that decade. In Louisiana's colonial era, this area was developed as
sugar cane plantations, with narrow tracts extending from river frontage that provided the transportation and shipping routes. At the start of the 19th century, the portion closer to the river was developed for residential use, at the same time as the
Bywater area. In 1834 the
United States Army established the
Jackson Barracks here. As late as the 1870s, the area behind Saint Claude Avenue was still mostly small farms with scattered residences. The area on the "woods" (away from the river) side of
Claiborne was mostly undeveloped
cypress swamp. In 1852, the 9th Ward was added as an official district of New Orleans. In 1899 Louisiana passed a law allowing the ward to have drainage and sewage systems. The first bridge of the
Port of New Orleans into the ward was completed in 1919. What became the Lower 9th Ward did not become distinct from the upriver parts of the 9th Ward until the start of the 1920s, when the
Industrial Canal was
dredged. This development bisected the 9th Ward. At this time, people started referring to the area above (upriver) the Canal as the "Upper" 9th Ward, and this area as the "Lower." The section on the River side of St. Claude Avenue, which developed as an urban area first, is sometimes called the "Holy Cross Neighborhood" for
Holy Cross High School, the large
Catholic school. For many years, it attracted students from throughout the city. Construction of the Industrial Canal led to development of the land farther from the river along the Canal; it provided steady work for area laborers. As shipping became
containerized in the later 20th century, however, demand for labor declined, with negative economic consequences for the neighborhood. Some people left to find work in other areas; others struggled with lower-paying jobs.
Hurricane Betsy In 1965,
Hurricane Betsy struck New Orleans. A
levee on the Industrial Canal collapsed, and much of the Lower 9th Ward was flooded. President
Lyndon B. Johnson visited the devastated flooded area shortly after the storm, and ordered aid for the storm victims.
Hurricane Katrina On August 29, 2005,
Hurricane Katrina made landfall just east of New Orleans; the fifth deadliest hurricane and the costliest natural disaster in the
history of the United States. At approximately 10:00 am, the levee wall protecting the Ward broke in multiple sections and flooded the area. Multiple breaches in the levees of at least four canals resulted in catastrophic flooding in a majority of the city. Nowhere in the city was the devastation greater than in the Lower 9th Ward. This was largely due to the
storm surge generated in the
Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, a deep-draft shipping channel built by the
Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1950s. The construction destroyed tens of thousands of acres of protective coastal wetlands that once acted as a storm surge buffer for the community. Storm surge flood waters appear to have poured into the Lower Ninth Ward from at least three sources. To the east, water flowed in from
Saint Bernard Parish, while to the west the Industrial Canal suffered two major breaches: one just south of Florida Avenue, the second between North Galvez and North Roman streets. The force of the water did not only flood homes, but smashed or knocked many off their foundations. A large barge, the
ING 4727 (owned by the
Ingram Barge Company), was swept by flood waters into the neighborhood through the breach near Claiborne Avenue, leveling homes beneath it. The storm surge was so great that even the highest portions of the Lower 9th were flooded; Holy Cross School, which had served as a dry refuge after
Hurricane Betsy, was inundated. The foot of the Mississippi River levee, the area's highest point, took on some 2 to of water. In total, 72 bodies were found as of December 2005. Destruction from the hurricane significantly affected the neighborhood's population. In 2010, there were an estimated 1,060 households in the area, down from 4,820 in 2000. Recovery has been slow, with an estimated 1,675 households in the community as of 2020. The Lower 9th Ward was flooded again by
Hurricane Rita a month later in September.
