Repair the damage in New Orleans

by Raymond Thomson

I spent Spring Break in New Orleans, knocking on peoples’ doors and asking personal questions about their lives. The purpose of the questions was to compile statistical data about people living in FEMA trailers.

I kept thinking to myself, “I’m imposing on these people’s lives, and I can’t offer them anything but my ear.” Hopefully, the data we collected will be of some use. Otherwise, the best service I can give is as a reporter.

To sum it up: I went to the city, I talked to a lot of people, and I have found that people are being left to flounder.

The backs of society have been turned against them to America’s shame. America will be judged by what is happening in New Orleans. It has revealed an amazing resilience and courage among many of the people displaced by the floods. It has revealed a less than flattering image of the rest of the country at every level: public, private, large scale, and small scale. Many look the other way; what we choose not to see does not exist. Others have actively preyed upon tragedy. It’s time for America to look in the mirror and inspect every blemish.

What does it mean when the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world cannot provide durable levees to protect its people from floods, or compensate people for the government’s failures? When one of its oldest, most culturally rich cities is left half dead, and its people forgotten? What happens to the American Dream? I’ve talked with people who worked their whole lives to own their house; people who have paid insurance premiums for 50 years and received only $1,800 in compensation when their house was destroyed.

The companies told them, “You don’t need flood insurance, because your home is not located on a flood plain.” So they didn’t buy flood insurance, not realizing that the Federal Government, which bore the sole responsibility for maintaining the levees, had neglected its duty. All the main damage that has been done was a result of inadequate levees. The people of New Orleans didn’t foresee the heartless avarice of the insurance industry, or the reluctance of the government to help them rebuild.

The people I spoke with were not looking for pity, although they did want people to hear and care about their stories. They don’t want to be victims; what they want is to rebuild their homes and their neighborhoods. They want to move out of their FEMA trailers and get back to living the way they used to.

But apartment rates have doubled, many apartment buildings have not been repaired, and building supplies have tripled in price. Many schools and post offices are still closed. The few running buses are slow and sporadic. There are no loans to be had, interest rates are sky-high, and many credit ratings have plummeted. Many people gave their money to contractors who have skipped town. Federal assistance is not forthcoming, through the “Road Home” program or otherwise. No one was looking for handouts, they just wanted the resources to rebuild.

Retirees are living off pensions, and workers are collecting income, but without insurance compensation there’s nothing left over to rebuild with. The neighborhood we went to was lower middle-class; only a few people could afford to rebuild, maybe around 15 percent. The rest of the houses were still ruined - some of them had trailers in the front yard, some totally abandoned. Former renters were corralled in trailer parks, surrounded by chain link fences controlled by FEMA security guards.

In contrast, the wealthy areas have almost completely recovered. You can go to New Orleans today as a tourist, have a great time, and the city will be happy for your business. But unless the whole city is rebuilt, it will end up as a museum surrounded by a ghost town.

I’ve heard the other arguments. It’s not worth rebuilding New Orleans. It’s under sea-level. The destruction of the city is inevitable. Investment will not serve the interests of the market. Try telling people that in the devastated neighborhoods. Markets should serve the interests of human beings, not the other way around. Go tell people who have lived in their neighborhood for 30, 40, or even 70 years – tell them they aren’t wanted; tell them to give up. All the people I spoke with are determined to stay. Their whole lives have been invested in these communities.

Some of the people wanted to know why our country can fight a war on the other side of the world, while leaving one of its own major cities gutted and half occupied. They told me that many people wanted to come back to town and get a job rebuilding, but there were no jobs to be had. I talked to a woman whose husband was a carpenter, and there was no work for him in New Orleans. Half the city needs to be rebuilt, and yet there are no jobs for a carpenter. He could find work by spending weekdays in Houston, leaving him the weekend to return to New Orleans and be with his family. The construction jobs that do exist are mostly being filled by migrant workers at slave-wages. Everywhere you turn, people are being squeezed.

So what does all of this mean? It’s not just a case of failures by the government, insurance companies and banks. People have been turned on by their own families. I spoke with people who had been driven away by their family while looking for a place to live after the floods. Eventually the family had these people arrested in the attempt to get rid of them. Another man I spoke with hired his brother-in-law to repair his house; the brother-in-law took all his money and left town, never to return.

Many individuals jumped at the chance to take advantage of tragedy in the same way, passing themselves off as contractors and stealing all the money these displaced homeowners had to their name. There is a cancer of indifference eating away at America. Our values have deteriorated into callous greed and disregard. America is in danger of losing its humanity and its soul.

Our nation has a moral decision to make. We can abandon New Orleans or rebuild it. People are willing to rebuild. America has the resources to rebuild. But, it lacks the political will to do so. The story of New Orleans will be the story of America. It will mark a turning point. It could be the first signpost of a dying civilization, which abandons its people and its cities, rather than repairing damage when it occurs.

It could also be the wake-up call America needed to change its priorities. A culture divided against itself in grasping selfishness and materialism cannot survive. A society prospers by bringing its people together, because everything we have is built on the foundation of the populace. Right now, Americans would rather cut their own taxes than help their neighbor. We would rather rob our neighbor, waste our resources, and pass the mess on to the next generation. Everything is disposable. Ending is better than mending.

This is a question of priorities. I believe America can turn itself around. I believe it can turn New Orleans around. I believe it can build houses. I believe America can build levees that don't fail. I believe America can care about people again. Now is the crucial moment. In our future, New Orleans will stand as either a monument to our self-destruction, or it will stand as a monument to our rebirth.