Katrina effects still being felt
Tweet
Lauren Wood
In 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. Even though it has been almost four years since one of the most damaging hurricanes in our nation’s history occurred, its after-effects will be around for many more to come.
Recently, The New York Times reported more than 4,000 people will be losing their temporary trailers by the end of May and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will be doing little to nothing to help them afterward.
There is quite a distance between East Lansing and New Orleans, but that hasn’t stopped me from visiting. I went on a family vacation to the city in seventh grade, well before Katrina.
That trip has recently drawn me back to help in the disaster relief efforts; for the past two years, I have gone with the Alternative Spring Break program to volunteer my time for a week. Each year has been an overall great experience, but both trips were drastically different.
Last year, almost three years after the storm, I saw a New Orleans that was struggling to stand back up on its feet. The downtown area had bounced back fine — it was still filled with a rich culture of Creole food and jazz music — but if you traveled just 40 minutes outside of the city to St. Bernard’s Parish, the scenery took a turn for the worse.
I will never forget the eerie feeling that crept over me as we walked through the Ninth Ward, the area hit worst by the floodwaters. It was a ghost town. Blocks of abandoned houses were left untouched, people’s things were lying in the streets. Other houses were completely gone, with only their foundations remaining.
I could count on one hand how many people had come back to rebuild their houses. It was very hard to see and take in all at once.
When I came back this year, I didn’t really know what to expect. I was excited to see life creeping back slowly but surely into the area. People had started to rebuild and there was a sense of spirit in the air. It was extremely uplifting to see positive change in a place that had seen so much hardship.
One evening when our group was walking around the Ninth Ward, we came across a man who was living in a trailer next to his new home, which was being built by Brad Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation. We stopped to talk to him, and he opened up his home and his life to us. It took me by surprise. He had lost everything, from his home to his family, but here he was, talking to us strangers. He thanked us for being there helping, saying that all the rebuilding was being done by volunteers, with very little help from the government. He also had a sign in his front yard that read, “We want our country to love us as much as we love our country.” This man really opened my eyes to how important it is to live selflessly and to never stop giving back to those in need in our country, not only in New Orleans.
Two people I went with this year, who live near Detroit, also made a comment that has really stuck with me. Despite my positive views, they were shocked at how much the area reminded them of parts of Detroit. They went on to say they were glad to be helping in New Orleans, but it took them 1,078 miles to see that they should be helping out close to home, too.
I came to the realization that we should be conscious of what our nation is going through, as well as what is happening around the corner. Even though we all have busy lives, it doesn’t take much to give back and to create a bond with your community. There are plenty of ways to volunteer in East Lansing and Lansing. The Center for Service-Learning and Civil Engagement can help you find volunteer opportunities on their Web site. There also is the MSU Student Food Bank, as well as Habitat for Humanity or the Capitol Area United Way. This is just a short list of the organizations you can work with.
It doesn’t take much to make a difference in someone’s life, whether it be here in East Lansing, in your hometown or all the way down in New Orleans.
Lauren Wood is a State News guest columnist and journalism sophomore. Reach her at woodlau2@msu.edu.
Commentary
Add your $0.02, go to the comment form or follow the comment feed
Concerned citizen
(05/20/09 3:51pm)Report
While I applaud Ms. Wood’s personal efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, I cannot agree with her implied belief that the government needs to step in and help these people. That, quite simply, is not the proper role of government and leads to wasted resources and delays in getting this city back to where it was.
Sparty
(05/20/09 5:28pm)Report
Agree with Concerned above. 4 years is plenty of time to move away or get back on your feet. There are always those who will ride the government dollar right up to the moment we are forced to pull it out from under them.
umm
(05/22/09 11:12pm)Report
It’s easy to judge when the disaster didn’t directly affect you. You think if you lost everything, your home, your identity, that you wouldn’t be asking for more help? Even from the government? You’d really say gee, I really don’t think the government shouldn’t help me out? Please.
comment
(05/24/09 5:55pm)Report
For those who say 4 years is plenty of time to recover from the loss of everything during the worst hurricane in our nations history is truly misguided. Anyone who would make a comment like that clearly hasn’t seen the situation on the ground nor do they harbor an understanding of the immense amount of bureaucratic red tape these people have to go though just to do the most minute of activities.
Kristin
(05/25/09 12:14am)Report
There are so many people in the region who simply don’t have the resources (both money and time) to pick up and carry on. One year ago I took a trip to Gautier, Mississippi. I worked with a group that helps people who have been denied assistance by the government and their insurance companies.
One woman that really made an impact on me was Ginger. For three years, Ginger and her husband had been living in their home with a huge hole in the roof. You could stand in her son’s bedroom closet and see the tree that had crashed through the roof. FEMA representatives had visited her house to evaluate the damage, and told her that it wasn’t bad enough to receive any assistance.
They had moved all of their belongings into the far end of the house, piled high in the kitchen, dining room, and living room. The two rooms on the end of the house where the tree hit were completely uninhabitable. They had started to demolish the interiors of those rooms, but had no way to dispose of the mold-infested drywall, insulation, and flooring. They were living out of the one remaining bedroom, trying to sort through the wreckage while still keeping up with their jobs.
After years of calling government agencies and charities for assistance, Ginger had lost hope. Her mother had heard about the group that we were working with, and had called them. She explained how her daughter was losing hope, and she feared that she might end her life. Ginger and her husband had saved up for home repairs before the hurricane, and were almost done replacing the drywall in most of the house when the storm hit. They did not have the money to buy supplies and hire somebody to replace the roof and interior.
We brought in a trailer to store their belongings while their home was repaired. It took half a day just to move everything that was salvageable out of that half of the house. Then we began the demolition. The rooms had to be gutted from floor to ceiling because of the mold.
The most heartbreaking part was when we began demolition in the room where they had been sleeping. The black mold had grown four feet high on all the walls, consuming the insulation and inside of the drywall. Finally, Ginger understood why she and her family had been so sick since the hurricane.
There are thousands of people who have devastating damage to their homes and no way to repair it. I don’t really have any opinion on who should be helping these people, whether it be the government, private donations, volunteers, etc. The point is that it isn’t always as easy as just getting back on your feet. The people that I met weren’t simply riding on the government’s dollar as long as they could, they were doing their best to rebuild with nothing.
Life doesn’t stop for these people while they rebuild. They still have to go to work, come up with money to pay for repairs, worry about their children who are serving overseas in the military, do their best to raise foster children, and deal with unexpected health concerns like cancer. None of these are hypothetical examples. I met families dealing with each one (or more!) of these circumstances.