On April 4, Inter Alia published a special edition focusing on the stories of how 14 University of Idaho law students spent their Spring Break helping the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The following are those stories.
Showing posts with label New Orleans Spring Break. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Orleans Spring Break. Show all posts
Monday, April 2, 2007
Perspective – A First Hand Account of One Family’s Struggle
by Michelle Gustavson & Amanda Ulrich
There are very few times in life when you stop and realize that an experience will change you forever, but one day in New Orleans over Spring Break qualified as one of those exceptions.
We finally arrived in New Orleans, Louisiana, at midnight on Sunday, after an exhausting 12 hours of traveling. With all good intentions, we planned on calling it a night, but the city’s vibrant culture gave us our second wind. Through the lights, music, and charm of the French Quarter, we were able to experience the finer side of New Orleans, in all of its glory. Yet, less than ten hours later, we found ourselves standing in a pile of rubble and debris—all that remained of a family’s home.
While attending a block party coordinated by ACORN, we met a family whose two homes were decimated by Hurricane Katrina; almost a year and one-half later, their lives are still not back to normal. During Hurricane Katrina, the mother and her adult daughter sought shelter at Lakeland Hospital, where the daughter was employed. The father, however, being unable to part with his home, refused to evacuate, despite the fact that he was bound to a wheelchair. He remained behind with his son during the hurricane and, consequently, the two were forced to live in their attic to escape the peril of the rising water. Ultimately, it was their neighbor who arrived by boat to save them.
The family was separated for weeks, not knowing of each others’ fates, with the mother and daughter being temporarily housed in Houston, and the father and son in South Carolina. After weeks of searching, the family found each other through a posting on the Internet. A week later, they were reunited; however, their joy was short lived. Upon returning to New Orleans, they discovered that the daughter’s home was completely destroyed, and all that remained of the parents’ home was a shell of what had previously been, due to both damage from the hurricane, flooding from the levees, and looting.
We were surprised to find that despite all that they have been through, the entire family remains optimistic. After waiting moths after Hurricane Katrina, the family is back on the property, residing in two FEMA trailers (which are barely adequate for their living needs). The family has been gutting the mother and father’s home, which remains standing on the property. However, since the daughter’s house was not salvageable, it was bulldozed by the City of New Orleans. Although the City promised to remove the remnants of the house from the property, they never followed through. As a result, the family was once again forgotten by the City of New Orleans.
We helped the family remove the pile from the property. Buried beneath the mud and sea shells washed in by the storm surge, we found reminders of the life lived in that home before the hurricane—umbrellas, bed posts, couch cushions, bowls, door knobs, and broken windows, etc. were all that remained. However, we were able to salvage some irreplaceable family keepsakes uncovered in the process, including a family photo and a special gift given to the father in 2002 by a now deceased friend.
The family was very appreciative of our efforts, and took a picture of the group to memorialize the day. After all receiving hugs from the mother, we parted ways. We only spent a few hours with the family, but their story has touched our lives forever. Despite the fact that they lost so much, they are just grateful for the fact that they still have each other. Today, we all experienced a much-needed dose of reality of what is truly important in life—it is not how much money you make, nor the status you attain, it is the people who you surround yourself with and the relationships you form. As the family has show us, even after losing everything, these relationships can sustain you through the hard times.
While law school is described as one of the most rigorous and challenging experiences one can undertake, it is nothing compared to what the victims of Hurricane Katrina have endured. It’s a reminder to all of us to not lose sight of what matters most—the friends and family that are all too often neglected by law students.
The Difference between Justice and Law
by Kinzo Mihara
There is a difference between justice and the law. What that difference is, I do not yet know; but I know that there is a divide between the two. The people that I interviewed live in the Seventh Ward. Most of the people are elderly: retirees or soon-to-be. These people expressed many different emotions during our visits. Many were brought to tears. It is hard not to join them. I have been here for a week, but to express what I have seen during that time would take too long; I only write about my experiences today.
The first stop today was the Sisters of the Holy Family. The sisters run parochial schools for disadvantaged students. They also feed the poor and take care of the sick and needy. The youngest Sister is 47 years old, many are in their 70s and 80s, and a few are nearing 100.
Many of the sisters left New Orleans prior to Katrina. A few, however, stayed behind to care for the elderly sisters and parishioners that did not have the family or the means to leave. They said that it was their holy duty to do so. It is the stories of the latter that humble me. Initially, the storm was uneventful. During a lull in the storm, one sister went down to the first floor of a six story building to check on the damage.
She told us that it was then she saw a wall of water rushing towards the building. She remembered that there were two very elderly parishioners still on the first floor. She rushed to them and ushered them to the stairs. By the time they had reached the stairs, the water was nearly four feet deep. They barely managed to make it up the stairs. The water remained on the first floor and did not rise any further — just enough to trap them in the building.
