August 29th, 2007
I remember sitting at home, days after the arrival of my precious baby boy. I remember the TV on, always on. Glued to the TV, I watched hours upon hours of footage.
The first image I remember was a reporter at the side of the interstate, cloaked in rain gear, talking about how the highway was flooding. I remember a car in the background, driving into what appeared to be a puddle, but then slowly beginning to float away as the driver valiantly tried to escape through the window. The reporter, dropping everything, ran for the car to aide this person.
I knew then this was different.
I just didn’t know how different.
I’ve never been to New Orleans or the Gulf Coast, but there’s something that draws me to it. Before Katrina I felt the connection, the need to be there, the yearning to be apart of the magic. Once Katrina hit, my heart broke. I was devastated for a place I didn’t know, for the people that were strangers. It’ a surreal feeling.
I spent the better part of the following three weeks glued to every single report and every single show about New Orleans.
I wept.
I bawled.
I lived New Orleans at their worst.
Once the water receded, once the damaged was done, there was no life to get back to. There appeared to be no future for this great city. There’s been rebuilding, reconstruction and some life brought back to New Orleans, and once that started, the destruction was slowly forgotten - by those f us not directly related to the tragedy.
Like most, I got on with my life. I thought less and less about what the people of that fair city have been through, and are dealing with on a daily basis. I thought less about the non-existent Ninth Ward, the disheveled cemeteries, the lost heirlooms, separated families, properties that were no more.
Abandonment of the greatest magnitude.
Once the one year anniversary approached there were locations along the coast which appeared just as they had the day the waters were pushed back. Cars strewn across roadways, ships and barges haphazardly lying as they had fallen 365 days prior. People without homes, jobs and loved ones. Still. One year later.
Now, as we embark on the 730th day, the city is virtually at a stand still. Two years later. There is life, some have come back, yet many have stayed away. Some places are back in their glory.
Some are not.
Lower Ninth Ward, two years later (click to enlarge).
Those who are New Orleans need us. They need support, help and not to be forgotten.
If all I can do is write this little post on this little blog… well, at least it’s something.
A reminder even.
Just what most people need.
New Orleans is still alive and still full of music.
photo taken by: Adamina
it is a very sad situation…..one that STILL needs so much attention…….
August 29th, 2007 at 11:37 am
I had no idea it was still so bad, no idea at all. Aren’t the government doing anything to help these poor people? Or have they spent all their money on Irak already?
Some places are just as bad as the day the waters receded. I was on Google Earth last night - the images are little older but it’s unbelievable the damages throughout that cost - all the way to Alabama.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:41 pm
I can’t believe it’s still so dire there. It makes me very sad.
August 29th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
The nation doesn’t seem to realize the devastation this storm caused. I was in Florida a few months ago, and a lady I was talking to was very surprised that New Orleans wasn’t back to normal already. They just don’t know.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
This is so sad. It’s amazing that the American government can spend such a ridiculous amount on killing foreigners during a war, but can’t spend some cash on helping some of their own citizens rebuild their lives.
Agreed. 110% agreed.
August 29th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
New Orleans is a tragedy on so many levels, not just the mother nature issue but how we have so easily just let them slip by the wayside. When this happened, a family moved into our neighborhood who were displaced from New Orleans, and my youngest daughter made good friends with their daughter, Valerie. Hearing first hand the accounts of what went on, and still today when we get the letters from the family (they have since moved back), it breaks my heart.
That’s so sad. I hope their doing well down there!
August 29th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
Your photos are very touching. I used to work for a travel insurance agency and I have so many memories of people stranded in New Orleans desperately trying to get home. All I could think about were the people who lost their homes and their loved ones.
It’s so hard not to think about them, even still two years later people that haven’t returned - or that still live in a FEMA trailer where their house once stood. Sad indeed.
August 29th, 2007 at 3:50 pm