The Destruction and GRADUAL Rebuilding of Chalmette Post-Katrina

Hurricane Katrina tore through the St. Bernard Parish, which includes Chalmette, in August of 2005. The US Census for 2000, before the storm, estimated that Chalmette had a population of 32,081. After the storm, however; the population seems less than half of the population that was there in the 2000 census data. City-data.com estimates the population in July of 2007, nearly 2 years after the storm, to be 9,491. An ethnic breakdown of the 2000 census data estimated that about 92.7% of the population was white non-Hispanic as opposed to 89.0% in the estimated 2007 data. It may come as a surprise to some that the Hispanic population remained the same, 4.8% from 2000-2007. The African American population also remained the same from 2000 to 2007, with a steady 2.4%. Additionally, the median household income in 2000 was estimated to be $36,699 while it rose to be $45,255 in 2007.

Remembering this data while analyzing the effects of Hurricane Katrina is crucial. When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana (specifically the New Orleans area) it was a category 3 hurricane. Much of the damage caused by the storm was due to the storm surges and the levees breaking in New Orleans. Originally, it was expected that Hurricane Katrina would make landfall again near the panhandle of Florida, not Louisiana. However, it soon became clear that Katrina had other plans. On August 28^th, President Bush discussed a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans with Governor Blanco leading to a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans (as well as many other areas of Louisiana who had mandatory and voluntary evacuation orders). According to the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, the St. Bernard Parish had 80% of its houses damaged; although other sources put the percentage higher (some even say 100%).

Looking at the 80-100% estimate for the amount of houses that were damaged during Hurricane Katrina and the census data it is clear that Chalmette was slammed by Hurricane Katrina. The St.Bernardproject.org claims that 100% of the houses were uninhabitable after Hurricane Katrina. Ken Winters, who is a member of the St. Bernard Parish government, put together a video about the effects of Hurricane Katrina. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_vY4EaYC04 ) Winters says that flood waters reached anywhere from 2-28 feet in the parish for about 13 days. This video also deems 100% of the houses to be uninhabitable after Hurricane Katrina. According to the video, the entire St. Bernard Parish had an estimated population of 60,000 before Hurricane Katrina but only a post-Katrina population of 20,000 during the day and 8,000 at night. In addition to the 100 percent of houses in Chalmette being uninhabitable, businesses were also destroyed. Taking a look at the 2007 census data it is obvious that some of Chalmette has been rebuilt, considering the fact that almost 9,500 people have since returned to the area. Driving through the neighborhoods you see that many houses have been rebuilt. However, there remains houses that have to this day have not been touched. In some neighborhoods there is a random house still completely destroyed neighbored by many of new houses. The people in Chalmette have well-kept houses and perfectly manicured lawns, something that was also valued before the storm.

Many areas of Louisiana saw an increase in the Hispanic population following the hurricane because people immigrated (legally and illegally) to find labor and help rebuild the affected areas. However, the census data shows that the Hispanic population of Chalmette stayed the same. However, this is due to the fact that Chalmette residences take great pride in keeping their houses and land well-maintained. The people of Chalmette believe that allowing lower income people and low income housing, like the immigrants pouring into Louisiana for labor work, to move into their neighborhoods would decrease the property values because they would not have the means to deal with the upkeep of the property. (This issue is discussed more in another blog.) Another thing that is noticeable when you enter Chalmette is that many businesses have rebuilt, but there is still much more that must be done. There was a grand opening of a Big Lots in October in the area just entering Chalmette. However, just across the street there is an entire plaza that is still destroyed and empty due to the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Another thing to look at is that post-Katrina, Chalmette had approximately 12 schools. Post-Katrina; Chalmette High School, Andrew Jackson Elementary School, and Trist Middle School were the only schools to be reopened. To put into perspective the fact that Chalmette is still rebuilding: on September 17^th of this year the First Baptist Church of Chalmette finally reopened.

A significant event that occurred due to the hurricane was the Murphy Oil Spill. According to the video mentioned above, the oil spill spilled approximately 1 million barrels of oil, making it the largest residential oil spill in the history of the United States. Apparently, the flood waters shifted the oil tank and when the water receded back, the tank tipped over, spilling a million barrels of oil into nearby Chalmette neighborhoods.