That night, the Sisters and their wards ate food that was left in the sister’s rooms on the second floor. There was no electricity. There was no running water. There was, however, one telephone line that was up and running. The sister called this a miracle given to those who pray. Their phone was set on redial to 911, taking four days before it was finally answered. They rationed out the water they had and were eventually rescued. During the resulting turmoil and constant movement between temporary residences, not all of the sisters survived. Fifteen of 125 sisters died as a result of Katrina. Their lives were lived and given to the Grace of God.
The sisters are rebuilding. They are rebuilding the schools used to educate the children of the Ninth Ward. They are rebuilding the home that they have known for over 50 years. Luckily, the Sisters had insurance. The payout amount was nowhere near the cost needed to repair the damage. Now, the nunnery is “livable” due to the outpouring of support from other Catholic entities. One of the parochial schools is back up and running, the Academy for Girls remains unfinished, and the free school for the poor remains unfinished. Many of the sisters are elderly women. But they have returned to serve the community.
The second stop today was to a man, Lionel, and his wife. Lionel is a retired high school teacher and coach. His wife is a retired parole officer. Lionel told us that his wife is better equipped to speak to folks, so she did all of the talking. She told us that they were lucky enough to have evacuated prior to the storm.
They live in a FEMA mobile trailer in front of their home. The trailer is small, approximately 250 square feet. It was crowded and cramped. But they are both very thankful for it. They told us that it was better than being homeless. They were homeless prior to receiving it. She said in her 70 plus years, she had never been homeless before, and it was a very scary experience for her. She started to cry. Her story was humbling.
She said that her family had lived in the home since the 1950’s. She owns her home and rents out the one next door. They currently live on their pensions. She is angry at the insurance company for giving them so little money. They paid their premiums on time and in full — something hard to do as pensioners living on limited incomes. When it came time to help, the insurance company cut them a check for a paltry amount.
Lionel and his wife are products of the Great Depression. She tells us that they know what it means to do without. She tells us that they are rebuilding a little at a time. 25 dollars here, 25 dollars there. Slowly but steadily, they will stick it out.
She tells us that there is so much money out there, but Lionel and she have seen little in aid. They have received approximately $4,000 of FEMA aid, a long time ago. She told me that this could not compensate her for her loss. All of the pictures of her grandchildren are gone. Their furniture is gone. All of her jewelry she was not wearing at the time of the storm is gone. FEMA wants to be reimbursed for the money they were given.
The last stop was to a 92-year-old woman. She has outlived two husbands, and has lived in the same house since the 1950s. She lives on a pension that she receives from teaching in the city.
She is lucky to have health insurance. She was also lucky enough to have left prior to the storm. She has stayed with several grand-nephews and -nieces across the country. She received little money from FEMA. She paid for her temporary housing out of her own pocket, even though FEMA had promised to pay for these expenses — and has paid others.
The local government did not allow her to return for approximately six to seven weeks. She said she feels that she could have salvaged more if she had been allowed to return earlier. A single tear came to her cheek as she reminisced over the life’s worth of belongings that were lost. She then brightened up and told us that it is all part of God’s plan for her, and that the Lady watches over her. She told us that she has lived a good life.
Her home is almost finished. She said that she is about two months away. She is rebuilding to leave something to her niece, who lives next door. She is also having problems with her insurance company. Her home was worth more than $450,000. But she only received an insurance check for $17,000. The rest of her remodeling has been done through loans she has taken out to complete the work. The money that has been promised by the federal government has not come, and she does not expect that it will. A man from the government came and appraised her home for $67,000.
She then gave us a tour of her house. It was nice. I am not an appraiser, but I would have eagerly given her more than $150,000 — the amount that she needs to pay off the loans that she has taken out to finish the renovation of her home.
Word on the street is that the money was given to the State of
In the Great State of Louisiana there is a wide divide between justice and the law. The homes in the historically white part of the city stand with their grandeur and opulence as they were during Jim Crow. Visitors and tourists pack the restaurants and bars, flush with rebuilding and tourism cash.
The “colored” sections of the city remain broken. The busses don’t run. The schools are not open. Jobs are hard to find. Folks are returning, but the aid promised to them by the federal and state governments seems to be more of a myth than a reality. Even so, the people I saw were working to rebuild anyway. I may not know what the difference is between the law and justice, but I know that here the gap is wide.
That Little Dash
by Pete Hamill
It was just after 6:30 p.m. when the blue Chrysler sedan we had rented turned onto eastbound I-10, headed back toward downtown New Orleans and out of one of the worst neighborhoods in New Orleans, the Lower Ninth Ward. As I sat in the passenger’s seat looking out the window towards the city skyline and silently reflecting on the things I had just seen, I knew that this was a story I would tell my grandchildren one day.
I have no friends or family in New Orleans. I have never been here before, mostly because I never had a reason to come. When a group of my fellow Idaho Law students decided to join the Student Hurricane Network and come here for spring break to help provide relief from the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on this beautiful city, I found that reason.
We came here to help. Having heard the stories of neighborhoods still in such a state of disrepair that they are nearly uninhabitable, we wanted to do more than just talk. We wanted to help clean up. We went to a block party in the Ninth Ward that had been organized to get residents of the neighborhood to interact with and help one another. That’s where we met Mary.
