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Homes Beat Floods; Will They Survive Rebuilding?

This home bears many of the decorative flourishes that mark it as distinctive. Will it be saved from the bulldozer?
Greg Allen, NPR
This home bears many of the decorative flourishes that mark it as distinctive. Will it be saved from the bulldozer?
Not all historic homes in New Orleans are worth a lot of money... but they may well be worth saving. This home is of the shotgun style prevalent in the area.
Greg Allen, NPR /
Not all historic homes in New Orleans are worth a lot of money... but they may well be worth saving. This home is of the shotgun style prevalent in the area.

New Orleans' low-lying Ninth Ward suffered back-to-back floods as hurricanes Katrina and Rita rolled through the Gulf region. The historic Holy Cross neighborhood escaped much of the destruction, but residents are still concerned about the future of their 150-year-old neighborhood.

Holy Cross is full of indigenous New Orleans architecture, from shotgun houses to bungalows. But residents have been unable to survey damage since Katrina struck (though some have sneaked back in) and they are worried by rumors that most of the lower Ninth Ward might be bulldozed.

Stephanie Bruno of the Preservation Resource Center, which renovates and sells houses in historic New Orleans neighborhoods, notes that many houses restored in Holy Cross survived the floods with minimal damage.

City officials say that because of the devastation in other parts of the Ninth Ward, they're not sure yet when they'll be able to allow residents to return to Holy Cross.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

As NPR's Miami correspondent, Greg Allen reports on the diverse issues and developments tied to the Southeast. He covers everything from breaking news to economic and political stories to arts and environmental stories. He moved into this role in 2006, after four years as NPR's Midwest correspondent.