Lost fridge... by Marie and Alexane

The picture shows a refrigerator on Franklin Avenue. It stands there as if it has always been there. Besides the fridge, the street is completely empty and devastated by the violence of Katrina. The fridge has its door open to show us all the food in it. It is all messed up, fallen down. Still, we recognize some stuff such as milk, eggs, and bottles of coke and beer.

Normally, the fridge is in a house, in an interior, it has no reason to be outside in the street. It shows that Katrina has changed everything; it has devastated and destroyed the city. The violence moved a fridge, which is really heavy, from one place to another. It also shows that people have lost their goods. They no longer have a complete house, any food to eat... They have lost everything in the hurricane. Nature has literally taken the goods and the lives of people. Fridge is the symbol of consumerism; it is as if Nature has taken over society.

We think we are all partly to blame for the Katrina catastrophe. First of all, people have not taken adequate safety measures by building on risk-free areas. The constructors should have made more tests before building there because they knew there was a risk in these areas. The politicians could have taken preventative measures such as strengthening the dike protecting the city from floods due to hurricanes, creating an evacuation plan for the population, and the construction of buildings adapted to the natural risks on this specific zone. However, the authorities have not provided a sufficient budget to set up these measures and thereby failed to limit the risks associated with this catastrophe. Another reason may have been that the population was not even aware of the risks. Authorities should have set up simulation exercises so that people would have known how to react in case of a natural disaster, or the students should have received some sort of training in school to be informed and know what to do in case of a hurricane.

After the catastrophe, the entire world could have helped by giving money to repair and help the population that had almost lost everything.