Mary and her husband, Lionel, are an elderly couple that used to live at 2298 Rayboune Street in the Lower Ninth Ward. Now they live in a FEMA trailer No. 49229621, which is parked next to the shell of what used to be their home. The inside of the house has been completely gutted and only the concrete foundation and wooden frame remain.
Mary showed us the entrance to the attic and told us that when the levies broke and the water came rushing in, her husband and her son climbed up into it to escape the advancing flood and wait for help. They waited for three days before it arrived — a story that became even more unbelievable a few hours later when we get our first glimpse of Lionel as he emerged from his FEMA trailer in a wheelchair that he has been confined to since before the storm.
The high water mark is plainly visible on the outside of the house. It is a dark brown line, four inches wide and at least five feet high. It runs through the middle of Mary and Lionel’s front door. They did not have flood insurance. Consequently, they are insured only for the damage that occurred above the water mark. Their yard is nearly entirely covered with what looks at first glance to be tiny white pieces of gravel. A closer look reveals that they are not rocks at all, but seashells washed in by the water in Katrina’s aftermath.
Our job here was to move a giant trash heap out of the yard and to the street where it can be hauled away by garbage crews the next day. The pile stood eight feet high and is a mixture of scrap metal, concrete, garbage and dirt. It was completely overgrown with weeds. As we started to dig into the pile, pieces of Mary and Lionel’s life as it was before the storm started to emerge. Ashley found a picture that had been buried for at least a year. It was heavily damaged by water, but you could still make out a young man and woman, their arms around one another. When Michelle walked over to give the picture to Lionel, he told her that it was of his son and his son’s girlfriend.
Later we found a souvenir from the Mardi Gras parade — a coconut painted red with “ZULU 2002” written on it. I took it over to Lionel, who had rolled his chair to the front of the driveway and was surveying
We worked for nearly three hours to move as much of the trash pile as we could. There was more work to be done in a different part of the neighborhood, and so just before 5 pm it was time to say our goodbyes. Mary informed the group that we would not be going anywhere until she got a hug from each of us. I walked over to Lionel, shook his hand, and told him to take care of himself. The look on his face as the group said farewell and started to get into the cars made it clear to me that this day was about so much more than helping fix a house and clean up a yard. The people of the Ninth Ward have been neglected. They have been forgotten about by nearly everyone. For this family to finally feel like someone cares about what happens to them means more than any amount of yard work ever could.
After about another hour and a half spent knocking the tile out of a bathroom in a different house a few blocks away it was time for the group to return to our hotel in downtown New Orleans, the reconstructed part of the city where the rest of the tourists are enjoying the spectacle known as Bourbon Street.
It had started to get dark and the Ninth Ward is not somewhere one would want to be at night. I sat on a curb next to my friend Erick while we looked up and down the street, surveying the incomprehensible damage to the homes. As we sat in silence, Erick reached into his pocket and took out his MP3 player. We listened to a Garth Brooks song called “Pushing up Daisies.” The chorus goes like this:
"There's two dates in time
That they'll carve on your stone
And everyone knows what they mean
What's more important
Is the time that is known
In that little dash there in between
That little dash there in between..."
Katrina Victims are Not the Only Ones Losing
by Autumn Renshaw
Few Americans will forget the tragedy and catastrophe that struck New Orleans, Louisiana, a year and half ago. Many of us remember seeing the Katrina victims swimming through the streets, being rescued from their roofs, and their possessions, houses, and lives being washed away. Yes, these images, pictures, and people, we will not forget. However, hidden within this ongoing fight and struggle to rebuild one of
After Katrina, the city lying in ruins, many began the long road of rebuilding and recovery. However, since more than a million residents had been displaced with little money nor a home to return to, additional workers would need to be recruited if the rebuilding effort was going to be successful. Many companies looked outside
However, the promise of a better life was never delivered; many came over and found there was only about a month’s amount of work, which many still have not been paid for. What has resulted is what some call “modern day slavery.”
Today,
Each year 120,000 foreign workers receive visas to do farm work or other low-skilled labor, usually for three to nine months. These programs grew out of the World War II bracero program, in which hundreds of thousands of Mexicans worked on farms and railroads, often in deplorable conditions. Labor experts say employers abuse guest workers far more than other workers because employers know they can ship them home the moment they complain. They also know these workers cannot seek other jobs if they are unhappy.
Many of these workers also cannot return home, because they have nothing to return to, and no money to support themselves if and when they do return. By some estimates, close to 100,000 new migrant workers — Latino, African-American, Asian, Native-American, and Anglo workers either recruited to the reconstruction zones or searching on their own for better economic opportunities — have arrived in the Gulf Coast region after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Tens of thousands have come to rebuild
Across the city, workers are living in abandoned cars, working in toxic conditions, chasing after a web of subcontractors for their wages, and running from police and immigration authorities who have intensified their enforcement efforts, while labor law enforcement is lax.
