"Fun" park

When an amusement park becomes abandoned and an eerie silence descends to blanket the decay, the atmosphere seems to twist and takes on a nightmarish vibe. Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, leaving the Six Flags Amusement Park as another of its victims.


Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans in utter devastation on August 29, 2005. New Orleans, was 80% flooded. Parts of it were under 15 feet of water, but the storm surged to over 20-feet high in some areas. This drowning of the city included Six Flags. Now 4 1/2 years have passed, and the fate of Six Flags is undecided.

The park opened in 2000 as Jazzland, before that it was a swamp. The Mega Zeph, a wooden hybrid rollercoaster, was Jazzland's first, signature ride. It has been decaying, the wood rotting and the steel rusting.


Dark, desolate and dejected, this post-apocalyptic setting could be the perfect movie set for a zombie or horror/disaster movie.The statues and busts appear beyond sad and melancholy, now miserable and macarbre. With mud and mildew, chipped faces and bodies overturned. What was once cheerful is now cheerless and downright creepy, its still left to be unmaintained and ravaged by the elements. The statues seem to utter a silent yet never-ending scream.



The eerie silence at Six Flags is beyond unnatural for an amusement park. Left abandoned, Main Street is as deserted as a ghost town. Destroyed by the hurricane and flood waters years ago, the rides rust, the attractions rot, and the buildings crumble.
Urban explorers first have to find a way into this forsaken park and then they risk their necks out of curiosity. Six Flags officials claim the park was 70-80% damaged or destroyed. The defunct park is too expensive to rebuild and too expensive to abandon, so it crouches on the skyline and waits for decay to claim it.


The concession stands still show a scummy waterlinr where 4-7feet of rain & seawater submerged the park for over a month. Six Flags are suing the insurance company for $175 million in damages. They have filed for bankruptcy. The city of New Orleans owned the land and fined Six Flags $3 million dollars and ordered them to vacate the lease. A Nickelodeon redevelopement of the park fell through late last year. In December 2009, Big League Dreams expressed interest in possibly turning it into a sports complex, but New Orleans would need to cough up about $25 million for the cost of construction.
Fuller story and more pictures at WebUrbanist