looking at animals in an urban zoo; a few of them snap pictures with digital cameras.

"This happens more often than you'd like to expect," Joseph says.

Behind Joseph is a large sign that reads, "Tourist: Shame on you. Driving by without stopping, paying to see my pain, 1600+ died here!"

Residents of the 9th Ward are very expressive, and in other parts of the neighborhood, signs to tourists are common. One begs passersby to "come and see." Another practically begs onlookers to "come talk to me!" On the side of a wood-framed house that has been badly damaged by the floodwaters, a grim sign tells tourists "1,600 people died so you can take this picture."

This was not a for-profit tour, but turned out to be a group from Catholic Charities checking on their projects within the city. Charity organizations and local politicians routinely escort visitors through the 9th Ward and other flood-damaged quarters of the cities.

Residents have also noticed a sharp increase in the number of vehicles "just passing through" the area. "It makes you suspicious," says Cephus Lewis, a lifelong resident of the 9th Ward. "It's a respect thing. The least they could do is stop and say 'hi'."

Like a Cemetery

A tour bus wends its way through the Upper 9th Ward.

(Photo: Charles E. Anderson)

Isabelle Cossart's tour vans used to stop. But, she felt that many of her customers attempted to enter dilapidated homes or tried to take souvenirs from the rubble. "It's like a cemetery," she says, "and people have to have some respect." Over the past several months that the tour has been operating, the stops have become less frequent.

Cossart's business, Tours by Isabelle, is one of three companies offering Post Hurricane Katrina Tours and has been in business over 20 years. Cossart wishes that New Orleans tourists would seek out the beauty of New Orleans, but around 75 percent of her customers request the Post-Hurricane Katrina Tour.

"We're here to give the customers what they want, and what they want is the Hurricane Tour. If we don't do these tours, we're out of a job, and I love my job," she said.

More than just Cossart being out of a job, her guides would also be out of a job. Her tour guides are hurricane survivors, many of whom lost their homes during the storm. When asked if she gives to charity, she says that the high pay she affords her guides is a charitable donation.

Patrick Price, another 9th Ward resident, has a different opinion on the tours. "They should be doing something to help us," he says. "If they just drive by and look, what are they doing for us?"

The Gray Line company used to donate $3 of tour proceeds to nonprofit corporations. At the outset of each tour, the tourists would choose one of the following charities for the contribution to be donated to: Habitat for Humanity, City Park, America's Wetlands, The Louisiana SPCA or the Tipitina's Foundation. However, since the storm, the tourism industry has not been as profitable as it once was, and the charitable donations have stopped. "We had to save our company," said Gray Line Vice President and General Manager Greg Hoffman.

Both Gray Line and Tours by Isabelle begin their tours in the French Quarter, a part of the city that was virtually undisturbed by Hurricane Katrina; both tours highlight the locations of the levee breaches; both tours end in the Upper 9th Ward's Musicians' Village. The entire way, knowledgeable tour guides recount tales of suffering and explain that Hurricane Katrina and the response of inept government created America's worst disaster.

Touching the Pain

On the surface, buses guiding tourists through the rubble of a city where of 1,600 people died seems somehow unsavory. But the tours provide essential context to the disaster. Gray Lines guides explain in simple English how pumping stations were installed within the floodplain, a flaw that allowed them to be flooded instead of pumping water out of the city. Cossart's guides give tourists a firsthand account of the hurricane and its aftermath. Both tours take passengers over a bridge spanning the man-made Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a commercial shipping channel that allowed a 35-foot storm surge to crash into the 9th Ward. The tours pass by gated communities and FEMA trailer parks; they pass pumping stations and weak levees, and they highlight areas that are recovering as well as those that still need help. Without this total view of New Orleans' destruction and rebirth, many tourists would have no understanding of what happened, nor would they understand how much is yet to be done.

"Many people ask us where to give money or where they can volunteer," says Cossart. In fact, "voluntourism" has become as much a part of the New Orleans tourist scene as the Garden District. Thousands of people flock from around the country to spend a few days rebuilding houses, cooking meals or clearing debris. Tours may well play a role in influencing average people to get involved in rebuilding.

Opinions on tours are as varied as the 9th Ward residents themselves. But most agree that they want people to know what happened in New Orleans.

Another area resident opined, "My experience is that the people here are so kind and it really seems to mean a lot to them when the strangers who come through their neighborhood ... take the time to greet them and say hello. It is important in the healing that they share about what they have been through and are continuing to go through."

Ninth Ward resident Christine Green is happy to talk to strangers looking around her neighborhood. But she doesn't mind if they just stop to talk or just drive by. She's just happy that people care enough to come by.

"When the tourists pass by, we just smile and wave," she says.

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Charles E. Anderson's writings have been published by Truthout, Common Dreams and The Huffington Post. He lives in Boone, North Carolina where he is a junior at Appalachian State University. He can be contacted through his web site: www.charleseanderson.com.

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