Therefore, I am working with an organization called the New Orleans Worker’s Center for Racial Justice in which intense legal research on the issues of immigration, tax, and employment law has taken the vast majority of my time. The short-term goals for the center include organizing day laborers and other contingent migrant workers new to
The intermediate and long-term goals include building infrastructure; defending and expanding workers’ rights, both locally and statewide; developing worker leadership; and spearheading multi-racial and racial justice organizing in the reconstruction and hospitality/service industries, with worker-leadership and community support that will foster worker empowerment in New Orleans.
The infrastructure supporting worker justice was lacking in
The House in The 9th Ward
by Raymond Thomson
The city is recovering … parts of the city. As you might expect, the wealthy areas and tourist/commercial zone of the French Quarter are looking the best; these areas are located on the highest ground, so they suffered the least amount of damage (people with money always gravitate to the most desirable locations). Even in these areas though, there are still abandoned and damaged buildings scattered around.
We’ve been combing a neighborhood called Gentilly/Sugar Hill for the past few days, looking for and talking to people with FEMA issued trailers. Katrina damaged this neighborhood pretty badly, but not nearly as bad as the Ninth Ward across the canal, where the worst flooding occurred.
Here and there, we’ve seen a few houses that appear to be repaired and inhabited. The grapevine has it that the people with those houses had good insurance coverage and enough money 
stashed away on top of that so they could repair their homes. But the people we’ve been talking to are generally living on limited means. Everyone I’ve interviewed was told they didn’t need flood insurance, since the neighborhood was not supposed to be vulnerable to floods. The broken levees changed all that of course. With only small payments from the non-flood insurance, there is no money available to make repairs.
I estimate that at least 90 percent of the homes are not habitable, and most of those are abandoned. Only a few have trailers in front; occupied by people who want to repair their home, but have not been able to do so. Some have made more progress than others. Some people I’ve spoken with don’t have much hope that they can afford to make repairs at all. But they are holding out anyway, hoping that government aid will finally come through with the needed funds.
It’s frustrating me that our group is unable to provide them with any meaningful aid. Hopefully, the survey data we’re collecting will be put to good use somehow, but being the cynic that I am, I find this doubtful. If appropriate resources have not been allocated a full year and a half since the disaster, it means those with the power to help simply don’t care. I don’t think a few statistics will change their minds. All it takes is to open your eyes to see what the conditions are like. Maybe a different presidential administration will see things differently in 2009.
Getting to 'livable'
Ashley and I were walking to the next FEMA trailer on Frenchman Street on March, 14, preparing for an interview, when she commented that the interaction we were having with the residents of the Seventh Ward seemed like it was therapeutic for them in some way.
She couldn’t have been more right. People have told us on more than one occasion “y’all are the first ones that come down here to actually talk to us.” Everyone on this street has a story, but the only people they get to talk to are other people with similar stories. When they tell their neighbor about what happened to them, that neighbor responds with something that they experienced. They’re eager to tell anyone who will listen what they’ve been through and what’s happening now.
The problem is that nobody is interested in just listening to them. It didn’t take us long to figure out that once these people realize we’re truly interested in what they have to say they’ll invite us into the trailers, sit us down, offer us something to eat or drink, and talk to us for as long as we’ll listen.
As the interview process continues I’m coming to the realization that the array of legal issues faced by the members of this community is as extensive as the structural damage to their homes. One of the most common legal issues is the fraud being committed by the contractors who have been hired to repair the houses.
William and Delores are 77 and 76 years old, respectively. FEMA has told them — as FEMA has told most people on this block — that they must be out of their trailers by August. If their house isn’t ready by then, they will have no place to go. The couple estimates that they need about $75,000 to finish the restoration work on their home.
They’d be much closer if they hadn’t fallen victim to the contractor fraud that has plagued so many throughout the neighborhoods of
With the date of their eviction approaching, the couple isn’t sure how they will pay for the repairs necessary to make their home “livable.” They’ve all but given up on ever seeing the contractor or their money again. They haven’t talked to a lawyer because they were positive they couldn’t afford one.
Delores and I sat down today and reviewed the contract she had made with the builder. We went through the “Work To Be Done” section piece by piece and she showed me exactly what had been done and what had not. I looked over the carbon copies of the checks she had written. They amounted to $33,500 more than what the contractor had listed as the total amount due for the entire job. It was my opinion that William and Delores had been defrauded of a significant amount of money by their contractor — I thought they deserved at least half of their money back.
Law students, however, are not to give legal advice — as any good Professional Responsibility student would know. That being the case, Delores and I called the New Orleans Legal Assistance Clinic (NOLAC). We were told that someone would call back before the day’s end. At 4:00 pm, Ashley and I went back to see Delores and she told us that no one had called. I called NOLAC again, but was told that the person I wanted to speak to was with a client and would call back in ten minutes. Twenty minutes passed without a call. I called again, but everyone was still busy. They would call us in five minutes. Ten passed before I called again. On the fourth phone call, Delores got an appointment to see an attorney at 10:00 a.m. on March 21. She promised me that she would go and asked if it would be OK to call me afterwards to let me know how it went. I can only hope that call brings good news.
