Rolf Potts in New Orleans: A Visit to the Lower Ninth Ward
Travel Blog • Michael Yessis • 03.14.06 | 12:46 PM ET
Crass as it might seem, Potts writes in his latest Yahoo! column, “disaster tourism” is a time-honored travel tradition. “Thomas Cook started taking British travelers on tours of American Civil War battlefields in 1865; a couple years later, Mark Twain and his cohorts famously toured the war-torn city of Sevastopol (where Twain chided his travel companions for carrying off armfuls of shrapnel as souvenirs),” Potts writes. And a lot of travelers are now heading to the Lower Ninth Ward, the district in New Orleans that took the brunt of the destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina last year.
Potts recently made the journey, too. “[I]n an era of global mass media and secondhand experience, a tourist foray into the flood zone promised something that has become increasingly rare: a travel experience that is vividly, irrevocably authentic,” he writes. “Hence, despite the ethical complexities behind such an activity, journeying into to the Lower Ninth Ward carried a tantalizing allure.”
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Michael Yessis is the cofounder and coeditor of World Hum.
isabelle cossart 03.14.06 | 9:49 PM ET
Just in case you may want to know, I have been leading historical guided van tours to the disaster areas of my city since October 1st, (Greyline started Jan.1st !) and I am smaller but better !
thanks for your VERY positive article ! I really appreciate it !
Good luck to you !Isabelle