Built St. Louis > > On the Road in New Orleans Lower 9th Ward - south
South of N. Clairborne Avenue is a section of the Lower 9th Ward known as the Holy Cross neighborhood. Most of it is still standing; relatively few houses have been torn down, and none were outright destroyed by the floodwaters pouring in from the levee break to the north. The floodwaters receded after a couple of days here... but it was enough to damage every structure in the neighborhood. A few houses have been scraped away; a scattered few are in some stage of renovation, with FEMA trailers parked in the front yard and owners and volunteers working to clean up the mess. But most of the area remains deserted.
The Mississippi River levee defines the south edge of the neighborhood; an enormous ocean-going chemical freighter was docked at a transfer point and loomed over the neighborhood on the day of our visit. To the west is the Industrial Canal, crossed by two bridges and divided by a lock that controls the transfer of water between the river and Lake Ponchartrain a few miles north.
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