The Devastating Impact of Hurricaine Katrina on the Lower 9th Ward

Hurricane Katrina had a devastating impact on the already impoverished Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The hurricane decimated the neighborhood by destroying a large number of homes and businesses. While, driving through the area with our tour guide Tony, a local taxi driver, He described the devastation that Hurricane Katrina had on New Orleans. He pointed to building after building describing what was there and then said "GONE". "This was a McDonalds, GONE. That was a KFC, GONE. There was even a Family Dollar there, GONE and so on."

I was shocked at the number of empty lots and vacant businesses that we passed by and even more shocked at the primitive infrastructure like street signs made from plastic scraps with street names often hand written or spray painted on poles and spay painted house numbers.


I have done a lot of photography work in some of Chicago's most impoverished areas like Englewood and Lawndale but none have even compared to what I saw in the Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans. This was because the area had suffered a natural disaster which was unlike anything that ever happened in Chicago.

There were only a few good things in the area in therms of improvements. A newer flood wall along the gulf which was taller in height and thicker in depth than the old one was erected following the hurricane. Houses are now being elevated by reinforced stilts to allow flood waters to run under the house without sweeping it away during a hurricane. Also actor Brad Pitt donated a large amount of time and money to build new state of the art affordable homes for residents of the Lower 9th Ward.

These improvements have helped to make life better for residents of the Lower 9th Ward, but there still is along way to go. It's shocking how popular upper class areas like the French Quarter were quickly evacuated and well preserved and the impoverished Lower 9th Ward was blatantly neglected by the system during the hurricane as well as the aftermath and still is today. I hope to do more work in the Lower 9th Ward next year!