Oak Alley Plantation's Hurricane Katrina Economic Disaster Fund

Picture taken 8/30/05 day after Katrina

Updated 1/28/08

While we were very fortunate the plantation did not suffer extreme physical damage from Hurricane Katrina, we find ourselves trapped in the economic disaster facing the tourism industry throughout the Gulf Coast region.

Oak Alley is suffering a catastrophic loss of revenue. Katrina has devastated the tourism industry in and around New Orleans and because Oak Alley is primarily supported by its admissions revenue, we need your help to survive. Prior to Katrina we averaged 736 visitors per day. Post Katrina, Jan - Dec 2006, we averaged 120 visitors per day and were operating at 24 % of our normal business, we have now (Jan - Dec 2007) rebounded to an average of 225 a day which is about 35% of our pre-Katrina visitors, so tourism is slowly coming back. We have reduced our staff from 75 employees to 30 and our operating expenses to a bare minimum in the hopes of keeping our doors open while we wait for tourism to rebound.

The decreased revenue during this extended period of economic crisis (28 months) places this National Historic Landmark, one of our nation's international icons for the antebellum south, in a serious financial crisis.

Your help can support the strength of our outstanding core staff, the integrity of our rigorous maintenance program and the preservation of this national treasure that has come to mean so much to so many people. In return, we pledge to maintain the high standards of stewardship our visitors have witnessed over many years. Your support will enable us to keep our doors open and rise against the economic devastation that has affected Oak Alley.

We thank you in advance, from the bottom of our hearts, for considering a donation to the Oak Alley Foundation by becoming a member of our Friends of Oak Alley.