Day Three

Tarona and I left Atlanta this morning around 7:00 am and drove to New Orleans, LA. We hit one of the worst rain storms I have ever seen on the way, but it cleared up by the time we got to the French Quarter...for about an hour. Then, it started pouring again except, this time, we were strolling along the Mississippi Riverwalk when it hit again. We quickly took shelter under an enormous gazebo used for musical performances where we met Gwyne Gilmore, a Hurricane Katrina survivor. Gwyne told us his story (in video below) and gave us a real insight as to the destruction caused by the storm and the kind-hearted Tennesseans who took him in and took care of him when he had to evacuate his home. He also shared with us this tidbit of information.

Gwyne recounts his story.
Once the rain let up, Tarona and I drove through the most devastated area in the city: the Ninth Ward. I've seen slums and I've seen poor neighborhoods, but the only way I can describe the Ninth Ward is war-torn. The majority of the homes there are completely gutted and those left standing in inhabitable form have been renovated and remodeled in an almost embarrassingly overdone way (stucco exteriors, towering columns) and put up for sale. It's unnerving to think that the destruction caused by Katrina gave the city an excuse to encourage gentrification, so I'm going to believe that the survivors of the hurricane made out well in their insurance settlements and, therefore, received bigger and better homes to replace the ones they lost.

Almost all of the homes have the same sort of marking on them: a large X on the façade of the house, the date, "LSP,” (Louisiana State Police) and a number indicating how many bodies were recovered from the home.
A sign of hope in the middle of despair.
At around 7:00 pm, Tarona and I found ourselves heading out of The Big Easy--quiet, pensive--and into another, albeit smaller, rainstorm for the next leg of our adventure in Dallas*, TX. Gas price update: $3.64/gallon in Louisiana. *We replaced San Antonio, which was on the original itinerary we emailed to everyone, with Dallas.