US President Barack Obama paid tribute to New Orleans and its people after seeing first-hand how far the “Big Easy” has come, 10 years after Hurricane Katrina laid waste to swathes of one of America’s most famous cities.
“You inspire me,” Obama told a community centre to applause on Thursday, after rolling up his sleeves on a stroll through the historic African-American community of Treme, stopping to chat with residents for whom Katrina remains etched in memory.
“This city is moving in the right direction and I have never been more confident that together we will get to where we need to go,” Obama said before the crowd of 600 people at the community center in the Lower Ninth Ward, one of the poorest and worst storm-hit areas of the city.
“New Orleans is coming back better and stronger,” he added, evoking “a city that for almost 300 years has been the gateway to America’s soul.
“Where the jazz makes you cry, the funerals make you dance, the bayou makes you believe all kinds of things, a place that has always brought together people of all races and religions and languages, and everybody adds their culture and flavor into the city’s gumbo.
“You remind our nation that for all of our differences, we’re all in the same boat.”