Post-Katrina Explorations: The Lowest 9th Ward
From the earlier sections, we started heading deeper and deeper (in a very literal sense) into the 9th Ward where we were even closer to the sites of the Industrial Canal breaks.
That's a rooftop covering what's left of the building those front steps led up to.

Someone had a real sense of humor to put the folding chairs on the orphaned front porch. 

You see where I get it from?  This is what I love about this town.
Here's the rooftop as viewed from the back yard.

Technically, this is a first-floor attic.
As we made our way further back in the neighborhood, sights like this became the norm, not the exception.
I couldn't say whether the car hit the house or the house hit the car nor even who hit the truck.  All I know is Katrina is a bad driver.
Here's the inside of another house. 

Apparently Katrina hates guitars as well.  This one didn't have a neck (It was cheaply made. Don't worry, it wasn't like it was a Gibson Hummingbird or anything). 

It must have sat in the water for quite a while because the bridge became so water-logged that the string tension was sufficient to split it along the bridge pin line.
I'm betting this is what everything looks like on a bad acid trip.
The debris in the rooms in here was waist-deep.  They were still finding bodies in the heaps like this even six months on.  According to a report on NPR, there were eight bodies found this month alone.

Incidentally, I don't know how the tire got in here.  This was in the middle of the house.
Same story with this room.  This room was solid with junk about three feet deep.

Again, everyone seems to have left trophies everywhere.
Oddly enough, this is one place that actually looked like someone was attempting to clean it up.  This part of this house (a different one than above) had been cleared out.

More curiously, there was water pressure in the lines.  Water was leaking out of the plumbing for the kitchen sink fittings straight ahead in this picture and from the washer connection around the corner to the left.
This is the view out the back door.  The neighbor's place was flattened.
Continue to Part II