Life in the FEMA trailers
By Pele Peacock
After of day of physical labor, clean up, and of orientation/training, we got to put our legal education to work. Eleven of us have been assigned to a project assessing the legal problems facing residents of FEMA trailers.
FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is the organization that has provided trailers for New Orleans residents to live in while their houses are restored. The trailers are supposed to be a temporary place for people to live, but there are still 60,000 trailers housing residents. These people haven’t been able to get out of their FEMA trailers and into their pre-Katrina houses for various reasons.
Several federal and state programs have been developed to provide funding to restore homes, most significant being the Road Home Program. This program was developed from a Congressional grant of $8 billion to
Our mission is to conduct client interviews of FEMA residents in order to assess the legal issues facing the Katrina victims trying to get back into their homes and provide them with access to information and legal services to help overcome their legal obstacles. Assessing the residents’ legal issues is a difficult process because they are uninformed of their legal rights and they often believe there is no recourse for the problems they are facing.
We have been assigned a square mile area in Gentilly Sugar Hill where approximately 150 trailers are located. The area was completely flooded by Hurricane Katrina and, consequently, the homes must all be restored to habitable conditions. Unfortunately, the only work that most of the residents have been able to do themselves is gutting their homes; until the City of
We heard compelling and heart-wrenching stories of the residents of the FEMA trailers that are struggling in every way to just get back into their homes.
Some of the legal issues facing FEMA residents are:
- Access and Information to the Road Home program and other federal funding programs.
FEMA residents are rebuilding based of promises of federal funding, and then the federal funding isn’t coming through, leaving the residents with unmanageable debt.
- Corrupt Police Activity
- Breach of Contract Issues
- Contractor Fraud
- Insurance Issues
homeowners vs. flood coverage; which policy covers what;
getting settlement money
getting current insurance coverage
settlement issues: insurance companies are just paying the home owners mortgage off leaving residents with no money to rebuild the home and an unlivable home.
- Tenant Rights
- Criminal Law Issues
- Domestic Violence Issues
- Utility Company Problems
Many of the residents complain of being charged for the use of electricity and water during the time they were evacuated, while according to the residents, there were no water or electrical services available.
The Student Hurricane Network and the FEMA Trailer Park Survey & Mapping Project
The Student Hurricane Network has coordinated the efforts of thousands of law students in their quest to provide legal aid and support to the many victims of Hurricane Katrina. Formed soon after the storm struck in August of 2005, SHN got its start when law professors and students from
Since October of 2005, SHN has worked with local and national legal service and public interest law groups, matching law students with the organizations to conduct research, interviews, and physical cleanup. During our Spring Break alone, SHN has organized efforts with More than 550 law students. The sheer number of volunteers illustrates just how much work is yet to be done to repair the damage caused by the storm.
Eleven UI law students worked on a mapping and survey project for SHN. SHN created the FEMA Trailer Park Survey and Mapping Project in order to assess the needs of those living in FEMA trailers. More than 60,000 people are living in FEMA trailers, either on their property, or in trailer parks. While hundreds of thousands of people have yet to return to
As a result of the growing problems that trailer residents face, SHN created this survey and mapping project. Law students will travel to the trailers to interview residents. Many of these residents have been living with their families in these trailers for over a year, and the living quarters are very small. As many as eight people have been living in very cramped quarters.
SHN recognized that these families have very special needs and created the mapping project with four main goals in mind. The first goal is to assess the legal and other needs of residents of the FEMA trailers in
The second goal is to map objective indicators of disrepair in Orleans Parish. Things we take for granted, like gas stations and paved roads are missing from many parts of the Parish, and we need to take account of what services residents need. The third goal is to widely disseminate the information that we gather through the survey and mapping project. Once all of the information has been gathered, it will be distributed to organizations that can reach out and help the trailer residents. The fourth goal is to assist these legal and social service organizations and institutions to determine: 1) how to better provide the residents access to existing services, and 2) what additional services are needed.
Overall, SHN and the law students who have partnered with them want to provide justice to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The notion of justice is something that all people can understand, and we hope to work together, in solidarity, as a community of human beings, to bring justice to the
Quotable Quotes
"I don’t do multiple choice.
"Really?! How’d you get here??"
"Really?! How’d you get here??"
"I don’t even know this shit in English."
"They should make a sling shot from Texas to Mexico."
"HABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Man-pon, son! Do work!!"
"Hit a bartender on Bourbon Street - see what happens."
"What happens?!?!"
"Are you okay? Are you fighting invisible tigers??"
"They were saying I gave them SARS. I’ve never even been to Asia!!"
"Can you tell me the definition of ‘gauche’?"
"And the law won."
"You guys are both allergic to crab. You’re soul mates."
"That was kind of romantic - like poetry"
"I just expect it to be like cheerleading camp and it’s not.
