New Orleans: From City of Fear to City of Hope?

New Orleans in August 2005 became the first city in the modern era to collapse due to a climate-change related event. Hurricane Katrina struck with such devastation that despite being only on the edge of the main cyclonic path the city’s defenses against storm surge were breached and the city was devastated. The floodwaters removed whole suburbs as a wall of water swept through the city.

The city had been warned just weeks before when another cyclone had threatened and various people had suggested the city was not prepared. Professor John Renne from the University of New Orleans Center for Transportation Studies tried in vain leading up to Katrina to communicate with other authorities and the media that there needed to be an evacuation plan for the 30% of households who were car-less. He suggested using school buses and Amtrak to evacuate those who could not drive or find a lift. John Renne described his dread as he hired the one of the last remaining hire-cars and drove out just before the storm hit: ‘I feared the worst as I realized that the only plan was for people to get to the Superdome, then watched TV as the school buses were swept away with everything else.’

As the flood rose and the power failed, those remaining took to their rooftops and upstairs balconies. Over 1800 were swept away and the chaos of the Superdome was not much safer than the streets where looters began to roam. Desperation and fear took over the city.

Fear is not easily replaced by hope in a city. With damage estimated at over $80 billion it was the costliest disaster in US history. For thousands of New Orleans people it was not a city they could return to – perhaps as many as 200,000 people abandoned their homes having lost everything including their will to fight for the future of the city. There were immediate responses that New Orleans should be totally abandoned. The city was not unique in living at and below sea level but its natural barriers had been severely damaged over the years and by the storm. However cities are not just groups of buildings set in an ecological system, as fundamental as this clearly is, but cities are also a combination of human stories bound up in the buildings and ecology. This urban culture in New Orleans is, amongst all American cities, strong, colorful, quirky, indeed unique. In human terms New Orleans was always going to be rebuilt. The only question was how to get started. The human qualities required for resilience in the city were clearly there.

Building hope starts with the fundamental infrastructure of power, gas, water, sewerage, hospitals, schools and food supplies. These were restarted under emergency powers. People began returning almost immediately to areas little impacted but it took 43 days to pump out the water from all suburbs. The reality of rebuilding when so many people have not returned and so little money is available to help, can lead to deep despondency. However the city is recovering. As the Recovery Director, Professor Ed Blakely, said ‘New Orleans is tough. It will recover’.

These stories of hope gathered below are just a few gleaned from among many that have brought back the city from the brink and which will create a more resilient city in the future.

1. Holy Cross and Global Green

The Holy Cross neighborhood is in the Lower Ninth ward which was one of the most devastated areas with flooding up to 15 feet deep. Fats Domino lives in this neighborhood and the 8- year old singing legend was one of the last survivors to be plucked from his roof after a week without food and water. His house has been restored and he remains living there defiantly refusing to move.

The President of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association, Charles Allen, has lived in the area since he was a boy and now works for the Center for Sustainable Engagement (CSE) set up by Tulane and Xavier Universities as a contribution to rebuilding Holy Cross. Their office is in the Gretaer Little Zion Baptist Church which had been badly damaged by the flood. One of the first actions of the returning community was to help rebuild the church which meant so much to the residents. This provided a community center from where the CSE were able to run charettes on the rebuilding priorities and plans. Community based activities have included plans to restore a nearby bayou devastated by the hurricane and to invite the Global Green organization to participate in a green rebuilding project.

Global Green, the U.S. arm of Green Cross International, the organization started by Michel Gorbachev was adopted by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie whose decision to live in New Orleans was an important symbol of hope for the city. Global Green has now designed a model for how to rebuild a neighborhood with all the best qualities of green urbanism. The new group of dwellings incorporate the necessary flood level requirements and will be a carbon neutral development based on a geothermal heat pump and PVs on the roof, it has low water appliances, recycled and low impact building materials, no off-gassing materials, green walls and a green roof, within a community-based complex of houses and apartments. Most of all it is a symbol of hope for the people of Holy Cross.

2. Green Door – Green Heritage.

Pat Ibert set up Green Door Construction after his parent’s heritage home in the St Charles quarter was burned down in the squalid looting period immediately after the storm. Literally rising from the ashes is a heritage compliant building that may be a model for how cities can be rebuilt with all its heritage qualities whilst building for a greener future. The secret for Green Door was aerated concrete which is 95% air and 5% lime, sand, cement and gypsum. It is extremely good thermally and has enabled the three level house to be constructed quickly and cheaply with a number of other sustainability features such as PVs and water collection. When completed it will look like the previous wooden structure but will be more efficient and comfortable.

3. Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village.

The hurricane forced many musicians to flee New Orleans and many have never returned. Habitat for Humanity working with Harry Connick Jr. and Branford Marsalis set out to change this with a "Musicians' Village." This will consist of 72 single-family, Habitat-constructed homes for displaced New Orleans musicians and other qualifying Habitat partner families and an additional 70 lots in the surrounding Upper 9th Ward neighborhood. Green and affordable houses are being built with thousands of volunteers from across the country and the world. “Music is the essence of New Orleans and we adamantly refuse to surrender it to the wind and water” said Harry Connick Jr.

As well as Connick and Marsalis other musicians have helped by raising funds from a benefit concert in Denver organized by the Dave Matthews Band. “After the hurricane first struck, we were shocked by the destruction, and we knew we wanted to help,” said Dave Matthews. “We organized a concert with the Neville Brothers and the John Butler Trio shortly after the storm.” That concert in Denver raised $1.5 million and is a major source of funding for the Village. Each step in rebuilding based on such energy and community commitment raises the hope of a better future for this troubled city.

Is New Orleans a Resilient City?

New Orleans is a global symbol of resilience as it rebuilds. The first signs of hope are there but it needs much more before the true resilience required for a 21^st century city can be demonstrated. The two big questions remaining of relevance to resilience are how to rebuild the wetlands which are so critical to enabling the city’s natural storm resistance capability to be reinstated, and how to build a quality transit system which can provide everyone with good access and help to focus development so that its suburbs can have a degree of self sufficiency without needing cars. This latter issue is hardly even on the agenda in New Orleans; until it is the city will remain vulnerable to the rapid fuel prices we anticipate to roll over the city just like the waves did.