The Ward is utter devastation. The homes, empty, slumping and yearning to be whole and full of life again. The roads are peeled down to gravel or pitted from debris and rushing water. And when the homes will be rebuilt and the roads resurfaced is anyone’s guess. As of yet, even the street signs that became the flotsam and jetsam of the receding flood waters have yet to be replaced. Residents – perhaps poking fun at the gawkers – hand lettered their own street signs to replace the missing metal ones.
Kelly Diggins (3L) and I took a spin through the 9th Ward this afternoon. At first our cameras were pretty well hidden. We didn’t want to be that guy – you know, the uncouth gawker pointing a camera into another person’s misery. I was driving, having been through the Ward earlier with Jennifer Maco (No-L). I was watching Kelly’s reactions, listening to her random words – “Oh, no.” “No, no way.” – as she tried to grasp it all. We wozzled our way through a couple of neighborhoods and our cameras came out more and more. The blocks of homes, abandoned and wayward. The people rebuilding against the backdrop of devastation – and listening to the horns of boats on the levy and river. I asked Kelly about it later.
“Words cannot really describe it. I felt everything and nothing all at the same time. I was devastated, shocked, so sad. Some of it looked familiar, like I’d seen it on the television. But it wasn’t until you said “It’s been two years” that it sunk in. It has been two years and look at it all. The missing homes, the missing families, the missing children and pets and people. Two years and it looks like it happened last week, in some places.”
Kelly made me stop at a home in particular and I didn’t see why at first. It was the flag that caught her attention “To me the flag represents all things good in America. Patriotism, helping your neighbor. To see that tattered flag, torn, brown and battered wrapped up in the rusty iron fence on the porch…to still have that flag out there for all to see when it would be so easy to just be so angry for what hasn’t happened for them. It looks like the Third World, worse than Third World and this is America? This is home to these people and it’s part of America and yet, where is the help for these people?”
As we tooled out of the Ward near dusk, we spotted the 9th Ward Fire Department – housed in two double wide trailers and the engine parked on the drive. We pulled over to talk with a firefighter in the drive. At first he was very hesitant as we kind of snuck up behind him. We talked for a few minutes and we asked him, “When does it get better?” He smiled simply, “Oh, it is better. Where you’re standing was eight feet under water, so at least we’re able to breathe here, so that’s improvement. And we just got all the houses out of the middle of street, so that’s improvement.” He grinned at our perspective that it was still hell on earth but he started talking about the little things that have made it here home again. “Today, just today, some people came out and planted new trees in the median there. Trees. Replacing the trees,” he said, shaking his head in happy disbelief. And what is still hard? “The stress. I raised horses and they were just a little bit down the road. That was my stress relief – going to my horses. Now they’re in Jackson Mississippi, so there’s my relief – gone. My guys they’re families are in Houston. On their two days off, they’re trying to get to see their families and then hustle on back here. That adds to the stress. They lost their home, they go from this (the double-wide trailer station) to their tiny apartment, no family, no real home. And then they come back to this.” We talked about the needs remaining in the city and the hardship to come. “The government has put so many restrictions on the Road Home grants, it’s like putting too much bit in the horse’s mouth. He has his mind, he has his plan and you’re biting him back. I have a mind. I have my plans. And I need more information to figure out what my options are but they won’t give us the information, the upside, the downside but they want to tell us how to do absolutely everything else.”
Kelly Diggins (3L) and I took a spin through the 9th Ward this afternoon. At first our cameras were pretty well hidden. We didn’t want to be that guy – you know, the uncouth gawker pointing a camera into another person’s misery. I was driving, having been through the Ward earlier with Jennifer Maco (No-L). I was watching Kelly’s reactions, listening to her random words – “Oh, no.” “No, no way.” – as she tried to grasp it all. We wozzled our way through a couple of neighborhoods and our cameras came out more and more. The blocks of homes, abandoned and wayward. The people rebuilding against the backdrop of devastation – and listening to the horns of boats on the levy and river. I asked Kelly about it later.
“Words cannot really describe it. I felt everything and nothing all at the same time. I was devastated, shocked, so sad. Some of it looked familiar, like I’d seen it on the television. But it wasn’t until you said “It’s been two years” that it sunk in. It has been two years and look at it all. The missing homes, the missing families, the missing children and pets and people. Two years and it looks like it happened last week, in some places.”
Kelly made me stop at a home in particular and I didn’t see why at first. It was the flag that caught her attention “To me the flag represents all things good in America. Patriotism, helping your neighbor. To see that tattered flag, torn, brown and battered wrapped up in the rusty iron fence on the porch…to still have that flag out there for all to see when it would be so easy to just be so angry for what hasn’t happened for them. It looks like the Third World, worse than Third World and this is America? This is home to these people and it’s part of America and yet, where is the help for these people?”
As we tooled out of the Ward near dusk, we spotted the 9th Ward Fire Department – housed in two double wide trailers and the engine parked on the drive. We pulled over to talk with a firefighter in the drive. At first he was very hesitant as we kind of snuck up behind him. We talked for a few minutes and we asked him, “When does it get better?” He smiled simply, “Oh, it is better. Where you’re standing was eight feet under water, so at least we’re able to breathe here, so that’s improvement. And we just got all the houses out of the middle of street, so that’s improvement.” He grinned at our perspective that it was still hell on earth but he started talking about the little things that have made it here home again. “Today, just today, some people came out and planted new trees in the median there. Trees. Replacing the trees,” he said, shaking his head in happy disbelief. And what is still hard? “The stress. I raised horses and they were just a little bit down the road. That was my stress relief – going to my horses. Now they’re in Jackson Mississippi, so there’s my relief – gone. My guys they’re families are in Houston. On their two days off, they’re trying to get to see their families and then hustle on back here. That adds to the stress. They lost their home, they go from this (the double-wide trailer station) to their tiny apartment, no family, no real home. And then they come back to this.” We talked about the needs remaining in the city and the hardship to come. “The government has put so many restrictions on the Road Home grants, it’s like putting too much bit in the horse’s mouth. He has his mind, he has his plan and you’re biting him back. I have a mind. I have my plans. And I need more information to figure out what my options are but they won’t give us the information, the upside, the downside but they want to tell us how to do absolutely everything else.”
1 comment:
Dear Road Scholars:
Thanks for sharing your first-hand reaction to this experience. You make so many poignant observations, not the least of which is the length of time that has passed since the initial devastation and the incredible rebuilding that still has not happened. It is good to hear you are making an effort to immerse yourself in the local community, driving, looking, interacting with residents. . . I'm sure the legal issues have been interesting too. Keep the observations coming (time provided and with due respect to client confidentialy of course !!) Take care and best wishes for the rest of the week and may you travel safely home.
AMSeielstad
Post a Comment