One Man Reconstruction
Sugar Hill is large neighborhood with more than 100 single family homes and two apartment buildings, with a university adjacent to it, yet I heard very little. While walking I passed one gutted house after another, with a few trailers here and there, but turning onto Annette Street I met someone who would convince me that Sugar Hill would certainly be coming back.
I saw a small group of students who were helping to gut one of the houses. Some of the students were standing around a man who was smiling and talking enthusiastically. I approached to see if they knew anyone in the neighborhood who would be interested in taking one of the surveys. As I neared, the man who had been standing in the center of the volunteers stepped forward and gave me an enthusiastic greeting.
The man was Tony Dalgo.
He was a man of average height, with a bald head, glasses and rough hands. The man stated that not only did he live on Annette in one of the trailers, but that this was his street, his neighborhood and these were his neighbors. He had lived in
Tony agreed to be interviewed for the survey and in the course of the conversation I learned much about him. He was married, had two children, and was a handy-man by trade. He was not only personally repairing his own home. He was also actively helping his neighbors with their repairs. He was even running around the neighborhood mowing his neighbor’s lawns. Even more interesting was that he was acting as the neighborhood “bull dog” reporting suspicious activity. He even filmed an arson taking place and turned the materials over to the police.
It turned out that he was heavily involved in the Gentilly Sugar Hill Neighborhood Association. He felt that it was his responsibility as an association member to do all he could to help rejuvenate the neighborhood. He was devoted and quite energetic. He might have been only one man, but if each neighborhood had a similar man there would be quite a bit of hope for at least some of
Repair the damage in New Orleans
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
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
I’ve heard the other arguments. It’s not worth rebuilding
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
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
Our nation has a moral decision to make. We can abandon
It could also be the wake-up call
This is a question of priorities. I believe
Sunday, April 1, 2007
An Over-All Perspective
by Sharon R. McLaughlin
First off, I want to clarify an important point regarding who controls the levees. It is not the federal government that is solely responsible for flood control and levees. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is the principal agency in charge, but most of the system is maintained by local governments and local levee districts. So the actual evidence goes against the claim that the federal government made the water flood where it did. Also to note, the reports testify that it was not anticipated that the levees would fully fail; the expectation was more or less just that the waters would go over the levees - not through them. Regardless, the levees were designed only for Category 3 hurricanes and below. Katrina was a Category 5, and hit land still holding at a strong 4. Further, the structures in New Orleans themselves were not built to withstand Category 5 winds. Even if the waters hadn’t come rushing, Katrina’s winds still would have wrecked these communities. So, while there is the claim that higher levees would have saved the neighborhoods, perhaps taller levees really would have done nothing more than provide a false sense of security. Furthermore, these protection walls are not engineered for extended retention of water. They are designed to work in short-term storm events.
It does not surprise me that the quality of levees varies in correlation with the wealth of the communities. I see this as economics, not racism. Look at property taxes. Someone has to pay for those levees to be built and to be maintained. People put more money into protecting things that cost more. It is debatable whether or not this is right on a moral level, but it does make logical sense on the economic front.
A colleague of mine held the view that rather than totally devastate certain entire communities while leaving others completely unscathed, the flood should have been regulated to give equal damage to all residents with any potential to be affected by the massive waters. Okay, perhaps this approach could have worked. I don’t know enough about water damage to houses - whether or not two feet of water can essentially do the same amount of damage to the soundness of a structure that six feet of water can do. My tendency is to remain skeptical of this “equal” approach. Economically the damage would certainly affect one group more than another - two feet of water in a mansion will cost significantly more than two feet of water in a shack. Also, logistically, where would they have put ALL the people??? The number of people displaced from their homes as is remains vast. How much more chaos would have been created by prolonged displacement of EVERYONE in the region? Where would they have gone? Maybe this lower water level would indeed have caused less damage, and thus people would have been able to return home more quickly. As I said, I don’t pretend to know enough about flood damage to structures to make a stand on this matter.
Ultimately, though, would it have really made any difference as far as getting to the point where the people of the Gulf Coast are currently at? By this I mean to point out that the wealthier people would have their homes fixed, and the lower classes would still be without.
So, while I can respect and appreciate the viewpoint of this alternative, I am not convinced by it.
Whoever made the decisions that concentrated the effects of Katrina on certain neighborhoods, I do not believe that those decisions where wrong, nor that they should be blamed for the resulting destruction. I think it was a government function and within the government’s discretion, regardless of whether it was federal, state, or local government that made this choice.
At this point, though, I think that the management -or lack thereof- since the hurricane has been where the powers-that-be have failed. It has failed the residents, the communities, the state of Louisiana, and our whole nation. It is a failure because a year and a half later and there are still entire communities that are virtually nonexistent. It is a failure because there is money out there that has not been distributed to those in need. It is a failure because simple communication has broken down - and without communication people make assumptions and draw conclusions based on the limited information they have. This ultimately leads to frustration, hostility, and despair.
