Residents hope deteriorating Katrina memorial will be replaced before 20th anniversary
By Shay O’Connor
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Louisiana (WDSU) — Aug. 29 marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated our city. Two decades later, and a memorial placed in one of the hardest hit areas in our city is visibly falling apart.
In Tennessee and North Claiborne, WDSU’s Shay O’Connor reported on the current condition of the memorial.
Karen Smothers of the Lower 9th Ward said, “It’s a shame. It was put there. To remember what happened. Is this what you let happen to a memorial?”
Once a symbol of the many lives lost amid Hurricane Katrina, and the heartbreak of the Lower 9. The memorial placed here in 2015 could once be seen bright and bold.
Now, “It just deteriorated. People started sleeping out here. They stole the bench. No upkeep. No nothing,” said Robert Stark with Big 9 Social Aid and Pleasure Club.
Stark, a Lower 9th Ward native, said he used to be the area up.
“I used to cut the grass and keep the trash off the property. When they took the funding away, that was it. No one else to continue the upkeep,” Stark said.
For those who live in the area, lost homes and family members during the storm. This is sacred ground.
Robert Green, a Lower 9th Ward native, said, “All this was placed here for a reason. To think this memorial would fall in disarray.”
Green lost both his mom and granddaughter when the extreme high waters rushed through the Lower 9 in the hours after the storm.
For him, the monument symbolized what the community once was and was hoping to be.
“All you need to do is just fix it. I know people who can actually rebuild what was there,” Green said.
The city of New Orleans sent WDSU the following statement after we reached out asking if they would be tearing down the memorial, following reports of this made by citizens.
“The Department of Parks and Parkways was recently notified of unsafe conditions at a neutral ground art installation at Tennessee and N. Claiborne, adjacent to the stone Katrina memorial. The Department was unable to establish contact with the artist responsible for the installation and its maintenance, despite reaching out to several local entities.
“In planning to have the wood and exposed nails from the collapsed structure removed, the Department was approached by a local developer, Gardner Construction, who expressed interest in restoring the installation. The Department is now assisting with permitting to ensure its restoration by the anniversary.”
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