Recovery efforts In December 2005,
Common Ground Collective volunteers gutted the first house in the area. Volunteers and residents began gutting other houses in the community. Soon after, the Common Ground Collective opened the first distribution center in the area, in order to provide returning residents with water, food and other necessities. Due to the great devastation and lack of population and services, the Lower Ninth Ward was the last area of the city still under a
curfew half a year after the disaster. It was also the last area to have power and water restored, and the last to be pumped dry. Officially, residents were allowed in during daylight hours to look, salvage possessions, and leave, although some few had already done extensive work gutting and repairing their damaged homes in preparation to move back. By January 2006, the widespread damages and difficulties in restoring basic utilities and city services still prevented the official reopening of the Lower 9th Ward to residents who wished to return to live. The most severely damaged section of the Ward was the lower elevation section, north of Claiborne Avenue. A
Bring Back New Orleans Commission preliminary report suggested making this area in whole or part into park space because of the high risk of future flooding. Most Lower 9th Ward residents have strongly objected to this proposal, but outsiders worry about the high risk of future flooding in the area. In March 2006 a group of residents and Common Ground Collective volunteers broke into Martin Luther King Elementary School to begin cleanup efforts. Not long after, the state school officials agreed to repair the school. The school has subsequently become a
Recovery School District charter school and is running at full capacity. In 2006, Mayor
Ray Nagin threatened to use his powers of
eminent domain to seize vacant, severely damaged properties in all of New Orleans that had not been gutted or scheduled to be gutted before early 2007. Such blighted properties had been creating serious problems for returned New Orleanians, including infestations of rats and other vermin. Similar actions to seize abandoned blighted property are in effect in other Louisiana parishes, as well as in Mississippi counties affected by the storm. However, as hundreds of thousands of locals were still waiting for promised insurance or
Road Home money, many of the poor lacked resources to work on their houses. The neighborhood had few stores and only a handful of schools reopened. By early 2007, a small number of local businesses in the area reopened, and residents began to return, many living in
FEMA trailers as they rebuilt (the last FEMA trailer was removed in 2012). However, much of the area was still little-populated and in ruined condition. Work crews continued to remove debris and demolish unrepairable houses daily, but hundreds if not thousands were vacant and gutted. Many more buildings had hardly been touched since the waters were drained, and ruined possessions were still inside severely damaged buildings. On December 3, 2007,
Make It Right Foundation, founded by the actor
Brad Pitt, committed to rebuild 150 houses in the Lower Ninth Ward. The houses are
sustainable, energy-efficient and safe. Make It Right homes were designed by award-winning architects from New Orleans and around the world, including
Frank Gehry,
Shigeru Ban,
Hitoshi Abe and
Thom Mayne. Pitt stated: "I walked into it blind, just thinking, 'People need homes; I know people who make great homes.'" As of March 2012, the foundation has rebuilt about 80 solar-paneled homes. In the spring of 2008,
Build Now, a local, non-profit homebuilder, began working to bring New Orleans families back home. It constructed site-built,
stilt houses on hurricane-damaged lots. The homes reflect the style and quality of traditional New Orleans architecture but are built above potential flood waters. Build Now is in the process of bringing more than a dozen New Orleans families back home; nine houses are currently under construction in the Upper and Lower Ninth Ward areas, Lakeview and Gentilly. The organization has moved three New Orleans families back home. As of September 2008, 3 years after Katrina, hundreds of houses have been rebuilt and renovated, and dozens of new homes have been constructed. Volunteers continue to come to the area in mass numbers, working for dozens of organizations including Common Ground Relief, formerly Common Ground Collective; and
lowernine.org, a
grassroots organization that coordinates volunteers' and residents' efforts in rebuilding homes in the Lower Ninth Ward. Residents and volunteers are striving to make the Lower Ninth Ward a
sustainable community. They are working to restore the local
wetlands, lower the crime, and control weed overgrowth. It is widely believed that if it were not for the extensive canal dredging to support commercial development, resulting in subsequent wetlands subsidence, the Lower Ninth Ward would not have suffered such extensive flooding during Katrina. In September 2011, New Orleans mayor
Mitch Landrieu, announced a landscaping maintenance program called the "Nuisance Lot Maintenance Program", to attempt to clear the overgrown lots in the Lower Ninth. The program consists of 12 men, residents of the Ward or ex-offenders, going block-by-block to maintain the overgrowth. As of 2012, the program has cleared more than 1,200 lots. ==Demographics==