Rebuilding New Orleans, Block-by-Block
March 18th, 2010
Books have been written, songs have sung, stories have been told about the city of New Orleans.
How to describe one of the oldest American cities: Do you start by telling of its rich cultural heritage? Founded by the French, given in treaty to Spain, sold to the United States, plantations worked by people of color? Or do you speak of its music: sultry blues, magical jazz, upbeat zydeco, strains of Caribbean rhythms mixing in? Perhaps you speak of its magnificent architecture. Maybe you speak about the exquisite cuisine peculiar to that city. The cuisine that makes my mouth water just mentioning it, and makes my taste buds dream of delights to come, resides in that city.
All of those things are New Orleans, plus much more. The people of New Orleans laugh easily, work hard, and dream the same dreams of all Americans. The dreams came crashing down when Hurricane Katrina unleashed her fury upon the city. We have all seen the pictures of the devastation left in her wake. It was heart wrenching to see what the failures of the Army Corps of Engineers and Mother Nature had wrought. Homes and businesses, schools and hospitals, all destroyed or damaged badly. Far away in Missouri, I cried as I saw what had happened to the city of beauty I had known growing up in southern Louisiana.
The people of the city are determined to rebuild and reclaim their lives. They are tough and resilient. They are bravely trying to clean up the mess. In the days immediately following the storm there was help, there still is help, but not enough. There are some famous and well-known people who are helping but they can’t do it by themselves. Presidents visit the city and promise aid but when they go back to Washington no one comes after them to follow through.
