Day 4, January 6th.
The Cabildo and the Presbytere are identical buildings standing on either side of the elegant St Louis Cathedral. Both of them being Louisiana State Museums. The Cabildo holds Louisiana’s history and the Presbytere holds the horrid story of hurricane Katrine and some Mardi Gras history. I am not old enough to remember hurricane Katrina. I was alive, but not old enough that I remember it. I knew before we got here what it was, but not the extent of how horrible it really was. There were a few things in the Presbytere that stood out to me about Katrina that I do not think most people my age understand. It began as a tropical storm and progressed to a category 5 hurricane, which is a big deal. People that were not evacuating were experiencing something that is almost indescribable. It went from evacuation, to rescue, to recovery. If you were lucky enough to be rescued, you were just send to the Superdome which was housing a LOT of people. Even then, some of them probably wondered if they would have been better off in the hurricane. There were so many people in the dome and there was no power… it was August/September in new Orleans.. if you don’t get my drift, let me explain. It would have been sweltering. Now imagine all those people needing to relieve themselves… I will leave your imagination with that. If you were not lucky enough to get on one of the buses taking people north, you were stuck in the crowded dome in the unimaginable stench. The things they found after the waters went down absolutely floored me. Things such as walls that had a journal written on it with the account of the horrible things this man was experiencing as the storm came, grew, and left, leaving devastation behind. It really makes you thankful for what you have.
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| Seats from the superdome |
The Cabildo and the Presbytere are identical buildings standing on either side of the elegant St Louis Cathedral. Both of them being Louisiana State Museums. The Cabildo holds Louisiana’s history and the Presbytere holds the horrid story of hurricane Katrine and some Mardi Gras history. I am not old enough to remember hurricane Katrina. I was alive, but not old enough that I remember it. I knew before we got here what it was, but not the extent of how horrible it really was. There were a few things in the Presbytere that stood out to me about Katrina that I do not think most people my age understand. It began as a tropical storm and progressed to a category 5 hurricane, which is a big deal. People that were not evacuating were experiencing something that is almost indescribable. It went from evacuation, to rescue, to recovery. If you were lucky enough to be rescued, you were just send to the Superdome which was housing a LOT of people. Even then, some of them probably wondered if they would have been better off in the hurricane. There were so many people in the dome and there was no power… it was August/September in new Orleans.. if you don’t get my drift, let me explain. It would have been sweltering. Now imagine all those people needing to relieve themselves… I will leave your imagination with that. If you were not lucky enough to get on one of the buses taking people north, you were stuck in the crowded dome in the unimaginable stench. The things they found after the waters went down absolutely floored me. Things such as walls that had a journal written on it with the account of the horrible things this man was experiencing as the storm came, grew, and left, leaving devastation behind. It really makes you thankful for what you have. 
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