New Orleans

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New Orleans

• The Inevitable City
• on an
• Impossible Site

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New Orleans A City Unlike No Other

• Rich French tradition
• Abnormal slave/black laws
• Culture blending
• Food
• Impossible site
• Catholic influence

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Food

• French, Spanish, Italian, Creole, African, Native
  American, and Cuban food mixture
• Authentic Louisiana flavor

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Andouille

• Mildly spiced Acadian sausage often used to
  flavor red beans and rice
• Pronounced an-du-EE

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Beignet

• Rectangular puff of fried dough sprinkled with
  powdered sugar, most famously served at Café du
  Monde in New Orleans

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Boudin

• Spicy Cajun sausage containing rice and meat or
  seafood

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Chitlins

• Short for chitterlings. Dish made from small
  intestines of hogs, cooked in butter and often
  served in vinegar, hot red pepper sauce, and
  minced red onions on the side.

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Gumbo

• Any kind of thick soup with meat/seafood flavored
  with okra

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Jambalaya

• Rice cooked with a mix of diced meat/fish in
  tomato sauce and other seasonings. One of Hank
  Williams Sr.s most popular songs, 1952

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Mint Julep

• Souths most famous and elegant cocktail. Served
  in a tall glass filled with crushed ice, bourbon,
  water, sugar, mint, and nutmeg

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Po Boy

• Huge sandwich of French bread and any number of
  fillings such as ham, shrimp, roast beef, and
  meatballs dressed with lettuce, tomato, etc.

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Mardi Gras

• French phrase for Fat Tuesday
• Describes parades/partying that occurs on last
  day before Lent

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Wed to River and Ocean

• Almost natural dock for the transshipment of
  goods
• Pierce Lewis inevitable city on an impossible
  site.
• Miss. River Drainage

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Flow of the Mississippi

• Brings silt, sand, clay, and organic matter from
  United States--?Dumped at mouth of river
• Islands form when big enough, river splits
• Bedrock in NO is 70 feet beneath surface

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Difficulties

• Continued dumping of silt has made river higher
  than New Orleans 15-20 feet
• Swampy, wet and sinking ground
• Hot, humid and miserable weather
• Hurricane threats

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Claims by the French

• LaSalle claimed Louisiana for France
• Colony needed on Mississippi for trade, control
  of continent
• Indians advice Go upriver

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The Problem

• Mouth of river was unclear
• 3 rough, undefined mouths
• Shallow sandbars
• Mud banks
• Burning Question for the French Where to build a
  port city?

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Birth of a City

• 150 miles upriver from Gulf of Mexico
• Quickly became bustling port city
• Isle dOrleans
• Oasis of civilization in hostile swamp

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Birth of a City

• 1721 First streets are laid
• Streets named after Catholic saints/French
  monarchy
• Bourbon Street named after Royal House Bourbon

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Thomas Jefferson on NO

• "There is one spot on the globe, the possessor of
  which is our natural and habitual enemy. It is
  New Orleans."

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Transfer to Spanish Rule

• After France lost French-Indian War in 1763, NO
  given to France
• Two devastating fires prompt rebuilding
• Many buildings today are Spanish, not French

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Purchase by America

• 1803 With Louisiana Purchase, Americans invade
• Were not welcomed many streets had been built to
  keep them out

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Blacks and the City

• Many free people of color allowed
• Slaves markets flourished
• For slaves, city becomes sort of a haven/refuge

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Hurricane Katrinain New Orleans - What Went
Wrong?
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New Orleans Overview

• Many citizens live in extreme poverty
• Much of NO is below sea level
• Warned for years of devastating effects of
  hurricane

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Before the Storm

• Mandatory Evacuation Residents ordered to leave
• Many stay behind
• Claiming to be too poor and unable to leave

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Katrina August 29, 2005

• Hurricane strikes at 6 AM
• 140 MPH winds, 24 ft. storm surges
• Trees uprooted, roofs blown off, power lines
  broken
• At 6 PM, its over

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Points of View on Katrina

• Keep your head up from stuff flying around! Its
  white-capping in the parking lot! Look at the
  debris! Look at that! The entire thing is coming
  apart! I feel real scared!
• CNN crew member
• during Katrina

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Points of View, cont.

