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Last Updated: Dec 12, 2008 - 4:54:39 PM |
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Even a year after Katrina, whole neighborhoods remained largely deserted with reminders of what was left in spray paint - and in a black high-water line. Mitch Traphagen Photo
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Comparatively few people in Iowa were completely fixated as Hurricane Gustav neared the northern Gulf Coast over the weekend. But for those who have returned home to Iowa from a coastal state - or for those who found a home here after Katrina - it was like watching a slow-motion train wreck. A hurricane is a unique event - you can see it coming yet they almost never fail to have a few unpleasant surprises. For anyone who has ever been effected by one, it’s almost impossible to pull your eyes away from it - even when safely ensconced here in Iowa.
People outside of the South wondered (and often complained) about why so many people were still in New Orleans when Katrina hit. That’s simple - a lot of the people there were poor. In a city like New Orleans being poor means you don’t have a car - nor do you have the money needed to go anywhere. Also, when you have very few possessions, the things you do have take on great importance - and it is almost impossible to leave it behind. From what I’ve seen there is no poverty anywhere in the state of Iowa that can compare to what can be found in New Orleans.
Suddenly, almost exactly three years after Katrina devastated the city, Hurricane Gustav threatened destruction anew. This time, most people left - they were provided with seats on buses, trains and airplanes with no cash or credit card necessary. This time, the hurricane took a swing and (for the most part) a miss.
Cedar Rapids is already well on the the way towards recovery. Certainly there are problems, there are still debris piles and mostly empty neighborhoods. But each day things seem to improve at least a little bit. A year after Katrina hit, I visited New Orleans to see for myself how things were. It was clear that, at least in some areas of the city, there have been many days with no improvement.
Living here in Iowa, it is difficult to understand how things are there - and why things happened the way they did. This is a relatively safe and reasonably affluent place to live. In the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, there is nothing safe or affluent.
NEW ORLEANS, LA (2006) — This is a city I will never know. In this, my first visit to New Orleans, I saw extremes of optimism and pessimism. And it all defies description.
At first glance, it is just another big American city. There is traffic on the freeways and in the suburbs people shop at newly built electronics stores, eat at fast food joints and line up at stoplights. Even driving into the city there is little to suggest what happened here. The Superdome and skyscrapers form a skyline unique to the Crescent City — and, for the most part, it would appear that all is well. Traffic downtown on a Sunday afternoon was what it would have been in any city of similar size.
The weeds were the first indication that something was drastically wrong. At a stoplight shortly after I exited into the Central Business District, I noticed weeds growing tall in front of a large office building at the Louisiana State University Medical School. Gazing up from those weeds into the windows, I could see the building had been abandoned. Visible were file cabinets and office furniture lying askew. Hurricane Katrina had determined the last day of business there.
And there were more buildings just like it. Some downtown offices and storefronts had signs saying they would return — others announced new locations out of the city but many were abandoned and empty. The weeds were growing tall outside of the City Hall Annex building and trash was scattered all over the front entrance. In a way, it was just another abandoned building in a city with many abandoned buildings. But seeing a government building in this condition somehow had a stronger impact. It was almost as though it were a Hollywood movie set from a disaster flick. Except this disaster was real. It was clear while standing in front of this building that reality can be difficult to comprehend. In that case, the power of government was no match for nature.
Just a few blocks further on into the French Quarter, life appeared normal again. Tourists and locals made their way down sidewalks on foot and on bicycles and shiny trolleys traveled up and down Canal Street. Even on a Sunday, many shops were open and the street corners were crowded with those hoping to see or be seen.
But only a short distance from the steady hum of the French Quarter was another dimension. Whole neighborhoods were seemingly abandoned. Garbage and debris lay rotting and stinking near the streets. Some people were still there, determined to carry on. Or, perhaps, they simply had nowhere else to go.
Jagged glass framed the edges of what once were windows on a grocery store. In the lot out front, a few cars, looted and rusting, were parked haphazardly in a sea of broken glass. A few streets down a city bus, doors jammed open and windows broken, sat parked at curb — as it likely has since the hurricane hit.
It is eerie seeing a government building abandoned and empty - like something out of a movie set. The New Orleans City Hall Annex was still closed a year after the storm - it remains closed today. Mitch Traphagen Photo
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New Orleans is something that is impossible to describe and difficult to grasp. Within the scope of a few city blocks is overwhelming evidence of both hope and despair. At one point, seeing the energy of life going on I would say to myself, "This city is coming back." A few minutes later, from a different vantage point, I would think, "This is impossible, this is hopeless."
I found that New Orleans is not what I read in the media. In many ways, it remains what it always has been — a city of extremes. There have always been extremes of both wealth and poverty here. The difference since Katrina, however, is that those extremes are now far more pronounced. Some — perhaps many — neighborhoods are in a very bad way but the city is not filled to the brim with rotting garbage and the downtown area appears to be emerging from the brink. Business is back in the skyscrapers downtown and, despite many who said it would never happen, the Superdome has been cleaned, remodeled and is again a positive centerpiece of the city rather than a reminder of failure and despair.
For many, life here is all about hope - and there is a good amount of it. Concern abounds in other parts of the nation over the tax dollars committed to this city and about investing in a place that could once again face disaster. For many still here, however, the question of rebuilding isn't a question at all — it is just a matter of when and how. And that, most likely, is the same for many hoping to return to this city — when and how.
But the billions of dollars invested in rebuilding New Orleans is more than just giving people places to live and work — it is about restoring a significant piece of America. New Orleans is a place like no other — the culture and rhythm of the city is something not found anywhere else on earth. And even with the good and bad here, the money invested isn't wasted on those few hundred thousand souls who choose to make this place home. New Orleans is ours and ours alone — it is a part of the soul of this country. While the end result may be different, the blood type is still the same. The character of the city seems to have survived the destruction. Amidst the still fresh memories of horror and devastation this city still has a pulse and it is beating stronger every day.
September 2008
People didn’t want to leave when Hurricane Gustav roared up the Gulf of Mexico. One man told his story on television of attempting to leave before Katrina and being discouraged by the traffic jams. They returned home, his wife died during the storm. As tears rolled down his cheek he said he couldn’t leave for this storm - it didn’t seem right.
But in the end, most people did leave. They knew that no matter what happened - no matter what anyone else in the country had to say - the city would be back. It is their place. It is our place. There is nothing else and nowhere else like it on earth.
For the indescribable nightmare of seemingly unsurmountable problems and the infinite brightness of hope, New Orleans will always survive.
© Copyright 2008 by The East Iowa Herald
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Skies: CloudyTemperature: 35F 2CDewpoint: 26F -3CRelative Humidity: 69%Wind: N at 7m - 11kBarometric Pressure: 30.16SUpdated: 04:42:55 AM