Here are the stories that gripped New Orleans’ attention in 2022:
#10 Coach Sean Payton leaves the Saints
After a long and successful run as the head coach of the New Orleans Saints, 2022 saw Sean Payton announce he was moving on.
He stepped down from his role as head coach after 16 seasons. Payton took over the job in 2006, and he immediately turned the franchise around in his first season by acquiring quarterback Drew Brees, finishing 10-6, ranked first in the NFL in total offense, capturing the franchise's first NFC South division title and advancing to the NFC Championship Game for the first time in team history. Payton departed the Saints with a 161-97 (152 regular season victories and nine postseason wins) overall record (.631 winning percentage), having led New Orleans to ten winning seasons, nine playoff berths, seven NFC South titles, three NFC Championship game appearances and the Super Bowl XLIV Championship.
#9 Hubig's Pies return
Hubig's pies finally hit store shelves in greater New Orleans again in 2022. The hand-held sweet treats, first introduced in 1922, had been gone for a decade.
Fire tore through the bakery in New Orleans in 2012. Repeated efforts to restart the company failed, and internal family issues contributed to a delay in resuming production. There were several hopeful signs over the years that the pies were coming back, but it wasn't until November of 2022 that the more than 10-year wait was over.
#8 Covington Priest and his assistant murdered
A shocked Covington awoke to the news on November 28th, 2022 that a beloved clergyman and his long-time pastoral assistant were murdered and burned beyond recognition.
Their bodies were found behind a business in historic Downtown Covington. Father Otis Young and Pastoral Associate Ruth Prats had been beaten, stabbed and burned. Police arrested Antonio Tyson. They say he recently got out of prison after more than three decades behind bars. Tyson reportedly went door to door looking for victims before finding Young and Prats; allegedly robbing, kidnapping, killing and burning them. Young was 71-year-old, Prats was 73.
#7 Hurricane season less active than feared, but Florida took multiple hits
Louisiana escaped any hurricane activity in 2022 after federal forecasters had called for a very active season.
NOAA had predicted up to 21 named storms with as many as ten becoming hurricanes. By the end of the year, there were 14 named storms, of which eight became hurricanes. The 2022 season saw three hurricane landfalls along the coast of the U.S. mainland. Hurricane Ian hit twice. It made landfall first as a Category 4 storm in Cayo Costa, Florida, and again as a Category 1 in Georgetown, South Carolina. As a Category 4 with 150 mph maximum sustained winds, Hurricane Ian tied for the fifth-strongest hurricane ever to make landfall in the U.S. Hurricane Nicole made landfall as a Category 1 in north Hutchinson Island, Florida.
Hurricane Fiona made landfall outside of the mainland U.S. as a Category 1 near Punta Tocon, Puerto Rico.
#6 Tornadoes hit Southeast Louisiana twice in 2022
In March of 2022, severe weather struck greater New Orleans and produced the strongest tornado on record for the region.
A rare EF-3 tornado with winds up to 160 mph struck Jefferson, St. Bernard and Orleans Parish. St. Bernard Parish took the worst of it, with widespread damage around Arabi. The National Weather Service determined the tornado touched down in Jefferson Parish, southwest of Terrytown. It moved into Orleans Parish, then crossed the Mississippi River into Arabi, crossed the Intracoastal Waterway in New Orleans East and continued northeast. One person died. In December of 2022, another tornado followed a shockingly similar path. It caused more damage in on the Westbank of Jefferson Parish before also hitting Arabi. It happened on a day that also saw tornadoes across the region and the state. One person died in St. Charles Parish and two more in Northeast Louisiana.
#5 LSU football exceeds expectations, beats Alabama and wins SEC West
Most predictions for the LSU football team in 2022 had the squad struggling to rebuild with a new coach, new quarterback and lots of other questions.
Head Coach Brian Kelly and quarterback Jayden Daniels, however, stunned many by surging into the top ten and taking down arch rival Alabama (ranked number 6 at the time) along with beating seventh ranked Ole Miss. LSU won the SEC West. The Tigers would finish 2022 ranked #11 and preparing for the Citrus Bowl on January second.
#4 Rocket and space ship built in New Orleans orbits the moon as NASA prepares to return to the lunar surface and then land astronauts on Mars
In 2022, NASA's Artemis project successfully launched the Orion Spacecraft and Space Launch System Rocket.
The crew capsule, built at New Orleans' Michoud Assembly Facility, orbited the moon and returned to Earth. It was the first step toward returning humans to the moon, building a base camp in the moon, and then taking astronaut to Mars. The SLS Rocket was also build at Michoud. New Orleans workers continue to construct rockets and crew capsules for future missions.
#3 Effort launched to recall unpopular New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell
Amid a series of scandals in 2022 and a popularity rating that fell to less than a third of voters approving of New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell's job performance, a recall effort began to try and remove the mayor from office.
As critics complained Cantrell was doing little to address the skyrocketing crime and dwindling NOPD, she was also under scrutiny for taking frequent trips with luxury accommodations and first or business class flights. Other controversies also fueled the effort that saw tens of thousands of people signing petitions to recall Cantrell. As of the end of 2022, organizers were confident they would have the needed signatures by February of 2023 to get the recall on the ballot.
#2 Nearly all abortions outlawed in Louisiana
The year 2022 will be remembered as a huge turning point in the battle over abortion. When the US Supreme Court overturned the landmark ruling Roe V Wade, states were free to institute their own laws governing abortion.
The majority Republican Louisiana Legislature and Governor John Bel Edwards, a pro-life Democrat, had already moved to create a law that would ban nearly all abortion in the state if the Supreme Court returned that right to Louisiana. The only exceptions are to save the life of the mother or if the fetus is not viable, as confirmed by multiple doctors. All of the state's abortion clinics closed.
#1 Historic crime and a shrinking NOPD
In 2022, violent crime in New Orleans reached levels not seen in more than 25 years... again making New Orleans America's Murder Capital with the most killings per capita.
Murders hit levels not seen since 1996. The city averages a homicide every 32 hours in 2022. Meanwhile, amid awful morale, the NOPD shrank to levels not seen in generations with slightly more than 900 officers still on the force designed to be 1,500 strong.
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