Katrina

Before you look at the pictures below there are a few home truths you must know about the devastation Katrina caused. Now to the informed reader you may already know all this or if you were as ignorant as me and only know what you saw on the telly, or read in the paper and also wondered why the hell Kanye went off like he did but never bothered to find out then this is for you.

When Katrina hit the winds were severe, the rains bad but she was only a Category 3 by the time she hit New Orleans. She was actually a Category 1 when she passed Florida which is a far site worse then a Category 3. Now New Orleans is boarded by the Mississippi River to the south and a few great lakes to the North. The levee that broke was actually the levee for the lakes not the river and just south of the lakes is the most poverty stricken area of the city. When the levee broke it was not due to excess rainfall but to the surge from the ocean up the bayous inot the lakes. And with great force the surge broke the levee and flooded the neighbourhood. Nearly 2000 people died, none of affluent nature.

In the photos below you may see large 'X's' painted on the fronts of some places. The number above them are most likely are 9/14. This means that the places were checked to see if the occupants were ok, dead, or just gone on the 14th of September. History tells us that Katrina hit on the morning of August 29th. The houses you see are only a few of a large area about as twice as big as Perth's CBD where the houses are either gone carried off by the floods, as debris cleared by the city or still standing...barely. No one lives here bar a handful of people in cars next to their destroyed homes. Previously it was a large suburban area where those of lower socio-economic status made there homes. It was their neighbourhood. Now I know the full story and I can share it albeit briefly through my words and a few pictures with you I can begin to comprehend people's anger. I hope you can now too.