History Tour and Hurricane Katrina

So we came to New Orleans thinking that we would be getting away from the cold Illinois winter, but that sure didn’t happen. It was so cold today while we took our tour, but luckily we were bundled up and our tour guide kept our interest. He had the best accent I’ve heard so far and I am so impressed when a person can tell story after story about the history of a city without saying “Um” one time. I am so impressed by all of the knowledge in this city. We got to tour the French Quarter and learn about the history of music, cemeteries, and different iconic personalities in the city. A lot of what we heard today was repeated, but that was okay because Milton really had a way of holding my attention and making things interesting all over again. I absolutely loved hearing the story of the Baroness Pontalba again and seeing her beautiful buildings with her wrought iron fencing. I just think that she is such an idol in this area and I love her story so I do not mind at all that she gets brought up during every tour. After all, hers were the very first apartment buildings to exist. Even through the bitter cold, I felt like I gained a lot of information I hadn’t known about New Orleans before. I was interested in the fact that people in New Orleans are buried above ground instead of below because of the rising sea level. I also thought it was cool and different that family members are all buried together in the same tomb. They let the bodies deteriorate for exactly one year and one day before they will move the body into the lower part of the tomb, but family members remains will eventually end up together. It was also interesting to see which tombs were kept in immaculate shape and which tombs were left to deteriorate in the elements. I hate seeing graffiti anywhere, but I especially hated seeing the x’s marked on the grave that people thought may have been Marie Laveau’s grave. There were already markings on the grave that people were pretty sure was Laveau’s, so I feel that the other one should have been left alone. I am not religious by any means but I just don’t believe in disturbing the peace and I honestly felt uneasy being there and walking around talking about the tombs in general. There is a special service people can order to ensure that their tombs or their families tombs will be taken care of forever called perpetual care, which is a nice thought even though I really believe that is meant to serve the family members that are left and not the actual deceased.

            

           After the cemetery tour, we went to Congo Square in Louis Armstrong park, which is the location where enslaved African American people would spend a lot of their free time off. It was basically just a large open area that had a paved circle, surrounded by some trees and several entrances. African American people were able to use this space as somewhat of a retreat, and when I was there, I felt as though the space was somewhat sacred. They were able to go there and sing, dance, perform, and purchase any goods they choose to. There were quite a few people in this area while we were there on a cold winter morning, at about 10 a.m., so it just made me feel like this was a pretty historical site. I really enjoyed the tour today and thought that the tour guide had a ton of history knowledge as well as his own person anecdotes that really added a nice perspective.

Today, I was extremely affected by the Hurricane Katrina exhibit. I was teary eyed through the whole thing. We did a project on the hurricane and I just think that whole event is so sad. I realized that the majority of the city was destroyed during this disaster, but people tend to stop thinking about it after a short time. I remember when this was going on in 2005 but I am sure I had no idea how bad the damage was, and I was even living in Alabama at the time. I was more North though, so we didn’t get any of the storm and I was unaware of what was really going on. Some people don’t stop to think about those who couldn’t afford to leave, those who couldn’t leave family behind, and those who had to come back to a demolished home. It seems that the story was depicted in the news for the first few weeks that the city was affected, but then everyone lost interest and the city was forgotten. I was a junior in high school and didn’t think that I could have done much to help at that time. Now, seeing the devastation that was left behind makes me extremely sad and angry. I kept seeing photos today of people who were basically abandoned and it makes me sad. It really does seem like those who were underprivileged were just left to suffer and people didn’t come to save them for several days and there doesn’t seem to be an acceptable excuse.

There is the claim that the government couldn’t get to resources in order to help people when they were asking for it, but I totally understand the feeling they got that It was because the majority of them were black. Black people have been experiencing racism and discrimination for hundreds of years so it isn’t at all surprising that this would seem and feel like a racial issue. Seeing the actual footage of the storms and the amount of wind and water that destroyed the area was so devastating, and I cannot imagine actually being there and losing my home to the storm. When we were at the Presbytere today seeing the Hurricane Katrina exhibit, I was feeling very somber. I wish that things would have gone differently for people. We learned today that a man was stuck at the top of a tree after the storm, for four whole days, in the sweltering heat, and without food or water. People went up to their attics, which would have been the highest ground for them, and got stuck up there with no food, water, or in some cases, even a way out. I totally understand the frustrations people were expressing when they felt as though the government and FEMA didn’t come soon enough to rescue them. We learned that help didn’t come for five days and that was too late for some people. I just think that this was an event in history that really caused a lot of racial tension and further issues in a country that really, really needs some relief on this matter. I am so sick of the idea that racism is still a thing, and what happened during Katrina is part of the reason why (on top of many, many things that have happened in more recent years). Today was just a very sad and exhausting day for me.