Wednesday, May 16, 2012

New Orleans: Day Two

Today we took a mini bus tour around the city.  We saw the things we saw in the French Quarter plus more, but couldn't stop anywhere for pictures as the street are too narrow.  We headed to the Garden District and I didn't get any pictures there either being on the bus.  Bob and I will drive over ourselves some time this week and I will get some pictures of the beautiful homes.  Our first stop where we got out was New Orleans Cemetery No. 3.  There was a vault there with the Gilmore name.  Hard to see, you'll have to take my word for it.


We were told that most people think that cemeteries in New Orleans use vault instead of burying underground because of the water table.  That is not true.  They do it to save space.  Whole families are buried in one vault.  I won't go into the details, you can look them up for yourself if you are interested.
Bob thought these cirpes lined up look like a city street.


Here is a man replacing the marble on the front of a vault.  In picture one you can see inside, that it is brick up and they tear that up when they add new people and then in picture 2 recement and add the marble name plate back.

















We headed to the Lower 9th Ward.  The first picture is a tree that has been painted with a white stripe showing how high the water got.



When organizations came to check out homes after the flood.  They would be mark with what would be called the Katrina Cross, to show they were search.  The house would be marked with a cross, the date, and initials of the organization that searched the house.  On the right of the cross is a number or zero for the number of pets found dead.  Under the initials was a number which represented the number of the bodies found.  Most of these houses have been torn down now, it has been 7 years.  But here is one left.


To encourage Musicians to return to New Orleans, Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis teamed up  with Habitat for Humanity Internationals to create the Musicians Village for New Orleans musicians who lost their homes to Hurricane Katrina.  The neighborhood is built around a music center. The residence get a 0% loan and need to contribute 500 volunteer hours.  The musicians are doing this by teaching music lessons free at the center to the youngsters of the community.


















Brad Pitt also started a project called Make It Right that builds safe, sustainable, affordable homes for working families.  The homes are solar heated and are designed to withstand a hurricane You must have lived in the area before Katrina.

















There was a contest for different designs and four designs were selected.  All houses in this area are one of these four design.   One is built like a barge, and in a hurricane it will float. This is the barge home.nd

 beyond. Click here to se

If you have ever watch Holmes on Homes, this home was repaired by the show.  The lady here sells pralines to the tour buses that came by and they are delicious.  I think I am addicted.

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