• Mr. President, we need your help. We need
  everything youve got.
• Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco in a phone
  call to the President

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People Out of Control

• Looters smash windows of businesses, steal
• Women/children robbed at gunpoint
• Rapes and murders common

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Quote

• We went from the Space Age to the Stone Age in
  about three hours.
• Aaron Broussard, Jefferson Parish president

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FEMA

• Federal Emergency Management Agency
• Responsible for help/assistance with disasters

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Save Haven in Superdome?

• 25,000 transferred to Superdome after storm
• Promised supplies from FEMA never arrive
• Frustration grows

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President Bush Visits

• Tours NO and Gulfport, MS
• Brownie, youre doing a heckuva job. - Bush to
  Michael Brown, director of FEMA
• Calls for better communication
• between government agencies

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Communication Problems

• FEMA, Louisiana government, other federal
  agencies clash
• Red tape involved with approval to help,
  responsibilities, etc.

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Oil Prices Surge

• Many refineries knocked out in Gulf Coast
• Gas prices skyrocket to 3.39/gal. nationwide

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Frustration with FEMA

• NO residents claim they were abandoned
• Delay in supplies, broken promises
• Racism claimed

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Aftermath

• Brown resigns from FEMA
• Many of 500,000 residents move to TX, OK, IL
• Many will never return
• NO struggles to
• build again

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Hurricane KatrinaThe 5 Ws and Now
Satellite picture by NOAA
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Who

• The people of
• Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana
• 1.2 million evacuated
• 1,833 deaths
• 1.7 million without power

New Orleans, La. August 30, 2005 Photo Jocelyn
Augustino/FEMA
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What

• Hurricane Katrina
• -Category 3
• -140 mph winds
• -rain - 1inch/hour
• -20 ft storm surge
• 80 of New Orleans under flood waters

Photo NASA
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When

• Hit land in Florida on August 24, 2005
• Hit New Orleans on August 29, 2005
• Storm Surge on August 29-30, 2005
• -Lake Ponchartrain and Mississippi River

August 30, 2005 Photo by Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA
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Where

• Mississippi and Louisiana
• New Orleans
• -metro area
• -Lakeview
• -St. Bernard Parish
• -9th ward

Map by NASA
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Why

• Loss of Coastal Lands
• Flood Protection Failure
• Poverty - lack of opportunity to leave and no
  insurance
• Slow government response
• -LA National Guard in Iraq

New Orleans, LA, August 29, 2005 17th Street
Canal Levee Break Photo Marty Bahamonde/FEMA
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Loss of Coastal Lands

• Upstream dams and levees control flooding and
  help with shipping
• Created loss of 1,900 sq miles of coastal lands
• Losing one football field of land every 38 minutes

Photo Kathryn Smith, USGS
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Flood Protection

• New Orleans sits below sea level
• Has canals, levees, flood gates and pumping
  stations to keep it dry
• Could not take the mighty power of the 20ft storm
  surge
• Collapsed

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New Orleans, LA, August 30, 2005 -- Aerial
photograph of the break in the levee in the 9th
ward. Neighborhoods throughout the area remain
flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
Photo Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA
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Poverty

• New Orleans, LA.
• August 28, 2005
• Superdome opened as a hurricane shelter.
• Most residents evacuated the city and those left
  behind did not have transportation or have
  special needs.

Photo Marty Bahamonde/FEMA
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Then and Now

• Rescue Efforts
• Markings Still Exist

Photo Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA
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Then and Now

• Pre-Katrina 2008
• Hospitals 23 13
• Public Schools 276 79
• Private Schools 93 63