New Orleans - 10 months after Katrina

In June 2006, about 10 months after the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, I visited the city to see relatives and to tour some of the areas of destruction. I have received requests to post pictures - so here are just a few, focusing on the destruction near two of the worst levee breaks and a "house gutting" party that I participated in.

House gutting parties were still on going: normally a large group of friends will show up and remove all items from the first floor and then using sledgehammers, crowbars and other tools remove the super moldy plasterboard from the interior walls.

Part 1 - Houses or what is left of them near the levee breaks

Surreal

Nice park job

No bodies found here on September 24, 2005 (as indicated by the orange zero below and the 9 24 above)
Many, many houses in the New Orleans still have the icky water marks on their walls

Not this way
Notice how some trees have no leaves and others nice a green? - only some species could cope with the salt water flood

New levee construction on the left side

Not near a levee break - this was an upscale subdivision just a couple years old

Removing moldy dry wall and insulation in the living room

Ruined music room

Me in the music room, later, after all of the ruined items, including the piano, were removed
I was working on removing the drywall shorter people couldn't reach
I was flushed with heat exhaustion and my upper half completely soaked with sweat - it was a warm humid day
I took an extended water break after this picture was taken

House viewed from the street
Opportunistic government paid trash haulers quickly showed up and began to work on the huge pile of trash we removed from the house