The New Orleans neighborhood known as Lakeview was the most sought after area to live in the City for families. Children walked to their schools and churches and playgrounds and the living was easy, so to speak. It is probably the largest residential area in New Orleans.
Exactly three months ago today, one day after Katrina's winds damaged the City, a levee at the 17th Street Canal broke pouring a surge of billions of gallons of water into Lakeview, knocking houses off their foundations, floating automobiles blocks away from their garages and ruining thousands of houses. The water wound its way into Metairie and into cemeteries where even the dead were disturbed.
The difference today, three months later, is this: On August 30 this area was deserted except for a few who rode out the hurricane, then either drowned or were rescued from attics and rooftops. Today, it is still deserted.
On August 30 the furniture was in the houses; today it is on the curbs as debris as is most of the house.
The infrastructure is very damaged and some streets are impassable with holes as deep as an automobile. There is no electricity or gas. The schools are closed as are the churches.
Thousands of people have broken hearts, broken pocketbooks and wonder if they can ever return to normalcy. I keep wondering, where have all these thousands of people gone. I run into some of them in the City and they are either staying in Baton Rouge, Houston or with relatives in other states and towns. Some were fortunate to find apartments in the already overcrowded apartment complexes in metro New Orleans. Many have lost their jobs.
The CAUSE of this---failure by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the local levee board and elected public officials to properly secure and maintain the levees.
After this levee break there were more breaks- at the London Avenue Canal and at the Industrial Canal. The waters from these breaks met and flooded more than eighty percent of New Orleans and the water remained for more than two weeks ruining everything in its path.
There has to be a brighter tomorrow. I like to believe that the live oaks that survived in this neighborhood as well as all over the City are a sign that the City can and will come back .
And, if you read through all of this, you get a real treat of something pretty at http://www.pbase.com/image/52979915.