3268 An Update on Katrina

St. Casserole says there are reasons their place is still a mess--others need the help more.

The latest issue of Preservation (Nov-Dec 2006) has an article on New Orleans in 1867. That year the mayor said, "Our city is in a state of utter hopelessness." During the Civil War its great port had fallen faster and farther than any other city, from nearly unrivaled commercial success to scarcity. One in five of Louisiana soldiers had died in the war; vestiges of slavery were everywhere. The levees were neglected, and Lake Pontchartrain was a natural marsh buffer which would later be drained.

The article has spectacular photos by Theodore Lilienthal, a Frenchman hired to photograph the city to draw investors for rebuilding. The photos were rediscovered in 1994 and the entire portfolio will be published in 2007.

Archaeologist Shannon Lee Dawdy wrote an article for the July/Aug 2006 issue of Archaelogy, "In Katrina's Wake." She says it is a city shaped by disasters. "Every past catastrophe has sparked a growth spurt and launched a new and interesting period in New Orlans' history. The city wouldn't be what it is without disasters, and there have been many. Hurricanes and floods ravaged New Orleans in 1722, 1732, 1831, 1874, 1915 and 1965. Fires decimated the city in 1788 and 1794. Yellow fever and cholera epidemics killed tens of thousands of residents in 1832, 1853, and 1878."

The current efforts at clean up have given her a new perspective on another disaster she had been researching before Katrina from a fire in 1788. On this assignment she spent a lot of time doing neighborhood surveys, photographing sites and talking to residents who had returned to rebuild. She thinks now that many of the items she found in a 1788 trash pit thrown out by the family were the result of the emotional aftermath of the disaster and impatience with the clean up--just what she has seen with the current disaster.

She sees many differences in this disaster from the earlier ones: people just have more stuff; in the past there was no insurance or FEMA; rebuilding is much quicker; most of the population is manually unskilled, unlike earlier generations who would have repaired rather than dump their belongings.