A Virginia pipe organ journal

HURRICANE KATRINA

In building this new site, I had decided not to include my horrific photos of the Katrina flood damage to my original organ and home. Several friends who have looked at this site have asked me to put those photos back on the web as a reminder of what once was, and how quickly an event can change our lives. New Orleanians will measure time in BK and AK (before and after Katrina) for some time to come.

These before and after photos are of the room that contained the pedal division of the organ. In the rear of the photo, the water mark can be seen at the 7.5' level on the walls.

Here is the main chamber before and after. While it may look like some of the metal pipes are not badly damaged, the three-week duration bath of acid and salt water had attacked the metal to the point that the pipes disintegrated into powder and metal fragments when they were touched. All solder was literally melted by the chemicals. Most of the pipe work was also bent and crushed when the chests floated and then came to rest in other than upright positions.

Close-up view of concert flute pipes.

The organ and the house were both total losses, as were all of the contents. A lifetime of family photos, heirlooms from four generations of ancestors, and all but the clothes on our backs at the time, we lost. Katrina is said to have been the worst natural disaster of our lifetime. I disagree with the "natural" part. Our home would have survived Katrina with only minor damage had it not been for the "man made" disaster of the levee failures that flooded the city. I hold the US Army Corps of Engineers 100% responsible for this disaster. There was nothing "natural" about it.