When Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29, 2005, much of the
Gulf Coast Region and almost the entire
Metro New Orleans Area was forced to
evacuate for several weeks, as
local governments re-established basic infrastructure for electricity and water. Some residents emptied their refrigerators before they evacuated. However, most residents in the region did not know that they would lose power for weeks, or that they would be
unable to return home until a month or more later. When they returned, they found that their refrigerators were filled with
decomposing food. This food was so rotten that it had
dissolved plastic,
corroded metal, and dissolved
rubber refrigerator liners. Even residents who suffered no flood damage lost their refrigerators in this way. Residents took photographs of their destroyed refrigerators for the
insurance companies,
taped the doors shut, and carried them out of their homes as soon as possible. However, the destruction throughout the region was so extensive that garbage collection was not fully restored for many weeks. Local government officials required residents to separate their garbage into daily trash,
construction debris (insulation, carpeting, sheet rock), organic debris (grass clippings, fallen branches, fallen trees), and electronic appliances. Refrigerators were assigned their own specific pickup date, and were considered too
hazardous to be mixed with other storm debris. Only
waste collectors trained in the handling of
hazardous materials and armed with
special equipment and
hazmat suits were assigned the task of collecting refrigerators. For this reason, abandoned refrigerators sat in front of private homes for weeks. There were thousands of refrigerators lined along the streets of every neighborhood affected by the storms, usually surrounded by piles of garbage bags and other debris. Residents quickly began decorating their refrigerators with
graffiti. It was at this point that the destroyed refrigerators became known as
Katrina Refrigerators. At first, the graffiti featured humorous or satirical messages. The graffiti became increasingly elaborate, and soon developed into a form of art. People began photographing Katrina Refrigerators, and there were even exhibitions and books featuring these photographs. During the first Christmas after Hurricane Katrina, four months after the storm made landfall, some Katrina Refrigerators had not yet been collected. These refrigerators were decorated with festive
Christmas ornaments and salutations. By early 2006, occasional additional refrigerators continued to be hauled out to curbs as more locals gutted their houses, but as in parts of town with significant numbers of inhabitants back these were generally picked up within a week or so, as they were profitable for debris pickup teams paid by weight collected. Due to the shorter time staying curbside, the tradition of decorating the refrigerators died out. Katrina Refrigerators set on curbs were eventually collected, the largest portion of them hauled to a scrapyard in an industrial area in back of Florida Avenue in the
Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans to be harvested for scrap metal. For
New Orleans Mardi Gras 2006, several
krewes had floats depicting Katrina refrigerators, and some revelers wore Katrina refrigerator costumes. == Katrina refrigerator quotations ==