SAD ~ BUT SEEING IMPROVEMENTS

We saw Katrina's destruction everywhere we went along the coast. After five years...we also saw some progress. Not as much as one would think after that period of time, but we didn't see the entire area. We did see where the water came into town and how they have built the concrete wall back up, also adding a system across the road to help hold the water back. 

So many people have stepped up to help the people that lost houses in Katrina. On our tour the area we were taken to was the one Brad Pitt is helping to build green/solar homes. There were several homes, a few are shown below.

A memorial to Katrina has been erected on the neutral land strip between the streets. A house wall, a couple of chairs (representing the homes lost), and graduated posts to show the water levels that buried the town.

Many, many homes are boarded up, falling down, and left as reminders of the destruction. We saw numerous homes marked with symbols telling if they were checked for people, animals, gas leaks, etc. It was very eerie--watching it on TV five years ago--seeing it in person now.
We also saw Fats Dominos house/recording studio, which still needs to be cleaned up before he moves back in. On the cast iron fence we could see the letters F-A-T-S, see them?

It was a somber, sobbering tour. I kept thinking of all the people that were displaced. Where did that many people go?  We did meet two brothers, that left to live with relatives in Georgia and went back to NewOrleans a couple of years ago. They now live in a different area- they said -where the water didn't reach. Coincidently, they also lived in Brookfield, WI through their high school years. Small world.