Twenty years after Hurricane Katrina, many neighborhoods in Louisiana and Mississippi have fully recovered or even rebuilt better; but others still struggle to come back, and may never be what they once were.
The fight continues in New Orleans East.
When residents of New Orleans East returned home after Hurricane Katrina, many were met with silence. Streets once full of life were empty. Homes stood gutted and broken.
It was, as New Orleans East Matters President Tangee Wall describes, “desolation… desperation.”
For Wall, along with fellow leaders Eva Washington and Desha Greely, the first question was whether coming back was even an option.
All three were born, bred, or drawn back to the East, and what they found was a neighborhood left behind. While other parts of New Orleans received resources, leadership visits, and media attention, the East seemed to have been forgotten.
But for these women, and for so many others, that was unacceptable.
“Katrina didn’t take anything that couldn’t be rebuilt,” Wall said. “We just needed the resources and the concern.”
So they organized. In hotel conference rooms in Baton Rouge, displaced residents began meeting weekly, making calls to leaders, and driving back into New Orleans East to advocate for their community.
If anyone thought the East would fade away, Wall, Washington, Greely, and countless others stood up and said: absolutely not.
Nearly 20 years later, the fight for recovery has been anything but easy. Progress often feels like “two steps forward, two steps back.” But the women of New Orleans East Matters point to milestones that show just how far the neighborhood has come.
The first school to reopen after Katrina wasn’t Uptown or Downtown, it was in New Orleans East, and it’s since gone on to become a multi–Blue Ribbon award winner.
Locally owned restaurants, coffee shops, and gathering places have taken root. And soon, a long-awaited carousel will return to Joe Brown Park.
To some, a carousel might seem small. But to Wall, it is everything. “It’s a testament to the spirit of New Orleans East. We are timeless, classic, a little nostalgic, but still standing.”
Still, the challenges are real. Public funding cuts, global economic pressures, and a narrative of safety in the French Quarter that sometimes overshadows the East all weigh heavily.
And while community pride runs deep, Wall, Washington, and Greely say true recovery requires equal resources, continued investment, and recognition of the East’s place in the city’s future.
For them, giving up is not an option. “We’ve been counted out before,” Greely said, “but we’re still here.”
New Orleans East may have been forgotten in the past. But thanks to the voices that refuse to be silenced, its story is still being written...one step, one victory, one carousel at a time.
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