There is so much to see and do in New Orleans – all in a matter of blocks. You can tour the Mississippi Riverfront area where the Aquarium of the Americas, the Entergy I-Max Theater, the shops at the Riverwalk Marketplace and Harrah’s Casino are all conveniently located within walking distance of each other. Or perhaps you’d prefer to ride the city’s famous Street Cars to see the above ground cemeteries with their elaborate grave markers. Or it might be your choice to take a Street Car to the City Park where the Besthoff Sculpture Garden and the New Orleans Museum of Art are located. Naturally, no visit to Nawlins is complete without checking out the many excellent restaurants and art galleries of the French Quarter; or the eclectic Voodoo museum, live music venues, strip clubs and bars of Bourbon and Canal Streets.

So I was surprised when fellow journalists created a waiting list after being invited to tour the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Yes, six years later and the results of the deadly natural disaster – including new levees being built - are a huge tourist attraction.

Reporters, including myself, were curious to see what the US Army Corp of Engineers has been working on since 1.2 million people were evacuated, and 16-hundred people were killed as a result of Hurricane Katrina’s assault of the Crescent City in September of 2005.

We were treated to a firsthand view of what was originally referred to as the Greater New Orleans Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System. It was originally called, “Hurricane Protection System” but the name was changed to “Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction” since it was feared the phrase “protection system” would provide a false sense of security prompting residents to ignore future evacuation orders.

The tour was led by Mark Schleifstein of the Times-Picayune newspaper who explained how New Orleans is a city completely surrounded by water and wetlands. His handouts illustrated how the city’s geography led to problems after levees were built to protect homes and structures, but in turn, those levees stopped the flow of sentiment into adjacent wetlands. That lack of sediment resulted in deterioration and subsidence of wetlands—which in turn left New Orleans more vulnerable to the storm surge as was evident during Katrina.

Then we toured the Seabrook Floodgate Complex now under construction. We witnessed the latest technology and design for this massive steel and concrete barrier system . Overall, members of the US Army Corp of Engineers (initially blamed for constructing a faulty, inadequate levee system) are being hailed as hardworking, dedicated, professionals who have completed 98% of the congressionally ordered work. All in less than six years.

Whew! I heard so many details and facts—my brain was spinning like it does after sipping an original Pat O’Brian’s Hurricane drink too fast!

Overall the tour was fact-based and informative—but it’s the real-life revelations from real people that make it such a popular tourist draw.

We heard gruesome details as we drove past the so-called, Refuge of Last Resort, a.k.a. the Superdome. We were reminded of the tragic and sad images burned into our memories of poor, bedraggled, mostly black storm evacuees who waited for days in the Superdome without adequate care. Yet our tour guide says what we DIDN’T see or hear about the hardworking volunteers who rounded up makeshift grills to cook for the hungry masses. Of course, most of the food was looted from nearby storefronts and would have spoiled otherwise.

Our handouts included a detailed map of the city covered in red dots. Each dot marks a Victim Recovery Location, in other words, the site where a dead body was found. The Lower 9th Ward had the most “dots” after a deluge water filled the area between 6 and 8:30 am on the morning of September 6—while most people were just beginning to start their day. The Uptown Area was also littered with “‘dots” after a tragic number of patients died while trapped in hospitals.

Our Tour Guide shared with us a popular parlor game played by Katrina survivors called, “How High Did the Water Rise at Your Place?” The comic answer, “We had 2 feet of water... on the second floor.”

Joking aside, we drove by many beautiful, stately homes that have been renovated and repaired to their pre-Katrina condition. These homes are examples of Louisiana’s rich heritage and unique architecture. We also passed by scattered deserted and decaying homes that were completely covered by Katrina’s flood waters. These once sturdy homes still sit abandoned. Our tour guide told us many of these vacant, dilapidated homes belonged to older residents who died in the storm or who evacuated and never returned. He also described an “ownership mess” involving generations of occupants with no clear titleholders. Many of these properties remain tangled up in family squabbles that have not yet been resolved in court.

“There are a thousand sad stories, yet there are also a thousand tales and reasons to rejoice. Heroes came out of nowhere,” says Dr. Robert Thomas, a professor at Loyola University of New Orleans.
Dr. Thomas is also a Katrina survivor. He is proud of the city’s rebuilding efforts. As we passed through hard hit St. Bernard Parrish he pointed out the new businesses that are flourishing, many owned by Vietnamese families. He says, “People are frustrated and are tired of being asked why do they still live here? It’s because the water is their livelihood. Shrimping and oyster harvesting are big in this community.”

Here’s a little known fact the professor was happy to share: “Tulane and Loyola Universities had to turn away student applicants—many of whom came as volunteers in high school to help rebuild, and fell in love with the people and the community and were eager to return to attend college.”

The tour ended in the Lower 9th Ward where we saw houses built by volunteers and architects through the “Make it Right” non-profit group organized by Brad Pitt. Yes, the Brad Pitt! The homes look like beach homes, sleek with modern designs and high off of the ground for added protection from future floods.

The post-Katrina tour is so popular because it provides journalists a chance to review what we initially heard and see what “truths” have since surfaced. That’s the goal of Sandy Rosenthal, founder of the Levees.org website whose mission is to “bust myths” as she proudly declares. And as then-President Bush said about then-FEMA Director Michael Brown—Sandy is doing a “helluva a job”.

Rosenthal lets Mother Nature off the hook when it comes to Katrina—which is not what the news media’s initial coverage concluded. So when I asked her what she wants journalists to take away from the tour, she quickly responded, “I want the media to stop using harmful, false stories about Katrina.” Her hand out states, “The catastrophic flooding of metro New Orleans was due to the failure of levees and floodwalls which should have performed; and also to the man-made destruction of protective forests and wetlands in south Louisiana which had historically performed as storm surge buffers.”

I leave New Orleans with a nice t-shirt, a Pat O’Brian Hurricane glass and a string of Mardi Gras beads—but the best take away comes in the form of one haunting statement on Levees.org:
“With 55% of the American people (more than 157 million) living in counties protected by levees, it is important that Americans living outside the New Orleans region understand what really happened in south Louisiana during Katrina.”

Those words have a sobering effect—something this New Orleans tourist is happy to share with others not far from the Texas coastline.