All this time the food sat in the stifling 90-degree heat inside the refrigerators and rotted.
Vegetables and fruits, meat and fish had all turned into a disgusting slimy mess teeming with maggots.
Photo credit
People who returned and opened their refrigerators immediately regretted.
The food had become so toxic that it melted plastic, corroded metal, and dissolved rubber refrigerator liners.
The smell was unbearable.
Word got out and many didnt open their refrigerators at all.
Some people tried and found it impossible to fully clean their refrigerators.
The smell just wouldnt go.
An overwhelming smell of death and decay hung over the entire city.
These men were trained in the handling of hazardous materials and were armed with special equipment and hazmat suits.
But the destruction throughout the region was so extensive that the clean-up operation took months to complete.
As time dragged on some began to be decorated with festive Christmas ornaments and salutations.
For months the spray-painted refrigerators became a ubiquitous symbol of post-Katrina New Orleans.
People began photographing Katrina refrigerators, and organizing exhibitions featuring these photographs.
Even books were written about them.
That year at Halloween parties, Katrina refrigerators were a popular costume idea.
Eventually the refrigerators were hauled to a scrapyard to be recycled.
As many as 150,000 refrigerators were dumped at the Gentilly Landfill by December 2005.
By early 2006, the last of them were gone.
