Icon of Hurricane Katrina in Lower Ninth Ward is removed...

Photo: Ellis Lucia/Times-Picayune

Inflatable bags were used Thursday to raise a barge that came through the Industrial Canal levee as the Lower Ninth Ward flooded.

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The sight of this barge stranded in a Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood is seared in my mind from my visit in late November. This big rusty hulk of steel was sitting on top of a yellow school bus and devastated houses.

As I read of plans to cut up and remove the barge I wondered if anyone had considered leaving this icon of Hurricane Katrina in place.