Chapter 1: Introduction to Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans.

August 2005 saw Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest and most destructive hurricanes in American history devastate 90,000 square miles of the Gulf Coast across four States, killing at least 1,836 people[1], causing an estimated $75 billion of damage even before taking into account the economic aftermath and leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced and homeless. New Orleans, Louisiana was the worst affected city through a combination of bad organisation, ineffective communications between local and state government and inadequate safety measures and maintenance which resulted in the levees not being able to withstand the category 3 hurricane. New Orleans geographical positioning reveals a unique aspect of the city. Approximately 50% of New Orleans is at sea level or above with the rest being below sea level, yet Americans choose to have a city in its location and thousands of people still choose to live there despite the long history of hurricanes and floods in the Gulf. When you look at the history of how New Orleans was built and how the country has continually tried to harness the power of the great Mississippi behind concrete walls, we are presented with an ideal of American exceptionalism. However, this exceptionalism is called into question when the levees were breached during Katrina, placing local government amongst conspiracy theories and allegations of neglect and discrimination.

At the time of Hurricane Katrina’s impact, New Orleans which is divided up into 17 wards was being run by democrat Mayor Ray C. Nagin and his administration, while the state of Louisiana was being governed by fellow democrat Kathleen Blanco. It is unknown exactly why the response to the disaster was so slow, or why a mandatory evacuation was not issued sooner than it was because statements and books published by those in charge at the time all point the blame at someone else. Nagin claimed he issued the evacuation as soon as he could and had detailed plans to get people out of the city, whereas Blanco supposedly had to beg Nagin to take action. Meanwhile on a federal level President George Bush wrote in his autobiography, Decision Points that both local and state government were arguing amongst each other and neither were taking action:

The tone started out tense and got worse. The governor and mayor bickered. Everyone blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency for failing to meet their needs. Congressman (now Governor) Bobby Jindal pointed out that FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] had asked people to email their requests, despite the lack of electricity in the city. I shook my head. 'We'll fix it,' I said looking at FEMA Director Michael Brown. Sen. Mary Landrieu interrupted with unproductive emotional outbursts. 'Would you please be quiet'? I had to say to her at one point.

This lack of organisation and agreement between those in power ultimately left the people of New Orleans feeling let down and uncared for even to this day as discussed by Kevin Allman editor of the Gambit in an interview for the Salon: “I think New Orleans feels let down by the federal, state and local governments about Katrina, and I think the rest of the nation is tired of hearing from New Orleans on those issues.”

Eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded[2] and whilst media coverage showed to the world how the city was submerged in floodwaters rising to almost 20ft in some areas, it failed to show the full extent of the impact that Katrina left on the city, not just in the immediate aftermath but to the present day. New Orleans has largely been forgotten about as it has been eight years since Katrina struck and the media has moved on, as it does, to newer news with more shocking headlines than that of abandoned homes and broken roads. Much of the destruction is still visible and the city is plagued by blight but this is not common knowledge to those outside of New Orleans.

Fig 1: Where the levees broke and the amount of flooding each neighbourhood received.

            The original intention for this thesis was to analyse the reasons for the shortfall in the local, regional and national response in the aftermath of the disaster. The intention was to investigate whether there has been and continues to be a racial bias that affected the response different neighbourhoods experienced. The period of research was over summer 2012 through semester one, as can be seen in the bibliography which addresses these questions. However what strongly evolved from this process was the need for a research trip to New Orleans in order to judge how far the competing claims of those who argued the city was restored or still in crisis were accurate. In consultation with tutors a research trip was planned and undertaken to enable me to gather first hand photographic evidence, oral interviews and follow up contacts with local self-help groups and activists.

It was after personal reflection on this ethnographic trip to the city that I chose to base this thesis on one of the most neglected and least heard about neighbourhoods; New Orleans East. Whilst on my research trip I visited all neighbourhoods affected by the storm and saw first-hand the damage that still exists as well as the amount of time, effort and money that is still required to bring this once great American city back to life. Through interaction with and talking to true and actual New Orleanians who were affected personally by Katrina, in addition to the sights I saw for myself I got an insight into the aftermath of the storm which internet and book based research could not have provided.

As the subject of Hurricane Katrina has so many narratives I will be looking at two key areas which I believe my ethnographic visit and my research will combine well together in order to provide a unique perspective and analysis. I will be investigating the media coverage of New Orleans in the aftermath with particular emphasis on which areas were and were not broadcast about, as well as economic decisions that were made in order to help the city recover and how those decisions have affected the perception of local government by its residents. The majority of sources being used for these chapters are therefore from the media itself, web based articles from newspapers both locally based in New Orleans and from outside of Louisiana. Using both local and non-local newspapers was integral to my analysis in order to gauge what information was being transmitted, and to judge if media does work for those in power as one of my critical sources, Noam Chomsky suggests. 

First-hand account of abandonment while the good times roll in the French Quarter.

During my two week research trip in December 2012, in New Orleans I was able to see first-hand the devastation that is still evident in both the Lower 9^th Ward and New Orleans East and took photographs to act as primary evidence while on a Hurricane Katrina Tour.  Part of the reason that non locals or familiars realise how badly affected eastern New Orleans was is possibly due to the media’s coverage of the recovery effort after Katrina, presenting the audience with a false idea that New Orleans is almost back to normal. As a result of my trip I have been able to recognise the lack of attention that the media has given the eastern part of the city in comparison to the Lower 9^th and use it to consider why certain areas received more publicity.

