Levees.org has unveiled a new outdoor exhibit to detail flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina. The 100-foot-long pavilion and gardens show the outline of a the home that had been there, but was slammed off its foundation.
There is no more home left at 5000 Warrington Drive. It ended up in the middle of the Gentilly street after the London Avenue Canal breached. But Levees.org is leasing the lot, and has opened an exhibit to explain what happened there, and in other areas around the city.
Levees.org founder Sandy Rosenthal says she expects locals to visit, along with tourists.
“People arrive at Louis Armstrong airport with a human desire to understand the flooding, she said. "They want to see it. Feel it. Touch it. And we feel that by building this exhibit – at the site of a breach – we give them that opportunity. We feel like we’re filling a void.”
Landscaping uses native plants to form a rain garden.
“It was designed in order to contain water and trap it and use it rather than just letting it all drain out into the street and into the drainage canal," she said. "So we’re taking a lot of pressure off of the municipal drainage system. And they’re also beautiful.”
There are six eight-foot-long panels explaining the engineering failures along the levee system and their catastrophic consequences. Rosenthal says the information was reviewed by independent experts. There are also photographs to show what had been where visitors will now stand.
