More than buildings will have to be rebuilt
By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY
Rebuilding New Orleans' infrastructure will likely cost billions and take years. Hurricane Katrina's impact on the Big Easy's glorious cultural heritage and spirit may be more difficult, if not impossible, to restore.
"New Orleans banks on its heritage and history," says Ari Kelman, a historian who lived there for 2½ years researching his 2003 book, A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans. "This could be a serious blow."
Outsiders know the Big Easy for jazz, the French Quarter and North America's biggest Mardi Gras festivals. Beneath the hard-partying reputation is a region steeped in French and Spanish colonialism and African-American culture that is woven into much of New Orleans' social fabric and collective psyche.
"It's the most magical place in the world," says New Orleans native and diet guru Richard Simmons.
Yet some wonder whether that magic will be permanently washed away.
"It's so steeped in culture. But now I feel like that spirit is broken," says CNN news executive Kim Bondy, a New Orleans native whose two-story brick home was heavily damaged by flooding. "The thing that hurts me so deeply is that these are things you can't rebuild and you just can't get back."
New Orleans has a higher percentage of longtime residents than most U.S. cities. Thousands are missing and feared dead. With 350,000 homes damaged or destroyed, thousands more are destitute, their possessions and livelihoods destroyed. Despite deep roots, it's unclear how many who have fled will make their exodus permanent.
"I'm not sure the city can come back," says Louisiana native and novelist James Lee Burke, who believes the flood merely exacerbated the city's decades-long spiral of descent and social deterioration from illegal drugs, crime and government neglect.
Historians note that New Orleans rebounded from three health epidemics in the mid-1800s, in which thousands died, and the Mississippi River flood of 1927, which killed hundreds. But the scale of Katrina's fallout is unprecedented and could permanently alter how residents and tourists view the city.
"New Orleans has a reputation for being fun," says psychologist Robert Butterworth. "When you have images of thousands of people struggling, it doesn't help the city's image."
But like Simmons, others hold out hope for New Orleans to rebound.
"Maybe it comes back stronger," says political strategist and commentator James Carville, known as the Ragin' Cajun. "No one forgot how to play the saxophone or how to cook or write. Or have a good time. That's all still there. Calamities and disasters are part of New Orleans' history. This too shall pass."
Contributing: Deirdre Donahue and Karen Thomas