Our tour of the Ninth Ward of New Orleans:  

Taken from the lift bridge over the channel that separates the Lower Ninth ward from the upper Ninth Ward.

Brad Pit, the actor, has given money or built many houses in the neighborhoods near the levee breach.

This house still has the markings from Hurricane Katrina. After the waters receded, each house was searched and marked with the date and whether there were people and pets inside or not.

Number of the dead:  at least 1,780 souls.

The memorial marks how fast the water rose every three minutes.

At the highest point, the water rose to 17 feet. This memorial only shows the height of the water once it had settled, so it was actually higher than this monument shows.

Memorial includes parts of a house that was flooded.

New houses or brick houses are all you see now. All the wooden frame houses were destroyed.

These streets used to be lined with houses, close together.

There are a couple of boats that were abandoned after the search.

These streets were never even paved????

All that's left of this duplex/ house is the porch. 

This house was searched twice. Once when the flood receded enough to get in the upper story
and again when the waters were down enough to get into the lower level.

Where the neighborhoods used to be.

The draw bridge over the channel is in the background.
The levee wasn't breached until August 30th; two days following the hurricane.

Cody and Jim standing on the new levee.

This is the levy that was breached after Hurricane Katrina.

These are some of the Brad Pit houses.

We made it home.  Here are some of the photos of our last days.  What a great trip we had!  We did have a 'sickness bug' circulate through some of us.  As a result, Ann ended up taking Annette to the ER at LSU where they spent most of the day.  It was a lesson in patient endurance.  Even Annette says she was blessed by having to let those in the group take care of her and pray for her.  She is doing great today.  The Lord was with us and he really, really blessed us and Urban Impact, too.

Karen and Tim and Cody on the Trolley

Windows from demolished buildings made a monument.

Terry, Karen and Pastor John

Louis Prima

Strange characters on Bourbon Street

Is it a horse or is it human?

Bill Tice on the drywall crew

Hang onto your mask, Ruthie!

The high water line is right under the windows.

Gumbo

The new entrance area

Administrative Office Spaces now ready for paint.

All was nice and neat by the time we were done.

Water break

Pastor Mike from Iowa sprayed the texture.

Justin Bartz and Pastor Mike

Jeanne was high on the ladder, painting

High on the lift, putting up lights

Sheet rockers

The work site looked a lot better as we left it on Thursday. The little church on the property will eventually become the 'hip-hop church.' It needs a LOT of work.

Living Witness church in the Central City of New Orleans. In this part of the city, the elevation prevented the water from rising so many of the houses remained in tact.

Super Dome was about a mile away from our jobsite. Thousands of people were evacuated to, or walked to, the Super Dome after the hurricane. It remained surrounded by water for .... a long time and there was no electricity.  18,000 of them were eventually evacuated to the Houston Astrodome.