Stories from New Orleans
Five years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, Matthew Bannister travelled to the city to hear the extraordinary story of the rebirth of the Superdome football stadium - which at the time became an emergency home to around 20,000 people.
New Orleans was hot – so hot that just walking out of the air-conditioned hotel into the street made sweat start to trickle down my brow. The place was crawling with reporters and film crews. They were there to cover the oil spill which continued to dominate US rolling news and make headlines around the world.
But to me, the locals still seemed more interested in the after-effects of Hurricane Katrina, even though it had happened five years ago. Whilst the oil spill was less visible, the scars of Katrina were still plain to see.
On many streets every third building is still boarded up, there are yawning gaps where wooden homes that were swept away have simply not been replaced, and you can still see the marks painted on the doors by the authorities who came round to check for dead bodies.
Re-built and returned
Just south of New Orleans, beside the highway, I looked up to see a fridge suspended in a tree where the hurricane had originally thrown it. A little further down the road, the roof of a car peeps above the surface of a lake.
Some have re-built and returned, but a third of the population has never come back, while others are only just beginning the task of restoring their homes.
We were there specifically to tell the story of one iconic building – the city’s football stadium, The Superdome.
With its black concave walls and domed metallic roof, it looks like the spaceship from the film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
When we arrive it’s cool and dark, the air conditioning keeping the heat at bay and the players are away on holiday. But it is all too easy to imagine the chaos and claustrophobia that must have set in when 30,000 people sought refuge here during the hurricane.
Emotions run high
With no mains power, only emergency lighting, no functioning sanitation and no air conditioning, perhaps one reporter at the time wasn’t exaggerating when he described it as “Dante’s Inferno”.
We talked to General Manager Doug Thornton, to his wife Denise and to the Head of Security Benny Vanderklis.
Emotion is never far from the surface, even five years on, as they re-lived the traumatic events of summer 2005.
Benny sheds a tear as he reveals that his marriage ended in divorce given the strain of working through Katrina and its aftermath.
Denise takes us for a drive through her neighbourhood, where she has spearheaded a community effort to bring people back.
Work still to do
Some people have not returned, but have arranged for their front gardens to be re-instated as a contribution to making the area feel alive again. They’ve been campaigning for shops to reopen, but are only just beginning to have some success.
The regeneration of the Superdome in time for the 2006 NFL season was a powerful symbol for the city. And the Superbowl victory of the New Orleans Saints in 2010 sparked a party that lasted for weeks.
It’s impossible not to be moved by the determination and optimism of those who have returned and continue to believe in their beloved city, but they have much work still to do.
The oceans and the fishing industry may recover in months to come from the oil spill, but Katrina will continue to cast a long shadow over New Orleans.
- broadcasts on ´óÏó´«Ã½ World Service on 31 August