On Monday August 29, 2005 , Hurricane Katrina made landfall just east of New Orleans. Residents were thrilled to avoid the direct hit that many had predicted. Then the levees failed and the water came anyway. Lots of it. All told, 80 percent of the city was inundated and hundreds of thousands of people scrambled to higher ground.
Too many died. Most of the displaced made their way back to the city. Others never returned.
The story of New Orleans in the aftermath of calamity has been one of hope and fear, of uncertain and uneven progress, of countless individual struggles and competing visions for the future. It may be too soon to claim that the city has recovered from Katrina and the flood. But, the people of New Orleans have shown extraordinary resilience.
No doubt, the city’s cultural standard-bearers helped remind residents why they were mucking out their houses, cleaning out their refrigerators and rebuilding. The goal was to resume life in a city unlike any other on the planet — where family and food and music and the joys of the day-to-day matter. Ironically, the city’s cultural standard-bearers were facing the very same challenges as the people for whom they served as inspiration. They had lost their possessions too, or their health, or their way back home.
This week on Music Inside Out some of our best-loved musicians and cultural advocates discuss their experiences during the storm and after the flood. They tell us not only what recovery looks and smells like — but what it sounds like too.
