From rain barrels outside homes and planter boxes on sidewalks to ditches filled with vegetation, community-led projects in New Orleans are helping the city to cut flood risk and improve water management as climate change fuels more extreme weather.
One day in April, Rollin Garcia — who owns Bullet's Sports Bar in the Seventh Ward neighborhood — showed off a planter box outside his bar that can help divert hundreds of gallons of water during storms by holding rainfall, easing pressure on the city's sewers.
"A lot of people are asking for this and the (rain) barrels," said Garcia, standing next to the planter box that was built with support from Healthy Community Services, a nonprofit.