In summary, Hurricane Katrina completely destroyed Chalmette, rendering all of its residents homeless, some of its residents missing and dead, and businesses destroyed. More than 4 years later, Chalmette is sitting well below half of the population size of what it was pre-Katrina. It is clear when you drive through the city by the grand-opening of new stores and churches and the road construction that Chalmette is still struggling to rebuild. However, they have been making a gradual effort since just after Katrina. In fact, many people in the town refused to even wait for FEMA assistance to begin the rebuilding proces

Problems in Chalmette

De facto Segregation-
From our experience in Chalmette it seems that Chalmette citizens are very interested in separating themselves from minorities in the area. Coming from New Orleans to Chalmette it is necessary to drive through the Lower Ninth Ward. However, Chalmette citizens seems to ignore the shared border and see them as completely separate areas. We talked to a young African-American school teacher at the Dollar General in Chalmette. When we asked her about the housing situation she explained to us that the city was very segregated. She said that the intersection of Judge Perez and Paris Road is the dividing line, the further west you go the more pockets of African-Americans you find, an example of de facto segregation.

Tension over Housing-
After Hurricane Katrina Chalmette faced a new racial fight over housing when people were starting to resettle in the area. The storm destroyed many houses and a majority of the houses that have not been rebuilt are low-income houses. Additionally, the housing prices in the New Orleans area have increased by 35 percent since the storm, making it very difficult for low-income families to move back into the area. Four years after the storm there is a lot of tension over housing because federal funding for storm victims is coming to an end and affordable public housing was eliminated in 2007, leaving the poor with few options.

Chalmette experienced a drastic population decrease and may on paper seem like a great place to build affordable housing to accommodate those displaced by the storm. However, the culture of Chalmette and the deeply seated racial beliefs motivated Chalmette residents to fight against low-income housing. In September of 2006, the St. Bernard Parish Council created a law that said owners of single-family houses could only rent the house to blood relatives. This is a clear effort to keep minorities out; since people can only rent to blood relatives the racial breakdown of the area will stay the same. The law was revoked when the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center filed a lawsuit.

In 2007 the racial housing problem was once again brought to the forefront of local politics when Realty Advisors tried to build $60 million four apartment buildings in Chalmette. Thirty percent of the apartments would be at market price but the other 70 percent would be reserved for low-income residents. Chalmette residents were adamant that this could not happen. They defended it by saying that they did not want apartments to be built in the area. A moratorium was established by the parish council on all residences with five or more units. A large-scale low-income housing development like the one proposed has the potential to dramatically alter the racial makeup of the area, something that long time residents of Chalmette are opposed to.

Chalmette is not the only New Orleans area to experience this sort of tension post-Katrina. Multiple lawsuits have been filed about similar incidents. In the case Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center vs. St. Bernard Parish a federal judge ruled that the Parish’s motives was racially based and that the construction should proceed. The parish is currently appealing the decision.

Chalmette's Economy

According to the 2007 census, local establishments were made up of 3 mining, 1 utilities, 65 construction, 21 manufacturing, 19 wholesale trade, 66 retail trade, 14 transportation & warehousing, 2 information, 23 finance and insurance, 7 real estate, 30 professional/scientific services, 1 management of companies, 15 support and waste management, 3 educational services, 33 health care, 5 arts/entertainment, 43 accommodation & food services, and 33 other miscellaneous services. The employment size is largest among the construction field (with 1000 or more) and the manufacturing field (500-999). The number of paid employees during the March 12 pay period was 5,435 (http://censtats.census.gov/). With about 75% of the population over the age of 18, the number of Chalmetians over 18 was 24,000 as of the 2007 census. This means that there is a large group of people working outside of the town of Chalmette. When we asked a woman in a local dollar store where most people in Chalmette worked, she said that the majority of people “work in the city” of New Orleans. Chalmette, from our studies, seems to be comprised of many local businesses (nail salons, dentist offices, auto repair shops, etc.), but it seems predominantly to be a bedroom community. This means that most of the employed population in Chalmette wakes up and goes into New Orleans to work, and then comes home at the end of the day to sleep.

From what we saw, local businesses make up the main road with some large chains (Big Lots, Dollar Tree, etc.), but Chalmette remains predominantly residential. Many chains seemed to have closed down (Blockbuster, Wendy’s, etc.), with many strip malls empty, without business to fill them.

The Chalmette Refinery is a major industry in St. Bernard Parrish and it dominates the scenery of the south side of Chalmette. It is a joint venture between ExxonMobil and PDVSA (the Venezuelan State Oil company). About 25,110 barrels of mixed crude oil was dislodged and released as a result of Hurricane Katrina, causing 1,050,000 gallons of oil to devastate 1700 homes nearby.