Aug. 29 marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated our city. Two decades later, and a memorial placed in one of the hardest hit areas in our city is visibly falling apart.

In Tennessee and North Claiborne, WDSU's Shay O'Connor reported on the current condition of the memorial. Advertisement

Karen Smothers of the Lower 9th Ward said, "It's a shame. It was put there. To remember what happened. Is this what you let happen to a memorial?"

Once a symbol of the many lives lost amid Hurricane Katrina, and the heartbreak of the Lower 9. The memorial placed here in 2015 could once be seen bright and bold.

Now, "It just deteriorated. People started sleeping out here. They stole the bench. No upkeep. No nothing," said Robert Stark with Big 9 Social Aid and Pleasure Club.

Stark, a Lower 9

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