One of my colleagues who worked with FEMA surveying people living in trailer homes articulated that one of the most rewarding aspects of his volunteering was being able to be an outlet for these people. They just want someone to listen; all they have otherwise is their neighbors - people who, instead of simply listening, are just waiting to tell their version of what happened to them. Sometimes you just need a shoulder to cry on. You need to let it all out, and from there you can work on figuring out how to deal with it and moving on...
There is the opinion that privatization of the recovery effort is a major problem, and the efforts to prevent contractor fraud are slowing down the rebuilding process. This is real. But here’s the irony I see - if the federal government was taking it all into their own hands, people would still not be happy with the efforts. They would complain that the government should be contracting out to give the little guys an opportunity to come back after the devastation. They would point out that contractors will compete with each other for the jobs - which should lower the prices, increase the quality, and speed up the entire process. Honestly, I think people would be much more upset if the government monopolized this whole reconstruction effort.
Monday, our first day of “legal” work, the People’s Organizing Committee lead our orientation of the pervading issues that need to be dealt with since Katrina. They felt very adamant that help was delayed due to the fact that they were black folks in poor communities. Their claim is that New Orleans does not want them back, that the city will rebuild only for a higher class - economically and racially. These people allege that, thus, they need to be in charge of the reconstruction. They assert that from within these poor, minority communities leaders must step up to voice the concerns and needs of the people who actually lived there.
I respect this motivation. I would go as far as to say that I even admire the voiced conviction of this motivation. Yet I didn’t see it put into action while I was down there. No, instead, basically I saw nothing. The few people that I did see out working in these communities were volunteers such as our group.
Race and class are great divisions in the rebuilding after Katrina. The dominant view seems to be that black people are being discriminated against and they can’t do anything about it because they’re poor. They think the city is trying to get rid of them (umm, does any city want poor people?) by rebuilding their neighborhoods to a degree which they cannot afford. There are housing projects where renters live that are not yet reopened, and there is no forthcoming reason for this delay. The buildings appear to be in livable conditions. One of these projects did get reopened; it’s the one that most of the French Quarter’s workers reside in. The community opinion is that the city let these residents return because they need these ‘slave’ workers to run the tourism of New Orleans. It’s part of that Southern charm.
One of my colleagues accurately pointed out that we did not talk to anybody white in our volunteering. Our efforts did not interact with these white communities; we do not know how the white neighborhoods look, nor do we know how they feel about everything since Katrina. We don’t even really know where the “white neighborhoods” are.
Additionally, and what really vexes me, is how this all collides with immigrant workers who have come on H2B visas. The H2B visa basically authorizes temporary employment for one specific employer. The rational behind it is that when there is no workforce available, employers can go to foreign countries and recruit workers to come to the United States for a limited amount of time to do a specific job. There are workers from Mexico and India, and likely immigrants from many other countries, working in the Gulf Coast through this program. The paradox I see in this is why aren’t the people of the communities that were devastated providing this workforce??? Why do we have to go halfway around the world to recruit people to do the manual labor of this massive reconstruction? The prevalent claim I heard in response to this controversy is that the people of these communities cannot work because there is no housing for them, and they cannot afford housing because they cannot work. This circular argument is essentially a copout in my opinion. These H2B workers come here to nothing. They live 24 to one small room and eat the unappealing food that is offered by their employers. They leave their families and lives behind and travel hundreds or thousands of miles; it isn’t even their own country, much less their own community! Yet they take that step toward a better life and do what they can to improve their status in society. So why cannot the people who actually live in these neighborhoods come and make such an effort? Why do they expect others to make it easier for them? Why are the locals not willing to rebuild their own neighborhoods for minimum wage? Why does it have to be a race issue - why can it not be economics (though certainly race can have some correlation to class)? Indians fly halfway around the world, leaving families and the comforts of their own homes. Why cannot the victims of Katrina put forth this effort? What have they got to lose at this point?
I do not understand it. I, for one, would be blissful to have people pay me to fix my own home and the houses of my friends and neighbors! So my logic is having great difficultly aligning the locals’ arguments. I say: Start by getting one house built. Share money, merge abilities. Get doors and windows that open and close and lock. Furnish a space to sleep and a place to bathe. Make the kitchen functional. Then use that house as the base while working on the rest of the neighborhood...
These H2B visas workers were the focus of the pro bono aid I was assigned to. Myself and two of my colleagues from the University of Idaho worked with the Workers’ Center for Racial Justice. We researched various aspects of the H2B program, such as which employers were applying for these visas, how many they requested compared to how many were certified/denied, what types of jobs these workers were being requested for, where these employers were located throughout the state, etc., etc., etc.
These people did not actively seek out this opportunity to come to America. They were recruited. American employers have recruiters working for them, and those recruiters then contact recruiters in foreign countries, then those foreign-based recruiters gather the workers who accept the H2B visas. Tracy Washington, a local New Orleans attorney, called the H2B program “social sponsored slavery” and said that these employers and recruiters were essentially trafficking “legalized slaves.” Yet the Mexicans stood up there and told a national audience that they had not had a single day of work since they came to the United States.
Apparently I’m missing something from this story, because I don’t see how those two statements align.
