...2 months after Katrina struck.
Since then we’ve returned several times, sometimes just for a day as we travel to or from Baton Rouge (my husband’s hometown), sometimes for a long weekend, as in the case of JazzFest.
It’s a little better every time. Not much, but a little. But the majority of houses look today like they did in the weeks after the levees broke: full of decay and mold, the spraypaint on the doors and walls telling the stories of those who survived, and those who didn’t.
New Orleans was always a city full of ghosts. Today, much of New Orleans is a ghost town. Tourists focus on the French Quarter and marvel at New Orleans’ recovery, not realizing that the Quarter was never under water. They don’t see Midcity or Lakeview or the 9th Ward or New Orleans East.
I wonder if the survivors are ever coming back to reclaim their homes, or if they’ve left forever. They’ve set up new homes, new lives in new cities. It’s not the same. It’ll never be the same. And for every one that doesn’t return, that’s one piece of New Orleans history, New Orleans culture, New Orleans’ HEART that is missing.
The structures that were destroyed can be rebuilt, with enough time and enough money. But how do you rebuild New Orleans’ heart?
