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Then came Katrina…

7. …a strong category 3 hurricane when it struck New Orleans.
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…a strong category 3 hurricane when it struck New Orleans.

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Compare satellite images before and during the flood. (Dark blue is water.)

9. Hurricane winds made for tough sailing!
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Hurricane winds made for tough sailing!

10. Rings on buildings show muddy floodwater levels.
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Rings on buildings show muddy floodwater levels.

11. Red dots where bodies have been found.
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Note the highlighted areas of Lakeview and the Lower 9th Ward.

12. Flooding hit well-to-do white neighborhoods such as Lakeview.
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Flooding hit well-to-do white neighborhoods such as Lakeview.

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In the background is one of more than half a dozen breaks in the man-made levees around New Orleans, this one in the middle class Lakeview neighborhood.

14. The latest in city-wide architectural style is the pervasive
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The latest in city-wide
architectural style
is the pervasive
FEMA blue tarp roof.

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Even homes that look relatively undamaged have FEMA trailers parked outside which tell the real story…

16. …this one the inside story.
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…this one the inside story.
(Once water gets into the walls, this is the only way to fix it.)

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But Katrina saved it’s greatest destruction for the mostly-black 9th Ward.
(This is a street.)

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The force of water is evident. Note that this house shows no water level, as it was totally submerged.

19. Some people escaped the rising water by making holes in their roofs.
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Some people escaped the rising water by making holes in their roofs.

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Large parts of the lower 9th still look like a war zone, even after six months.

21. Debris is pushed aside to allow junk cars to be hauled out.
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Debris is pushed aside to allow junk cars to be hauled out.

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Reconstruction the breaks in the dikes took first priority as officials debate costs and benefits of better protection from re-engineered levees.

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Signs like these remind us that these are not just houses but people’s lives, waiting for the next phase of a long chain of demolition and disappointment.

24. When patience and hope falter, humor can help.
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When patience and hope falter, humor can help.

25. But, for New Orleans , as the Terminator said, “I’ll be back!”
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But, for New Orleans , as the Terminator said, “I’ll be back!”

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Credits:
Thomas McGuire is the author of several of Amsco’s Earth science books including his 2005 textbook “Earth Science; The Physical Setting.”
Special thanks to Dr. James H. McGuire of Tulane University and his wife who sold the house with the FEMA trailer outside (and the gutted interior) two months before Katrina. They now own a townhouse on the north shore of Lake Pnnchartrain. The new owners are in the reconstruction process.
The aerial and satellite images as well as the newspaper map are not original.
All other images are by the author.
Author’s images taken at Mardi Gras 2006