Katrina victims take on hurricane tour operators

Some New Orleans residents and city officials are countering efforts of tour operators who bus out-of-towners into the city’s Lower 9th Ward, where Hurricane Katrina unleashed a wall of water that pushed homes off foundations and stranded residents on rooftops when the levees failed. Worried that a flood of tour buses and vans would interfere with cleanup efforts, the City Council approved an ordinance in 2006 banning them from crossing the prominent Industrial Canal entering the neighborhood that received Katrina’s fury. Now, tour operators are crying foul, claiming the ordinance was thinly enforced until recently. They say a business that is bringing them and the city tourist dollars is being hurt. “I can’t afford to keep paying tickets,” says David Lee Ducote, owner of Southern Style Tours. In recent weeks, complaints from residents have prompted officials to increasingly stop and fine operators. “We’re fed up and tired of them coming through the neighborhood like we’re some sideshow,” says Vanessa Gueringer, a lifelong Lower 9th Ward resident. The Associated Press has the full story here.