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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Whitney Bauck

New Orleans solar panel program turns eateries into hurricane shelters

Caron (left) and Shaka Gerel of Afrodisiac, one of the New Orleans restaurants that have been outfitted with a solar grid.
Caron (left) and Shaka Gerel of Afrodisiac, one of the New Orleans restaurants that have been outfitted with a solar grid. Photograph: Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee/Feed the Second Line

As a restaurant owner in New Orleans, Shaka Gerel is no stranger to hurricanes.

Afrodisiac, the Jamaican Creole fusion food truck he started with his wife Caron, served jerk chicken and crawfish etouffee, rain or shine, for years. When particularly bad storms took out the city’s power, the couple sometimes used their bright purple truck’s generator to offer their neighbors a place to charge their phones or refill on ice.

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