New Orleans - A Different Look

Thursday night was a whole different experience for me compared to the rest of the group. It was a chance for me to catch up with my aunt who lived in New Orleans for the past 25 years. This would be my first chance to visit her in her hometown. Her life, like many others, to say the least has been greatly impacted by Hurricane Katrina. For the past three months she has been living in a FEMA trailer that is parked right in front of the house she lived in for 25 years. The only thing that remains is the foundation and frame. Everything else had been destroyed. Like myself I’m sure that most of you think that New Orleans is on the up and up and basically in a lot better condition than it was two years ago. Well I’m going to tell you that that is only true for certain parts of the city. Yes, the oldest part of the city, the French Quarter, does seem to be operating smoothly, but that is because it was not hit as badly by Katrina. My aunt has told me that in her neighborhood, Gentilly (Ward 6), only one in twenty are currently living in trailers and that only one in sixteen plan to rebuild. In the city of New Orleans the population before the Hurricane was roughly 484,000 and as of March 2007 is estimated to be 255,000.

The simple things that we take for granted are almost seen as a luxury in ward 6 and other parts of New Orleans. All of my aunt’s personal mail now has to be addressed to her friend’s house in the downtown section of town. Mail, if you are lucky is delivered once a week. The same goes for trash collection in her area. Street lights have just been put up as recently as this past February and traffic lights are few and far between. Watching the news last night it was sad to see that they had a story about a local man who put red octagon made up with plywood in place for a stop signs because the city couldn’t even get them up everywhere. The Mississippi Gulf Coast Area seems to be in a better condition where more stores and restaurants have already been rebuilt. There is only one store, a supermarket, within a mile of my aunt’s trailer.

The social seen has changed dramatically for my aunt and those around her as well. With most of her friends scattering to other places such as Texas and South Carolina it is much more desolate and empty in that sense. No more monthly book club meetings, no more weekly movie night (theater is no longer there), and even the corner bar has been wiped away.

I’m sure you have heard about the looting and thieving and murder rate in New Orleans. The expression, “desperate times call for desperate measure,” seems to be sort of a motto for some around here. I have even heard it compared to the “wild west” by a couple of locals. My aunt did tell me that her FEMA trailer was broken into in March while she was sleeping in it. The robber made off with everything of value that my aunt had. Her jewelry that was brought with her during her evacuation, her credit cards, driver’s license, trailer key and car keys. The person ended up stealing her car and forcing my aunt to change the locks on her trailer. If cancelling all of her cards, changing her locks my aunt was also forced to buy another car (with inflated insurance prices) pushing her further in debt.

In the book 1 Dead in the Attic by Chris Rose, a collection of short stories that are post Katrina, it has a story that starts out, “Everyone down here is now mentally ill.” He goes on to compare the lines for prescriptions for mental health drugs, as the only thing as long as the lines for lumber and air conditioners. My uncle is on edge as well. He is a fire fighter down in New Orleans who is on call 24 hours at the fire house six days a week. His department only used to get about 5 calls a day; that has now doubled. With things such a water mains and fire hydrants needing repair and the occasionally dead body still being found life as a firefighter is an exhausting job.

After learning all of these things that I did not know about this one thing I will take away from this trip is that one person can make a difference. Whether it be the time we donate to help, or the money we donate to those in need all of us can play a role when tragedy strikes. Finally, I would just like to thank all of the other volunteers and SEI for making this trip possible. It was an eye opening experience that has brought me closer to members of my family as well as other co-workers whom I would not have met otherwise. I would also personally like to thank all the businesses and people who made personal contributions without them this trip would not be possible. Thank you.