Day 5: Wednesday March 15, 2006 –
Visit to the Lower 9th Ward
I just returned from spending a few hours in the lower ninth ward, I struggle to find the words to express my horror, my shock, dismay, anger, sadness, grief, and sympathy. I have never seen pictures of this part of the devastation before on television. Normally the footage shows houses that are falling apart, trees that fell through a roof, foundations that are breaking and the house slides off. That’s mostly what we saw earlier in the week and I was horrified by it. Today was even worse.
We drive right up to one of the levees that broke, cranes were at work repairing the levee today. And then we see the houses, what used to be the houses. Street after street we see foundations, just foundations. There are houses with stone steps leading to nowhere – the house’s entire structure was literally washed off the foundation. At first we wonder if these were areas that had been bulldozed, and then found out that this is just how they have been since the storm. What used to be hundreds of houses is now just a flat stretch of devastation and you can see all the way up to the levee.
As we drive a few minutes away from the levees, we see where the house structures had ended up – hundreds of houses were washed down streets, colliding with other houses and knocking them off their foundations as well. One house sits on top of a car, three houses on the corner have merged into one disaster. We drive down one road only to discover we couldn’t pass because of the house which came to rest in the middle of the road. It has a very “Wizard of Oz” type of feeling – except it is real and heart-wrenching.
We see signs in the neighborhood advertising a phone number for people to call to enroll in Medicaid. I’m reminded of the signs I saw on Sunday in the neighborhood of broken homes advertising mold clean-up and roof restoration. Here, there is little hope of finding your home, much less repairing your home
. Some people spray painted their address on the sidewalk as to identify which foundation belonged to them.
I can’t even imagine how a person must feel to come back after the storm in search of your house – to turn the corner onto your street and not even recognize it because ALL of the homes have been completely washed away.
I just returned from spending a few hours in the lower ninth ward, I struggle to find the words to express my horror, my shock, dismay, anger, sadness, grief, and sympathy. I have never seen pictures of this part of the devastation before on television. Normally the footage shows houses that are falling apart, trees that fell through a roof, foundations that are breaking and the house slides off. That’s mostly what we saw earlier in the week and I was horrified by it. Today was even worse.
We drive right up to one of the levees that broke, cranes were at work repairing the levee today. And then we see the houses, what used to be the houses. Street after street we see foundations, just foundations. There are houses with stone steps leading to nowhere – the house’s entire structure was literally washed off the foundation. At first we wonder if these were areas that had been bulldozed, and then found out that this is just how they have been since the storm. What used to be hundreds of houses is now just a flat stretch of devastation and you can see all the way up to the levee.
As we drive a few minutes away from the levees, we see where the house structures had ended up – hundreds of houses were washed down streets, colliding with other houses and knocking them off their foundations as well. One house sits on top of a car, three houses on the corner have merged into one disaster. We drive down one road only to discover we couldn’t pass because of the house which came to rest in the middle of the road. It has a very “Wizard of Oz” type of feeling – except it is real and heart-wrenching.
We see signs in the neighborhood advertising a phone number for people to call to enroll in Medicaid. I’m reminded of the signs I saw on Sunday in the neighborhood of broken homes advertising mold clean-up and roof restoration. Here, there is little hope of finding your home, much less repairing your home
. Some people spray painted their address on the sidewalk as to identify which foundation belonged to them.I can’t even imagine how a person must feel to come back after the storm in search of your house – to turn the corner onto your street and not even recognize it because ALL of the homes have been completely washed away.
People ask me what it is like in New Orleans, can you still see the damage and destruction? I’m absolutely stunned by the lack of urgency to reconstruct the region. I’m amazed that 7 months later, thousands of homes sit in the streets, on other lots, or are in ruins. The kitchen floor remains, some teacups on a ledge, a shoe, a computer keyboard – this is all that is left of a home. I can’t imagine the pain these families must feel when they return to what used to be their neighborhood – and see such devastation that they no longer even recognize what used to be their home.
When we return to our hostel, we talk to some construction workers who drove in from Texas to try to get work rebuilding houses. They say that they have been in New Orleans for over a month trying to find work – but they are returning to Texas because no one is hiring construction workers. They reiterate what I thought earlier in the day – there is no urgency to rebuild.
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