News
My House
Posted Jul 6 2008
New Orleans Then: When I finally floated up to my house on Sept. 11, 2005, I was relieved to discover the floodwater had already receded enough to allow the first floor to begin drying out. The high water mark ringing the walls showed the extent to which the flood had reached inside, but this first visit gave me hope at least that there would be something to rebuild.
See below for New Orleans Now.
New Orleans Now: It took about two and a half years, but my house is completely repaired. The house was originally built in 1910 and, like most of the neighboring houses, it was raised off the ground on brick piers to protect it from flooding. Though those piers weren’t high enough to keep the place dry after the federal levee failures, the structure of the old place was strong enough to give us plenty to work with in rebuilding. The frame of old Louisiana swamp cypress proved so dense that we had some difficulty driving nails into it. I planted new flowers, palms and saplings to replace the garden that was killed by the flood, and lined the edges with old bricks I found in the once-ubiquitous debris piles around the neighborhood. Most of my immediate neighbors have also returned and have put at least as much care into the renovation of their homes and the rejuvenation of our block.
Topic: New Orleans Now
