Just ahead of the 13th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, a museum dedicated to educating people about the storm -- and the levee breaches -- has opened in Gentilly.
The Flooded House Museum is located at 4918 Warrington Dr. in Gentilly. It was severely damaged when the London Avenue Canal levee, which runs directly behind it, failed during the storm.
It’s been redone to look like it did the day before the levees broke and flooded the city. Visitors can peer in through the windows, like you would a dollhouse or diorama.
The living room walls are painted with a soft yellow, and a giant teddy bear sits on the couch. On the coffee table there’s a newspaper dated August 28th, 2005. It’s headline reads: “KATRINA TAKES AIM.”
The museum was created by levees.org, a local nonprofit. It's goal with the new museum is to educate locals and visitors about how the levees were breached during the storm, and how those infrastructure failures changed the way the federal government builds and inspects levees.
Aaron Angelo is one of the artists who designed the installation.
“We know what happened in 2005,” he said. “But you have kids that were born afterwards in the city and we want to be able to illustrate to them, in perpetuity, what happened here. And allow them to see it.”
Two week from now, the inside will get another makeover. This time, to look like it did after flood waters receded.
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