I believe that some of these workers are mistreated. I believe that this happens every day, to workers of all types - legal immigrants, undocumenteds, citizens, etc. I do not believe that it is right. It would be better if it was policed and corrected. But this does not mean that H2B guest workers should be given free visas to work for any American employer; this is a claim that organizers are pushing for these workers to have - the protection of the free market. That would defeat the whole purpose of the guest worker program, and it would then be abused in a whole new light. I don’t want to trade one wrong for another. These workers also wanted to be able to go directly to their employers, rather than through recruiters. This is called self-initiative - it requires an affirmative effort on the workers’ part to go seek the American dream. They admitted that they were not looking for this opportunity, so how did they expect it would find them other than through recruiters? There are other types of visas that foreigners can apply for if they want to come to America and work on other terms. H2B is a guest worker program - not a “here-I’m-handing-you-the-American-dream” program. The program needs some revision and refinement, but it is workable. If these workers’ issues arise from an actual contract with their individual employers, then I think they are approaching the wrong legal forum to correct this issue.
The United States government does not ensure dreams.
Part of me fears that these people coming to America and fighting for “rights” may actually end up corroding the very essence of the culture that they so longed to be a part of. America is a land of survival of the fittest. That is how we got to the top of the global food chain. Yet I am honestly apprehensive that more and more our nation is catering to the lowest common denominator in the effort to produce “equality.” America has never been about equality. America was built by the outcasts who no longer lived on the bottom - those who chose to make something happen. America is about getting to the top and refusing to let yourself linger at the bottom. Stop complaining. Complaining does nothing. Instead, assert a realistic alternative approach. Then we can talk. Then there is something to debate and expend energy working out. ‘Til then, let me enjoy the American way of life.
There is a huge difference between trampling on others and simply not handing them what they want and/or think they need. My rights end where someone else’s rights begin. But do not expect me to give away what I have earned so that someone else can enjoy those same benefits - in the name of Equality.
Lack of resources is not the sole reason it’s taking so long to get the Gulf Coast rebuilt. The resources that do become available are unorganized, unproductively employed, and outright misused. Inefficiency. Wow, I understand that there are new volunteers coming in each week and only staying for a week, but you’d still think that these organizations would be a little better prepared to utilize people. I definitely do not feel like I got to contribute all that I could. There was so much confusion and misdirection and just waiting. Yes, some things are uncontrollable and it’s always a task to get large numbers of people on the same page, but these networks have been trying this for over a year now. We came to help so put us to work! We were informed that this is an improvement from last year, though. I am surely glad that our University of Idaho’s Public Interest Law Group did such an excellent job of organizing our fourteen law students who went to New Orleans.
The community organizers who oriented us seemed quite concerned with how we felt about the circumstances. These New Orleanians wanted to make sure that they affected us, that we took lessons home to our own communities. At least it was my impression that they really wanted to change our take of the situation. This is a fine goal, and it is good that we are exposed to their perspective. But I came here to help you. At least give me some constructive rebuilding work while you try to reform my outlook on American society.
Personally, I would have much preferred to be doing manual labor the entire time in New Orleans. But I think that it is very good that I worked with these racial and global issues. It gave me exposure to things I’ve never had to really worry about, and it is nice to have more information towards forming my opinion when I may have to take a stand on these topics. My views are not totally solidified concerning these matters; I need and want more firsthand observations, as well as additional input from other perspectives. It does make me feel secure that the experiences and observations of the week reaffirmed my initial feelings on the issues. I try to remain open minded and to consider the various views presented. Yet ultimately I essentially wound up where I started, only now I’m a bit more passionate about my opinion on it. And that’s a good thing :)
In closing, I want to share the beginning of the week’s happenings - orientation. When asked why they chose to spend spring break volunteering, a vast number of my peers voiced that they felt obligated to do it. It honestly blew my mind how often this concept in general and this word in particular pervaded the introductions. Obligation had never even occurred to me. I felt no obligation to contribute to the reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina devastated an area of our country. Nor do I now feel that weight on my shoulders.
Slow down before you think me wrong or coldhearted! I want to help. My motivation is quite distinct from obligation. I in no way, shape, or form feel that I have to do anything for the Gulf Coast - but I do want to. Think about it...
It was an intense week. I won’t say that I enjoyed it all, but it was a good experience.
“Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.”
- Luke 8:18, NIV
- CRS Report for Congress, “New Orleans Levees and Floodwalls: Hurricane Damage Protection” by Nicole T. Carter, Sept 6, 2005 - Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, order code RS22238
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22238.pdf
- “Is Bush to Blame for New Orleans Flooding?” - Sept 2, 2005, FactCheck.org
- http://www.factcheck.org/article344.html
- “Hurricane Katrina: Who’s in Charge of the New Orleans Levees?” - S. Hrg. 109-616, Hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, 109 Congress, First Session, December 15, 2005
- http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/oclc/74812231?page=frame&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.access.gpo.gov%2FGPO%2FLPS75598&title=&linktype=digitalObject&detail=
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