May/June 2006

News of the Fellowship

Katrina Memorials

By Virginia Wilber

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) official told Ann they were pulling out at the end of March. "You're going to have a lot of Katrina memorials," he said, pointing. "See that house over there? We won't get to tear that down in time. That will be a Katrina memorial." So many houses in the small community of Phoenix, Louisiana, were still waiting for demolition. She stared at him.

All photos by Virginia Wilber

Ann Thomas and her husband Morris have been residents of Phoenix all their lives. The road where their house once stood was named after Morris's family. Generations of the Thomas family have owned, worked, and lived on the land on the east bank of the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish. Community-wide, residents say the same thing: their land has been in the family longer than they can remember.

Phoenix was home to 400 people. It is a close-knit rural community about 40 minutes from New Orleans. Only about 30 percent of the population has returned; nevertheless, community leaders have managed to keep track of where each displaced person is throughout the nation. They know when each one hopes to return and they keep vigil on their neighbors' land until that time. They have a network of love and support.

So why wouldn't Phoenix residents want to return home immediately to their own land, their friends, their families? Look to the government and social service agencies.

Although Phoenix was not damaged quite as much as the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans (which was flattened), levee failure rendered homes throughout the community uninhabitable. Seven months later, many of those houses still wait to be gutted. Piles of debris – personal belongings, trees, appliances, housing materials – still wait to be cleared. There are bodies in coffins from the region's renowned above-ground cemeteries still waiting to be identified. There are still overturned, flooded cars and boats in yards and along roads. Yet FEMA is leaving.

FOR's Alternative Spring Break

In March 2006, nine young people drove from New York to Louisiana inspired by a campaign called Katrina on the Ground (KOTG). KOTG was organized by college and grassroots activists to enable young people of color to spend a week in areas affected by the hurricane. With the support of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, our group worked with the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Oversight Coalition during that week.

We anticipated that things would be rough, but were not really prepared for how awful the situation would be. In addition to the graphic evidence of devastation and the harrowing stories of crisis experiences, we encountered ample evidence of a terrible failure of response.

A legacy of governmental mishaps

In Phoenix, Ann told me that the only help her community has received has been private donations. They haven't had any help at all from Red Cross, she said. They have received little assistance from FEMA, and what FEMA has provided has been more problematic than useful. (FEMA created so much red tape that it's easy to see why they can't get anything done. For instance, while we were gutting houses, we saw FEMA employees standing around doing nothing. We asked why and were told, "We have to wait for our supervisors, because if something happens and they're not here, we could get sued.") As for local government…while Phoenix has now hosted volunteers from all over the world, by mid-March it had yet to be visited by any Parish official!

Some Phoenix children have been forced to change schools five times this year. FEMA did bring some trailers for temporary residence to Phoenix, and while their distribution to families has been convoluted and inefficient, the structures will come in handy for the next school year. With their own "school," children in Phoenix will be better off than many kids in New Orleans. Ninth Ward resident are being told that schools will not reopen until 2008.

All this because the federal government failed to heed warnings that New Orleans levees were not sufficient. Through the 1990s, and as recently as 2001, the government brushed aside reports that major restoration of the Gulf Coast was needed if cities like New Orleans were to remain viable. The government failed to invest in "Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal Louisiana," a strategic plan that would have restored wetlands and rebuilt a coastline that loses a chunk as large as Manhattan to the sea each year. The plan was approved at local, state, and federal levels but never authorized, let alone implemented. According to Mike Tidwell, author of the 2003 Bayou Farewell: The Rich Life and Tragic Death of Louisiana's Cajun Coast, the cost to implement this plan would have been $14 billion, roughly equivalent to funding two weeks of war in Iraq. (Money set aside for this plan not only went to the war in Iraq, but also to clean and build up beaches in New Jersey.)

While in New Orleans, KOTG participants saw the difference between the levee "protecting" the Ninth Ward (four feet high and supported by dirt) and the two strong levees protecting the affluent, predominantly white neighborhoods. The wealthy neighborhoods' first levee is significantly higher than the Ninth Ward's and extends deep into the ground. Beyond it is a large grassy area. (Trees in this area, anchored by metal supports, survived Katrina.) Finally there is a second levee that opens and closes to regulate water flow.

Yes, the Army Corps of Engineers responsible for the levee in the Ninth Ward is rebuilding it in time for this year's hurricane season – but it will not be sufficient to withstand a Category Five hurricane.

We asked whether levees were funded by local community taxes, wondering if this was the reason the system differed between poor and rich neighborhoods. No, we were told, money for the levees does not come from local taxes. They are funded and maintained by the federal government.

Increasing aid and accountability

Our brothers and sisters on the Gulf Coast need help. We must not allow ourselves to suffer from "Katrina fatigue" and justify inaction now based on what we may have done six months ago. Many people made donations after the hurricane, but did the money actually get to the people on the ground? Consider the case of the Red Cross.

The New York Times reported on March 24 that "The Red Cross received roughly 60 percent of the $3.6 billion that Americans donated for hurricane relief." Where did all that money go? KOTG participants, traveling throughout New Orleans for a whole week, spotted only two Red Cross trucks. According to local reports, the donations given to the Red Cross seem not to be reaching either individuals or grassroots organizations. So why are Red Cross employees departing with million-dollar severance packages?

The untold stories

After our group's experience (which included helping to salvage the house of a 91-year-old man who had built it in 1946 with his own hands), we departed as bearers of many untold stories. There is so much that our media have neglected to tell us and that our government is trying to ignore. We heard terrible accounts of police misconduct: looting, refusing to let people of color into shops, and even shooting at residents of the flooded Ninth Ward who sought desperately to cross a bridge into the safe, wealthy – and white – neighborhoods.

If you are a white middle-class volunteer, stories like these make you question your humanity. We need to own up to the fact that what the government allowed to happen in New Orleans was racism. The South may no longer have the blatant discrimination of Jim Crow laws, but many of us do not even flinch at taking care of certain citizens while leaving others to die.

I believe that if more people nationwide saw the Gulf Coast today, they would not only be outraged, but called to act.

Take action

There are so many things you can do from your home. Write a letter or make a call – put pressure on government officials to assist the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Contact organizations you donated to and demand to know what is being done with your money (the Red Cross toll-free number is 800-435-7669).

If you have the resources and time, no matter what your age, please go to the Gulf Coast. There is so much work to be done. Most of the towns hit by Katrina are still lacking basic infrastructure, so any skill can be put to use. Professional skills – legal, financial, architectural, or medical – are invaluable. Writers can help grassroots organizations prepare grant proposals.

One FEMA official in New Orleans told a KOTG participant that it's his job to make it difficult for people to come back. With rich soil and oil refineries nearby, it is easy to guess why the government wouldn't want people to return home. In New Orleans, where the major industry is tourism, wealthy businesspeople would love to expand the French Quarter into the lower Ninth Ward. Residents have been told that Carnival Cruises and Donald Trump are among the corporations with an eye on their land.

Whatever you do, please remember to support organizations like the People's Hurricane Relief Fund and Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch who are taking their lead from local residents. Residents themselves are organizing and putting together grassroots-based plans. Their courage is a source of hope that should move us all to participate in rebuilding community together.

Virginia Wilber concluded a year-long internship in the Fellowship of Reconciliation's communications office in March 2006. She lives in New York City.

©2006 Fellowship of Reconciliation