I've been trying all day to think of something to say regarding the 1 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, and, I'm still not sure what I want to say.
If you're new around these parts, or, just passing through, we have good friends from New Orleans who stayed with us during and after the storm. (Actually, New Orleans Friend was converted to the blog side while she was here, go on over there and visit her).
Little did we know that when I wrote this, it was only the beginning of what was to become of their city.
I'm not going to pretend to pay tribute, wax political on whose "fault' it was, or, compare the situation to other world ills, but, you can read that to your heart's content all over the Internet. Actually, your heart may be content to read nothing at all about it, but, it shouldn't be.
My hunch is that if you don't live near the region all this in the news now and even back then may have seemed unfortunate, but, remote to you. But, you see, it wasn't in some far flung country, it was here.
It was not, and, is not yet another story of a big storm and the Red Cross coming in to serve hot meals and clean up branches. There were entire towns along with the people in them in Mississippi literally wiped off the face of the earth, a major city in the United States was drowning, and the people were trapped there.
No, really. Stop and think. Possibly the greatest disaster in our nation's history was occurring, and, it was days before the police, the fire department, the National Guard and the Army could not do anything about it. There was no time or way to bury the dead people. The airport was shut down and the sick and injured people were on the luggage conveyor belts because the hospitals were under water.
This was here. In the United States of America.
We watched helplessly as our friends tried to figure out if they had anything left, tried to locate their friends and family and wondered what would become of their city. This wasn't on the news, this was in my kitchen.
It's hard to believe a year has gone by. I know I can't fully grasp the impact, and, can't comment on recovery, I've not been there since it happened, but, I know things will never be the same along the Gulf Coast.
That's OK, we'll never be the same again, either.
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Great post. I was just reading New Orleans Friend's post and she had a nice tribute to New Orleans also.
"We watched helplessly as our friends tried to figure out if they had anything left, tried to locate their friends and family and wondered what would become of their city. This wasn't on the news, this was in my kitchen."
That is one of the most beautiful paragraphs I've ever read.
I have tried to read stuff about "Katrina-A year later" and its just so hard. I am so ashamed of how our "leaders" handled it. If you're not mad you're not paying attention.
Not only are we changed becauseof Katrina, but we're changed because of 9/11. That 5-year anniversery is coming up too quickly as well.
Busy Mom - As I watched Spike Lee's "When the Levee's Broke" on HBO - I thought of you and New Orleans Friend .... the images are so shattering - unnerving and scary. I was only in N. Louisiana ON BUSINESS when Katrina hit - due to spend the 3-day in N.O. I cannot begin to tell you how lucky I felt that I wasn't in N.O. when Katrina unleashed her furry. Nor how angry I become knowing that MY government WOULDN'T/couldn't respond to the images being transmitted by TV!
I will jump on over to New Orleans Friends blog to see what she has to say.
I have no idea of the amount of devastation except through the TV. I do know MORE should have been done/should be done to help these people. The government can spend millions on a war but not on people in their care who are in NEED? So sad.