Hodomania by Benjamin Simpson

    In 2006 Cameron and I returned to New Orleans to see the city in which we had both previously lived.

    The Ninth Ward, on the other side of the canal from the French Quarter was still complete devastation. The homes were still standing, but abandoned. Weeds grew up in the yards and the only cars in sight were ones still sitting derelict from a year ago.

    Of the main commercial road running through the area, all the businesses were still shut down, the strip malls abandoned, water stains still visible, and rusty remnants laying around.

    Most of the houses, still had the X’s painted by the National Guard on the front doors, and remnants of the anarchy after the floods were still visible in the signs.

    And finally a church with the back collapsing into itself, and the Virgin Mary staring sadly at the ground.

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One of the abandoned houses in the Ninth Ward:
Dead Dog By Fence
Killed By Owner Stupidity
Assholes!
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Another abandoned house in the Ninth Ward, moved off its foundations by the flood water.
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A one-year abandoned street in the Ninth Ward.
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Check cashing store still abandoned in a strip mall, one year after Katrina.
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An abandoned strip mall, with the outlines of the missing letters to the Blockbuster Video still visible on the facade.
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A strip mall shows off the stains from the flood waters.
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Rusty cash register, never to be used again.
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An ‘X’ still proudly displayed on a reinhabitated house in the Ninth Ward.
The ‘X’ was a sign spray painted by the National Guard that the house had been searched for bodies.
The top was the date searched (9-6)
The left was for the National Guard who had searched (TXL, Texas Guard?)
The right was where the Guard entered (NE, North East corner)
And the bottom was for the number of bodies found (0)
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A personalized No Trespassing sign displayed in the Ninth Ward, telling trespassers not to ‘steel’.
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Another sign for looters, telling them that ‘You Are Bein Watch!’
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A church in the Eight Ward (?) collapsing on itself, surrounded by weeds.
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And finally the Virgin Mary, surrounded by weeds, standing alone in a church yard, looking down.
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