New Orleans As She Was

Sobek has some wonderful photo-blogging of how New Orleans looked before Katrina hit. It's well worth the look.

Also some beautiful nature pics of the area in part two here.

Let's hope for the best for a beautiful city underseige right now.

Comments

[jolari]

Dan,

Thank you for the time to post all of these sites for us-

[clintcarter]

Uh, uh. I can't do this.

[TigerGirl722]

Thanks, Dan. I appreciate you posting those pictures. We live only an hour from New Orleans to the west and it's good for people to see how beautiful the city was. We often went to New Orleans for weekends, to have a good time and hang out with friends. However, that will never be the same again. The friends we had who lived and went to school in New Orleans, will likely move somewhere else to go to school. It will be far too long before their apartments and schools are rebuilt or cleaned out. They estimated December for the schools to be ready, though many experts say that it will be several months to several years to finish the necessary repairs. Hopefully, when the city is finally rebuilt, with it they will include an up-to-date and completed pump system. It was common knowledge around here, that if New Orleans were ever hit by a major hurricane there would be substantial flooding. Additionally, the pump system built after Betsy in the 1960's was NEVER finished. Now, there is flooding from Lake Pontchartrain, and problems with the level of the water and the sealife it contained. There have been some sightings of sharks (around 3 feet long) swimming around in the Metairie/Kenner areas.
Sorry for the long message, I'll stop soon. But, thank you again for posting those links, New Orleans was/is a special place, let's hope it can be restored to a glimmer of what it was. Until then, we'll be praying for those from New Orleans, Slidell, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport, and Biloxi.
TG

[proudredneck]

That really brought tears to my eyes. Great memories from my childhood and adulthood. She will never look the same again.

[Sandy]

My heart is oh so heavy this morning...God be with everyone affected by Katrina.
Sandy
Birmingham, AL

[FloridaPatty]

My first NO experience in 1976, love, love love it. Cafe Du Monde at 9 AM, Beignets warm. What wonderful memories of the French Quarters.

She will rise again.

It's times like these when you see American strength come together.

[clintcarter]

Me, too; 1976.
Mardi Gras, Buster Holmes Red beans and rice, the parades, the French Qtr., Sleeping on the floor for $5., 1st and last MadDog 20/20,...

[DeeDee]

Proud...that was my thoughts as well. I have been thinking it is time for the Army Corp of Engineers and the New Orleans officials to seek advice from the Dutch in Holland as to best restore New Orleans and maintain it. The Dutch are well experienced with dikes and canals.

[ev]

Dee Dee -
I just wrote an email to CNN about a suggestion of having the Dutch look into it. My husband is dutch and said to give Cnn the comment.

[scubajap]

My Niece graduated from Tulane, and absolutely loved New Orleans and the outlying areas, my sympathy to you all for the tragic loss of this great city with a rich history and culture. It is very heartbreaking on many levels, not only the terrible loss of life.

[!]

THANKS FOR THE PICTURES DAN. GREAT MEMORIES.
I lost all the beutiful pictures I took 4 years ago on my visit to New Orleans in Hurricane Dennis. I will never forget that trip. It was a beautiful city and so may places to go and things to see. I do still have the videos we took. They were not lost in my flood. I will always treasure that trip. We took the train (had our own suite) from ATLANTA to New Orleans and flew back. We took the train into town right along side the lake. While we were there we took the 26 mile trip acorss the lake to Sldell and had lunch at a little resturant there on the other side. We cramed about all one would want to possibly want to do into those 7 glorious days. It was a truley beautiful city. Its sad this happened but I guess the city shoudl have never been built by the french back in 1701. Read your history books about the city of New Orleans. The engineers of that time warned the french not to build a city on lad that was below sea level. They were told of the hurricanes. It was just a matter of time. It the worst tragedy I have ever seen in my life time next to 9-11.
No levee's can ever be built to hold back the force of water and wind and rains. I do not see New Orleans ever being totally rebuilt as it used to be. Its just not worth it. Not worth the lives it tok this time. No homes are safe on a shorelines. Not any.
Fema will tell you themselfs that we all really live in a floodzone. A FLOOD CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE ANYTIME WHEN WE HAVE STORMS LIKE THIS.
I am still in disbelief. Kinda numb.
Lets all band together and pitch in any way we can to help these people. No matter how small it all adds up and it will make a difference !!
God bless all the people everywhere affected by this storm. :O)

[BahamaMama]

What's it going to take for the so called help to think to use bull horns or something to give directions to the people on foot. Those people or going to die. They could tell them to head in some direction. Then they could meet them with water or the supplies or transportation to camps being set up in Houston. They will be dehidrated soon. Who can I send this message to.

[sehoy]

Thank you, Dan. I am in my 50s and visited many of the sites in these pictures in the late 1960s with a boyfriend who is long dead in Vietnam. I have always loved New Orleans but was surprised how much it hurt.

[clintcarter]

How ironic for this blog! The Dutch helping us build levees/dikes? Cool.