USA Today Travel posted the article, ‘New Orleans is back: More visitors and a big hotel reopening’ with the opening line of “New Orleans has been bouncing back since Hurricane Katrina hit six years ago[3]”. It talks of the reopening of the Hyatt Regency and how its general manager, Michael Smith considered its $275 million renovation to be “symbolic of New Orleans’ recovery” but articles like this are not representative of the entire city, as tourists are mostly visiting the French Quarter which was relatively unscathed by Katrina. Another tourist magazine, Canadian Traveller reiterates in its article ‘Let the Good Times Roll – New Orleans Is Back & Better Than Ever’, this inaccurate portrayal of New Orleans and its recovery: “Laid low a few years back by Hurricane Katrina, the city has rebuilt and restored and created a place that’s again the best city in the world to laissez les bontemps rouler.[4]”

Images such as the one I took of a shopping centre (figure 2) whose owner does not want to repair and reopen are commonplace in New Orleans East.  This information was received from a tour guide and local New Orleanian aboard a Hurricane Katrina Tour in December 2012. He told me how the owner had originally opened the mall for his daughter and her friends to shop and meet up in, but after it was destroyed during Katrina he decided not to reopen as his daughter was already grown up and no longer living at home. In addition to this building other shopping malls have not reopened, the Wal-Mart at 6901 Bundy Road is now a vacant lot (see appendix) and the theatre just off the I-10 is in disrepair.

Fig 2: Abandoned Shopping Mall

Although if owners of the various buildings and land continue to pay their taxes and keep the grass on the land tidy then there is nothing that the city can do to repossess them, providing little hope of demolishing or replacing them with much needed facilities that could potentially help solve the dramatic decline in population that the city has experienced. Interestingly enough whilst the media has not highlighted the economic and redevelopment crisis in New Orleans east, information on the abandoned buildings and sites can be found through people who identify themselves as urban explorers. The internet subculture of Urban Exploration is the exploration and photographing of abandoned or ruined man-made structures with the purpose to explore historical aspects of the structures or areas that are not usually seen when in use. One such site that has been extensively covered on both urban explorer websites[5] and YouTube[6] is the Six Flags amusement park which will be covered in the following chapter along with the abandoned hospital, Pendleton Methodist.

Chapter two entitled ‘New Orleans East: Forgotten in the Flooding’, concentrates on an area of New Orleans that affected me the most when touring the city. New Orleans East is a suburban district within New Orleans that experienced a substantial amount of flooding during the storm, as well as a great deal of structural damage to both homes and businesses. I will be highlighting, with the aid of primary sources collected by myself, how the area has still yet to recover since Katrina and discussing why the media has not made the public more aware of the east’s struggles. I will be conducting this media analysis through two significant and symbolic case studies; Pendleton Methodist Hospital and Six Flags Amusement Park, both landmarks in New Orleans East that have been forgotten about and continue to have a negative impact upon the neighbourhood. Why these sites were chosen for case studies is because while radically different to one another they both represent the neglect that New Orleans East has experienced, Pendleton Methodist is an example of local government ignoring key needs of its residents and committing real negligence and Six Flags is a very large visual reminder inescapable to those who are still in the area of that neglect.

Chapter three, ‘How economic decisions have affected the perception of local government’, will see me focus on the suggestions and plans made by local officials that would supposedly put New Orleans back on the road to recovery. I will be starting with the 17 target recovery zone plan established in 2007 by appointed recovery czar Edward Blakely, and using that as a starting off point to evaluate to what areas have been improved if any and how the failure to address problems has had a negative impact on the residents of New Orleans and how they perceive the local government. Former mayor Ray Nagin was indicted in January 2013 for 21 charges of corruption and as a result some of his illegal dealings have come to the surface. I have been able to use these to bring both chapter one and two together as these underhand economic deals provide possible explanations as to why New Orleans East has not yet received the help it was promised. Firstly chapter one will provide needed insight into the neighbourhood of New Orleans East, its current condition and the ways in which it has not received the attention needed in order to fully recover.

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[1] Discovery Channel. 2013. Surviving Katrina: Facts About Katrina. [ONLINE] Available at: http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/katrina/facts/facts.html. [Accessed 17 February 13].

[2] National Climatic Data Center. 2005. Hurricane Katrina. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/special-reports/katrina.html. [Accessed 17 February 13].

[3] Yancey, K. (2011). New Orleans if back: More visitors and a big hotel reopening. Available at: http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/dispatches/post/2011/10/new-orleans-is-back-i/554524/1. Last accessed 21st January 2013.

[4] Johnson, T. (2010). Let the Good Times Roll - New Orleans Is Back & Better Than Ever. Available at: http://www.canadiantraveller.net/1129-Let_the_Good_Times_Roll_-_New_Orleans_Is_Back__Better_Than_Ever. Last accessed 21st January 2013.

[5] Urban Exploration Resource. 2012. Six Flags New Orleans - Thread. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.uer.ca/forum_showthread.asp?fid=1&threadid=104488. [Accessed 23 January 13].

[6] YouTube - Broadcast yourself. 2010. Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans Tour. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bcja8UBtXdk. [Accessed 23 January 13].