Jazzland: the ghost amusement park, now house of alligators and sad memories…

Do you remember, that on August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, washing out several areas of New Orleans and submerging lives and properties beneath flood waters? Some people feared would never recede, and I’m sadly sure, that they remember.
This terrible disaster stayed of course in the national consciousness as the deadliest natural catastrophe in recent memory.

Katrina’s force left behind a meedley of dystopian and surreal landscapes, and it didn’t spare the Six Flags amusement park, whose sank and rose along with the tide until all that was left was something resembled a post-Apocalypse wonderland.
Murky water rose to 2 meters high throughout the park, and it put all the poor attractions upside down. The roller coasters, instead, seemed like huge and desperate lochness monsters….a tragedy, and of course not a good show to see. Really.

Try to imagine the swampy-tinged tide, relentless rainwater and corrosive saltwater from the coast, that remained stagnant in the area for several weeks, destroying almost completely the park attractions!
An incredible exception was the Batman roller coaster, which remained (relatively) unscathed, due to its location on an elevated platform. The park has been under water for months and months, even after the end of the hurricane. The company that took over the original owners, Six Flags, managed to keep the plant active for three seasons only. Now the park has become the haunt of alligators and other reptiles, as well as the symbol of all areas of Louisiana that have not been able to return to their former lives.
Now the park is completely abandoned: It was judged too expensive to restore and consequently destined for demolition by the Six Flags corporation.

But try to imagine what happened?
The location now is only a ghost town inhabited only by silence and memories, with muddy clowns, beheaded mermaids, and figures stuck in an apocalyptic scenery.
A picture really tooooo hard to resist for adventurous urban explorers, and the ruins of this amusement park have attracted lot of tourist urbex-lovers, who hop the fence and trespass to do an interesting walk through the devastated location.
Although the structures are still standing, the grass has split the asphalt and rust and mildew are visible everywhere. As well as 3.5 meters long alligators!
Of course, the entry to the abandoned park is illegal! Enter at your own risk….like me!
Unfortunately, I’m not a good photographer like our authors Pavel or Anya, and I took photos from web. I’m really sorry for this!