clack to viewBack in May , there were reportsthat the rebuilt levees in New Orleans were still leak , despite the fact that storm season had nearly arrived . One example of a leaker was this one , a levee along the Industrial Canal that was patched up for nearly $ 22 million and scarcely managed to hold back the waters whipped up by yesterday ’s highly - diminished Hurricane Gustav . Though Gustav was predicted to possibly reach Category 4 and slam New Orleans now , luckily the storm go down to a class 2 and did n’t drop dead direct over the city ( Katrina , which glut the metropolis three years ago , was Category 3 ) . It would seem New Orleans was saved by fortune alone . But there are also sign that New Orleans is tight becoming one of the most cataclysm - prepared cities in the worldly concern .
Though it ’s potential that a bigger violation on New Orleans would have caused the rebuilt levee to collapse — and indeed it might still founder under the press of all that piss — the US Army Corps of Engineers is overhasty to direct out thatthe repairs are not terminated yet . Still , there is Bob Hope that the data they gathered during yesterday ’s tempest will make the make out levee more likely to be photoflood - trial impression . sure areas , like the industrial area you see above , were flooded despite preparation . But while most of Louisiana ’s coast suffered a blackout , New Orleans remained powered up . slop levee photo above the fold by Stephen Morton / Getty Images . Topped - up levee and industrial field photos by Jim Watson / AFP / Getty Images .
The most ugly images and stories that emerged after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans were all related to to the evacuees . Or rather , the want of evacuees , since the mental process of get masses out of town went so badly that fatal accident were high and tales of evacuation centers gloomy ( people were beat and raped in the metropolis ’s emergency facilities , for example ) . But when Hurricane Gustav jeopardize this class , excreting began days in advance and destitute omnibus and wagon train carried more than 2 million multitude out of the New Orleans and Louisiana slide areas . Of naturally , about 10,000 citizenry remain behind in New Orleans . But that was by selection . Perhaps because huge portions of the population never returned after Hurricane Katrina , New Orleans has become one of the most easy - to - evacuate metropolis in the world . Evacuee photos by Mario Tama / Getty Images
In the months lead up to Hurricane Gustav , images like this one by the graffiti creative person Banksy started showing up on the levee . New Orleans has already startle to weave its status as a weather disaster city into its public art . This is important because when tempest catastrophe become part of the city ’s ego - figure of speech , part of its mythology even , it can help to reinforce its citizen ’ power to mobilize in a disaster . This playful image may seem frivolous when equate to the faces of those evacuees above , but it ’s testimonial to the way New Orleans residents view themselves as storm survivors . Now it only remains to be seen if the city and the US government can cease those repairs in time to write the city from a truly dangerous storm . We ’ve pose evidence now that it can brave a category 2 , but there is already another hurricane call in Hanna brewing over the Atlantic — soon to be followed by more in this storm - heavy season . Will New Orleans go the way of Mayan cities , which some believe were abandoned due to years of horrendous weather ? Or will it become a hardened city of the future , prepared for disasters that could become part of mundane aliveness as our climate slowly metamorphose ? Banksy artistic creation photo by Chris Graythen / Getty Images
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