"New Orleans: Just Before Katrina " a New Orleans Travel Page by Tom_Fields

My last visit to New Orleans was six weeks before Hurricane Katrina. From my research, the city appears to be making a gradual comeback. If tourists start returning to the city, it will make a big difference.

When Bienville founded this city, in 1717, he had the good sense to build it on ground that was slightly higher than the surrounding areas. Consequently, the most historic parts of the city, such as the French Quarter and the Garden District, survived. Those parts of the city appear, from what I gather, to be doing relatively well.

Shown in the photo above is Jackson Square, in the heart of the old French Quarter. This is where President Bush gave his post-Katrina address, just a few months after my visit.

The levees were meant to protect the city. Not only did they fail, but they also altered the flow of the Mississippi River. This interfered with the normal deposits of silt in the Mississippi Delta, leading to depletion of Louisiana's vast wetlands. This deprived New Orleans of the buffer which it used to have.

The poor levee maintenance, the loss of wetlands, the lack of a workable contingency plan, the slow federal response, and the general mismanagement of disaster relief efforts have all generated plenty of bad press. No need to rehash all that here. I donated to Katrina relief efforts, and hope that the money was put to good use.

This is where many of Katrina's victims stayed until they could be evacuated. Little did I know, when taking this photo, what would transpire here not long afterward.