Today was my last full day of work. Monday I will be working a half day with Nikki in the warehouse and then as a team we will be cleaning the house, and getting ready for the drive back to Denver. We will be leaving on Tuesday about 8 am. I have really enjoyed my time here in New Orleans and working for Rebuilding Together. I am sad to leave the area but am also glade to be going home for winter break. I am ready to see my friends and family.
This week my team and I watched Spike Lee’s documentary When the Levees Broke as part of our service learning. I recommend that if you haven’t watched it yet you should. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans 4 years ago I watched footage on the news and read about what was going on in the newspaper but it was different watching it now. Before I watched the movie I felt I had a good understanding of the events surrounding the storm but I found out that I really didn’t know very much. Something that was strange watching the movie now that I have been here for a month is realizing that I have driven through and seen the places that are shown in the movie. I have driven over the overpasses that people were stranded on for days. I have driven by the superdome everyday on the way to work. One photo in the movie that stood out to me was a dead body floating close to the Circle Food Store. Not only was it sad to see that someone had died but we pass by the Circle Food Store when we get on the 10 west bound from our house. Looking at that photo and others it has given me a new perspective because I know what the area looks like now with no water. It is weird to think that when the water was at its highest it reached the second story of some of the houses we have been working on. Seeing the damage after the storm on the news is one thing but seeing it with your own eyes is another.
It has been four years since the levees broke and I was expecting to see the city more rebuilt than it is. In the neighborhoods where we are working, many houses still sit in the same condition that the storm left them in. One common occurrence is when a fixed up house sits right next to a house that has not been touched and is falling apart. The street we live on is the same way. Right across the street from us is a house that nothing has been done to it and it still has the spray painted X on the front from when the house was searched. It makes one wonder why the houses haven’t been rebuilt. Did the homeowners not want to come back, did they not have the money, why?
Something else that I noticed right away are all the schools that sit empty. The school about 5 minutes from our house still has a sign for registration for 2005 on the side, making me think that they tried to reopen but not enough students came back to make it worth it. This is not the only closed school I have seen either. Just from driving around the city to get to work I have seen five closed schools. Last Saturday three people on my team including myself helped the Crocker Elementary school pack up the classrooms and move boxes because the building was condemned. The school found out on Thursday night that they had 48 hours to be out of the building. From talking to the teachers we were helping move it sounded like this wasn’t their first time moving in the middle of the school year to a building that wasn’t going to be permanent. The school was moving into another building until winter break and then they were moving into their permanent home for the next couple of years until their new school is done in 2011 or 2012. I am not sure why the building they were in was condemned or if the damage was related to Katrina. What I don’t understand is why it is taking so long for a new school to be built. Shouldn’t education be at the top of the city’s list for rebuilding? All I can say is that I have a deeper understanding of what Katrina did to the area and that the city has a long way to go before it can be considered recovered. I have added some photos of the school and of my team and I doing PT to the photo album so you all can take a look.
No comments:
Post a Comment