"i lost everything, everything, don't have nothin' left"

resident, st. bernard's parish

i just talked to a man who was describing his situation to me. he came back as soon as he could, just three weeks after the hurricane. he figured that because there was just a few feet of water in his house, not everything would be gone. when he got back, the mud was over a foot deep all throughout his house.

he and his wife tried to do some clean up themselves, but they found it was too emotionally draining. he said it was just too hard; they could only work for an hour. they got help from a group from a church in kentucy. there were about 40 people working to get rid of everything, and it took one day to do it.

why are small groups of volunteers the only people helping out around here? why is the government doing nothing for these people?

it is great to see that americans really are coming together down here to help out. there is a lot of interaction between people who normally would live completely separate lives and have no idea what the other one is going through. but what really needs to happen is a HUGE effort from the government if any major rebuilding of new orleans and the whole gulf coast is going to happen any time soon.

only one third of new orleans has moved back so far, and i seriously doubt if that number will even get to one half of people who originally lived here, especially because relief effors are not forthcoming in any more than a trickle of what is needed.

oh, yeah, i forgot to write about mardi gras. i went in to downtown new orleans on tuesday, and i couldn't believe that

1. mardi gras was SO tame. i used to live here, so i've suffered through a couple mardi gras. this year, there were maybe an eighth of the normal amount of people. i steered clear of burbon st, so it might have been a mess there (well, it was full of garbage, but not as bad as the rest of the city full of gutted houses).

i mostly hung out right outside of the french quarter, and there was just a nice party going on in the street. people were all happy. i didn't stay for the night, so i don't know if it may have gotten more insane by then.

2. the french quarter has totally recovered from the hurricane. i hadn't seen any places that were in good shape until i went down there.

so the kitchen i'm working at is just south east of new orleans, in st. bernard's parish (that's what they call counties here). st. bernard's parish had 67,000 residents before katrina, and so far, fewer than 4,000 have returned.

i took a walk yesterday and found that it seemed like a ghost town. most of the houses around here are made of brick, so the outside is still standing, but there are piles of possessions, house parts, and insulation outside of every one of them. inside, all that remains are studs.

one woman i talk to said "i know that material possessions are not important, but when you go through your house and throw out everything, it is just heart breaking."

when i asked around to see what businesses had reopened, so far the parish has a number of bars (which is not good news, as alcoholism is suppposed to become an even bigger problem here than it already was), and the home depot just opened. not really anything else.

i have no idea how this city is going to rebuild. but at least i'm down here doing something, even if it feels so small in comparision to what people who live here have gone through.

many of the volunteers here are rainbow family, hippies that local people have not previously run in to. but there seems to be lots of love and communication between residents and volunteers, which is a good thing.