Nowhere Else to Go

I am so overloaded with stories and experiences to share and have so little time to write that it is hard to choose what to tell. Every day I hear stories of the flood and the evacuation, what people went through. What they survived, or didn't. The houses still have body counts on the front doors, spray-painted by search squads 14 months ago. For me it is a disturbing symbol of lives lost, many of which could have been saved. But for the people who are from this neighborhood, who grew up here, went to school here, worked here and raised their families here, those marking are a painful reminder of a community shattered.

My friend Darrell returned to New Orleans after 13 months in exile in Arlington, Texas. He faced discrimination there as a Katrina evacuee (as did almost everyone else I have spoken to who had the misfortune of ending up in Texas), and had trouble finding steady housing and employment. Despite the fact that he is hard-working, sober, intelligent, and upstanding individual. He knew his city had been destroyed, but in the end he had to return. He told me he just didn't have anywhere else to go. But housing prices have doubled since the storm, and he is coping with post-traumatic stress issues. When Darrell sees a body count painted on a house here, more often than not he knows who those bodies were. When he sees a school that hasn't even been gutted yet, much less rebuilt and reopened, he sees the place where he helped win the championship game in high school. He is trying to talk to a mental health counselor about the insomnia and nightmares that have haunted him since the flood, but everyone has the same problems, and there are nowhere near enough services for all these folks. So he's wait-listed at half the clinics in town. Every day he tells me, 'Thank God for y'all, 'cause if Common Ground weren't here, I'd have nothing to fall back on'.

Which makes me feel good, to know that we as a volunteer community are supporting people, trying to help them rebuild their homes, their lives. But it also makes me wonder, why does it fall on us? FEMA has a list of resources disaster-affected people can seek out for relief. Charitable organizations are first on the list. (FEMA puts itself at #6). But even with massive house gutting operations run by multiple volunteer organizations, it is doubtful that %10 of the house guts needed in NOLA will be performed by charities. Meanwhile the $10 billion in federal money set aside for Louisiana is being sat on by the state (less than 50 homeowners have received payments statewide). Something tells me the problems here run a bit deeper than Michael Brown.

I must extend my deepest gratitude to all those that have contributed to care packages that have been sent to me here. After enjoying a little chocolate today, I filled a box with goodies and began distributing it throughout St. Mary's and in the neighborhood. I made it clear this was a gift from strangers across the nation. You've been 'God Bless'-ed many times over.

Peace y'all.