But indicators such as the metro New Orleans entrepreneurship rate, which is 64 percent higher than the national average - along with a surge of investments in youth projects, reductions in crime, and radical improvement in the city's education system - seem to point to the hope of a better future for the city that nearly drowned. New Orleans might not score top marks on all counts. The Ellis Marsallis Centre for music in the 9th Ward - where music legends including Fats Domino lived before Katrina - is one of the projects created to address that problem.Ĭonceived of by saxophonist Branford Marsalis and singer-actor Harry Connick Jr., the center - which provides a home for musicians, and a positive environment where underserved youth can develop musically and academically - has been hailed as "the project that has kept music alive in New Orleans."Īccording to Plyer, the ability to be resilient in the face of any shock requires that a region have a diverse economy, high proportion of skilled workers and low poverty rates.
Projects like The Ellis Marsallis Centre have kept music alive in New Orleans "Of the 900 people that were never found we believe some of them succumbed to animals," he says. The surrounding swamps rose and the alligators and bears came into the city," he went on. Weather experts indicated that Hurricane Ida will be far more intense than Katrina. The latest storm will also strike the same general region with approximately the same wind speed, 155 mph.
"Everything marinated in what was being called toxic soup. Oddly enough, Hurricane Ida’s expected landfall date is the same as Hurricane Katrina 16 years ago. Most of the city was pretty much underwater for weeks, explained Musso. This includes local tour guide Dominick Musso, who was born in New Orleans and helped rebuild the city after the floods. Linger a while to chat with locals and you'll find that everyone has their personal Katrina story.
Thanks to innovative projects, musicians are once again playing in the bars of the city known as "the Big Easy."īut a thousand deaths and 600,000 displaced households aren't forgotten in a decade. Hurricane Ida hit Louisiana on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. These streets - where just more than a decade ago, bewildered homeless, carrying what was left of their lives on their backs, camped on improvised bedding - are now filled with tourists. A brass band marches along Bourbon street in New Orleans' historic French quarter - one of the areas where victims took refuge after levee failures when hurricane Katrina caused dramatic floods in 2005.