New Orleans - absent in the news but 100% newsworthy
Despite having HBO, I didn’t watch the Spike Lee documentary or the stuff on the Discovery Channel. After the first couple of days, a year and a half ago, I stopped paying attention to news about Hurricane Katrina. I’m up in Boston and New Orleans just seemed far away, and now it seems so long ago. I just assumed that things in the city were better, back on track. I found out last week that they’re not.
I was in New Orleans for four days last week as part of reconnaissance for the annual leadership conference. My first afternoon, I drove from the airport and things seemed normal. I drove past the SuperDome and it was intact. I stayed near the French Quarter where all seemed operational, save for a few restaurants yet to reopen. That night, I went to a Mardi Gras festival and the locals were exuberant, despite the theme “Habitat for Insanity” and signs like “FEMA approved” and “Home is still where the tarp is”. But then I started to talk to a few of the residents, and they felt neglected, exhausted, and still very overwhelmed. It was apparent that Katrina created a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of some sort for the survivors. I told some people about the conference and repeatedly heard, "Thank you for having the conference in New Orleans - we need it."
That was what I saw and heard in my first six hours in town. Still not knowing what to expect, the next day I drove to find the devastation. I’d heard that the destruction affected 80% of the city but was unprepared for the vastness of what that meant. I drove for miles and miles, past a ton of empty neighborhoods, boarded up houses, signs advertising trash removal and pressure washing, abandoned businesses and inactive gas stations.
And then there was the lower ninth ward. The difference between that area and the rest of the destruction is that in the lower ninth ward, houses were literally leveled with no signs of recovery. They were crushed, crumpled and literally washed away. No one was home. It was eerie. The houses in other neighborhoods were mostly intact but as shells, and there were some that were occupied and many that were under construction, signs of life. Not so in the lower ninth. I felt sick.
Throughout the city, I saw many images of the fleur d' lis, not just as a logo of the New Orleans Saints. I understood it to be a French symbol that is part of the city’s history, but learned that, in recent usage, it's been used as a symbol of New Orleans' rebirth and rebuilding. These residents’ spirits will not be shattered. That is what this symbol tells us. I find that profoundly moving.
The staff and volunteers at Hands On New Orleans are amazing. Largely AmeriCorps members and alums, they have taken charge of a massive volunteer effort, coordinating a ton of different projects in various neighborhoods of the city. The office and volunteer management system are tightly organized, efficiently run, and by enormously dedicated people. They’re an inspiring bunch, still hopeful.
As an AmeriCorps alum, meeting the people from Hands On New Orleans challenged me to think about the service I
Since I’ve been back in Boston, I try to tell everyone I know about my trip. I’m finding that most people aren’t interested in hearing it and I’m losing them after thirty seconds, no follow up questions. To them, like to me, Katrina seems so far away and so long ago. It’s not. I heard on the radio last week, "Broadcast live to all the evacuees on B97.com." Only 50% of the city’s population is back. I want everyone to get the same kind of reality check I got. And I want us all, in a revolutionary way, to do something big about it. The conference is a great start.
-Bernadette Smith
For more information on the Hands on Network Leadership Conference, please click here.
