ABSTRACT
Three-quarters of New Orleanians, plus nearly all residents of St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes and some of Jefferson Parish, remained scattered nationwide in the months after the deluge, forming what became known as the New Orleans Diaspora. For the lucky 100,000 or so who returned to unflooded homes, life in the postdiluvian city during that memorable autumn of 2005 proved extraordinary. Citizens realized the history they were both living and making, and moved about with a sense of purpose. One crude way to measure New Orleanians' intense new interest in planning is to compute the number of times the terms civic association and neighborhood association appeared in Times-Picayune articles or announcements, as queried through the LexisNexis news database. Despite the heroic civic engagement demonstrated by thoughtful and intelligent New Orleanians during a very busy and stressful era, the plandemonium of postdiluvian New Orleans faces daunting odds of ever bearing fruit.
