hard times for ‘the big easy’

Hard Times for ‘The Big Easy’

Just eight months after the Asian tsunami, the world is again humbled by the power of nature. This event, however, makes us ask new questions ……. about

human nature and American society.

VV ’05

The Location of New Orleans

New Orleans is in the state of Louisiana. It is located on the delta of the Mississippi River about 170km from its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico

Florida

Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi River

Mississippi River

Gulf of Mexico

Mississippi Delta

Lake Pontchartrin

Lake Pontchartrin

Mississippi River

New Orleans : some facts

• A city of 470,000 people (67% Afro American)• Founded by the French in 1718• Expanded by the Spaniards • Bought by the USA for $15 million in 1803• A lively port and industrial city• Home of jazz and cajun and creole cooking• Hosts an annual mardi gras carnival• Attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists

every year

New Orleans lies in a basin below sea level so it has always been vulnerable to flooding

New Orleans is protected from flooding by levées

But in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina which swept by on 29 August, the levées broke and the city was flooded………

Two days before, the people of New Orleans had watched and waited as Hurricane Katrina approached…….

People who had transport fled the city

Shop keepers boarded up their windows

Volunteers helped to fill sandbags

South of New Orleans on the Gulf coast 180 km winds cause huge damage

Downtown New Orleans at the height of the storm on 29 August

The eye of the hurricane passed to the east of the city

After the storm…..

It seemed New Orleans had got off more lightly than expected…

until the levées broke and water flooded into the city…………

Within 24 hours 80% of the city was under water

Streets turned into canals

The rising waters flooded the French Quarter

Affluent housing sinking beneath the rising tide

Public transport is out of action

With roads flooded, only the motorway fly-overs are high enough to rise above

the water

…but they are going no where!

Many people drown – Government estimates warn of several thousand dead

One hundred thousand people

who were not able to leave the city….

…are trapped in their homes.

Most of these had simply been too poor to flee

Most are desperate to be rescued

The water is polluted with sewage and oil

….but people are forced into it in order to survive

Food and drinking water becomes scarce within hours and is only flown in two days later

Hospitals evacuate patients by boat

As the story unfolds on TV screens across the globe, the American

government seems slow to respond to the scale of the disaster

The police struggle to contain a rising tide of lawlessness

A slow evacuation begins

Some emergency relief begins to arrive in the

city

Helicopters begin to airlift some of the stranded to safety

But with no means of evacuation, conditions continue to deteriorate for most of those still trapped in the city

23,000 people take refuge in the New Orleans Superbowl without running water and adequate sanitation. Reports

likened conditions to ‘a Third World refugee camp’

People remain very fearful

Four days after the storm US President George Bush flies over the city to view the catastrophe first hand …….

“The enormity of the task requires more resources”

“In America we do not abandon our fellow citizens in their hour of need”

“Where our response is not working we will make it right. Where our response is working, we will duplicate it”

“The main priority is to restore and maintain law and order and assist in recovery and evacuation.”

More helicopters are drafted in to help with the evacuation of the city

Convoys of buses evacuate people from the Convention centre in New Orleans

Six days after the storm, the city is almost empty

The waters are slowly receding…

And the grim task of searching

buildings must begin.

“The first few days were a natural disaster, the last four

days were a man-made disaster”   

Phillip Holt, 51New Orleans evacuee

Photograph credits – ‘Der Spiegel’