Visitors examine museum-quality panels in the Levee Exhibit Hall in Gentilly. Photo/Pat Garin

On Saturday July 11, 2015, Levees.org cut the ribbon for the country’s first ever outdoor levee exhibit at 5000 Warrington Drive in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans.

Now, residents and visitors alike can view six museum-quality exhibit panels housed in a 100-foot walkway. The text and forty photographs tell the story and bust the myths still encircling the 2005 flooding during Katrina.

The six panels are about ALL the levee breaches, ALL the neighborhoods, ALL the lives..

The Levee Exhibit Hall and Rain Garden are located at the east breach site of the London Avenue Canal. Water from the breach had actually pushed the home that once stood there, foundation and all, into the street

Levees.org leases the lot from the New Orleans Redevelopment Authority (NORA) in an annual renewable lease for $250 a year.

“Through the NORA’s Land Stewardship program we have been proud to develop creative projects for alternative land use,”‎ said Jeff Hebert, Executive Director. “But this is possibly the most important use of land left vacant after Katrina, honoring lives lost, property damaged, and the resilience of people that drives our city’s recovery.”

Much of the information in the exhibit is new and referenced from a 2015 scientific paper in Water Policy, the official journal of the World Water Council.

The exhibit hall and garden is free, open to everyone and expected to be permanent.

The rain garden uses native plants which helps manage stormwater onsite and reduce the load on the municipal drainage system.

For more about the Levee Exhibit Hall and Rain Garden, see this story by Katy Reckdahl with the New Orleans Advocate.