Lower 9th Ward - north
Photographs from December 27th, 2006

The Lower 9th is a relatively small area, cut off from the remainder of the 9th Ward by the Industrial Canal, dredged in the 1920s. It was a working class neighborhood, a tightly-knit community full of modest homes. It is divided roughly in half by N. Clairborne Avenue; the section to the north is the most devastated area of the city.

These overviews show the area where the levee broke, allowing a deluge of water (and an enormous freight barge) to pour into the neighborhood. Some houses were utterly destroyed; others were swept off their foundations, colliding with their neighbors or coming to rest in the street. By the time the water levels stabilized here, the water was so high that no visible watermark lines remain on the neighborhood's houses.

View eastward on N. Clairborne Avenue.