The Curse of the Superdome

It's Super Bowl Sunday!  Admittedly, I got bored shortly after the mediocre half-time show and changed the channel...but before I did so, I caught the weird power outage suffered at the stadium.  What in the world caused a power surge that would darken the stadium?  Of course, the logical explanation is not of a paranormal nature...it was probably related to the halftime show's power usage.  But, as an investigator and paranormal enthusiast, I have to ask----what if?

Super Bowl 47, between the San Francisco '49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, as we speak, is being played at the New Orleans' Superdome, a structure that has LONG had rumors surrounding it regarding curses, hauntings, and untimely death.

It all began in 1822....

That year, the Girod Street Cemetery was opened as the city's first Protestant (non-Catholic) burying ground.  Over the years, this above-ground cemetery was used as the final resting spot for many of New Orleans' most wealthy and prominent citizens.  It was also the resting spot of those far beneath that status.  Then, on January 4, 1957, the grounds were de-consecrated, and over the course of the next few months, the bodies were disinterred and moved to other cemeteries; the white citizens were moved to the Hope Mausoleum and the black citizens were moved to Providence Memorial Park.

However, not all the bodies were moved it seems.  Trying to find living relatives and space for over 30,000 bodies packed into Girod proved difficult, and it looks like some unlucky corpses were left behind.  This fact was discovered in 1971 when ground was broken for the Superdome.  Jim McClain, project manager for the construction company involved, stated that almost immediately, the backhoe began digging up human bones.  Frightened that they uncovered a murder scene, the coroner and police were alerted...and that's when they learned that where they were digging was actually part of the old Girod Cemetery.  As construction continued, caskets of all makes and time periods began surfacing as well...and were dumped along with the earth that was dug up.

Some will point out that the actual Superdome is NOT built directly over the Girod Cemetery.  Rather, the southeast parking garage, as well as the New Orleans Centre shopping mall, take up most of the area as seen on early maps of the cemetery.  The Superdome itself is actually believed to be built directly atop the old terminal and roundhouse for the Illinois Central Railroad.

Still, the treatment of the remaining bodies of the Girod Cemetery has led to the idea that the Superdome, or more importantly, the Saints, are the subject of a voodoo curse.  After several strings of bad luck, there have been several voodoo priests/priestesses called in to bless the team and their stadium.

And then Hurricane Katrina came in 2005...and the rumors of the Superdome being cursed re-surfaced all over again.

During the aftermath of the storm, many who could not be evacuated from the city were housed in the Superdome, and it quickly became a place of drug use, death, rape, suffering, and filth.  At one point over 100 deaths were said to have taken place at the Superdome.  Drug use ran rampant, as did violence, especially rape.  Human excrement began to accumulate, and many were suffering from lack of clean water, heat exhaustion, etc.  When all was said and done, there were only six official deaths reported at the Superdome.  Four of these were said to be of natural causes, one was a drug overdose, and the other, a suicide.  Several additional deaths were reported in the vicinity of the stadium, including the alleged beating death of a serial rapist.

Today, the Superdome is the result of a multi-million dollar restoration, but some say that the suffering of those forced to seek shelter, only to find tragedy and pain instead, has been ingrained into the structure and the ground itself.  Since then, the structure has been blessed again, by both a Catholic nun, and several other voodoo priests/priestesses.

Was today's strange power outage simply a fluke...or was it just another sign that the curse of the Superdome is still alive and well?

Update:  About two hours after the Super Bowl ended, an official statement that the sensing equipment detected an "abnormality" and shut down as designed was issued.  Read more about what happened HERE.

Update 2: Sources (Twitter, hehe) are saying that Anonymous is responsible for the blackout.  

The Curse of the Superdome
Girod Street Cemetery
Superdome and Katrina
Power Outage