Katrina

Wow!  This is my 101st post.

I've been watching all of the national reports about Katrina's 5-year anniversary and that has been difficult for me.  I remember sitting on my sister's sofa in Pensacola, worrying about my husband who was still in our house and watching New Orleans drown and civil society fall apart.  I won't give you my personal Katrina experience here, but there is more than what the reports show.

In addition to the heartbreaking scenes at the Superdome and Convention Center that Brian Williams documented, entire neighborhoods of $500,000+ homes were destroyed and many of the city's doctors, lawyers and business owners left the city and have never returned.  Others of us returned to a New Orleans where everything green had died and turned brown; cars were strewn on medians, streets, and lawns with windows fogged from weeks of stagnant water;  orange Xs were painted on every home to document what was found within; and a brown line adorned trees, fences and houses marking the dirty, oily water's reach.  We struggled or are still struggling to rebuild our homes and personal lives.

The world reached out to us.  Schools all over the US educated our children for months; communities sheltered our newly homeless families; animal shelters rescued our pets and kept them safe; relatives opened their homes to us; wherever we were "riding out the storm" we were hugged and helped.  When we finally were allowed to return to New Orleans, religious groups, school groups, and individuals from everywhere joined together to help clean out and ultimately rebuild our ruined homes; animal shelters reunited us with our pets; Levees.Org gathered grass roots support and pushed our government to build better levees; Women of the Storm hounded the federal government to come to New Orleans and see the destruction first hand; Habitat for Humanity, Brad Pitt, Harry Connick, Jr. and others raised money and built homes; we celebrated and supported every business that returned.  We re-found our community and Katrina reminded us to appreciate our home.