Hurricane Katrina made landfall Aug. 29, 2005.
More than 10 years ago, the country gave its aid over to the city of New Orleans, and the rebuilding effort began. With great strides, marked by great scars, the people of the Lower Ninth Ward, New Orleans and the State of Louisiana showed a resilience that can only be described as awe-inspiring.
Still, many could not return to the city they loved.
I, too, fell in love with the city of New Orleans. There’s something about the easy-going smiles and the bustle of the French Quarter that contrasts so greatly in tempo as to give comfort in the surroundings. Each turn gives a different sight and a different piece of the city that adds to its colorful and prolific culture.
If it were not for the resilience and rebuilding of this place, the mini-reflection of America’s melting pot would have disappeared forever. The locals like to call it a "gumbo pot," which made me smile. Gumbo is a big soup-like mixture of different ingredients like rice, shrimp, sausage and whatever else happens to be on-hand that day. I think it’s an apt description of the collision of culture that makes up New Orleans.
This city has so much to offer, and so much to teach. I was immensely grateful for the opportunity to give back to the city that captivated my soul, but I wasn’t sure there was anything left to do.
Ten years after one of the largest disasters that I could recall in my short 20 years, it seemed to me that things should be settling in, loose ends should be tied and the threat over and done with. I was surprised to find there was still work — and lots of it. The organization I worked with, The Saint Bernard Project, completely shifted my perception of where New Orleans was in the rebuild process.
Before the project got started, SBP gave a quick orientation about what was going on in the area. To be fair, there is a great deal of improvement that has gone on and you can read about those advancements here and here.
People are dealing with a whole new set of problems now, but there is actually a new project going on — Opportunity Homes. As funding for complete rebuilding slows down and time progresses, the focus shifts to the people that were just children at the time of Katrina.
Opportunity housing, also worked on by volunteers, takes a home and makes it ready for sale to help first-time home buyers that meet certain application criteria. It is a sorely needed initiative, as rent has nearly tripled in the area.
Our site supervisor described it as "helping people put down roots where they’ll stick around for a while and, in turn, take pride in their living space." This is useful to the neighborhood-rebuilding process, as people seek not only to restore structures but a complete culture.
Ten years later, there are still many who haven’t had the chance to come back or are living in shattered versions of their old homes. The organization is still working with those homes too, as well as others across the nation.
More information can be found on its website here.
As far as I’m concerned, helping with this rebuilding process was a Saturday well spent, but now I know more work is still yet to be done. My heart was touched by the people and city that has so much more to offer behind the mask of Mardi Gras.
