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New Orleans lives, but it will never be the same. A city of 436,000 people now has about 120,000 permanent residents. Meteorologists warned us that Katrina would be the big one, but neither the people who lived in harm’s way nor any of the rest of us realized that the devastation would be so huge and the rebuilding so incredibly difficult.
After more than a year we haven’t even been able to figure out why the rebuilding is taking so long, although plenty of people and institutions have come in for their share of the blame. The most frequent explanation is that America just doesn’t care – about poor people, about black people, about renters, about the lost communities of the Lower 9th Ward – as if caring alone could possibly be enough. This kind of reasoning only increases the hurt. I think we can do better. Let’s start with what we do know. The port is back to capacity; the refineries are up and running again; but the devastated neighborhoods look as bad as they did a year ago. Neighborhoods on higher ground, of course, came through okay. If they hadn’t, I doubt they would have been rebuilt either. The problem is one of ownership. Decisions about the port facility and the refineries rest in just a few hands – hands with plenty of money and every reason to get those facilities operating again as quickly as possible to re-start the flow of profits – a good thing no matter how quickly another hurricane may hit. Neighborhoods, however, have many owners. What if your house was damaged beyond repair? You might rebuild after your insurance company finally paid your claim, but what if they decided – as they all did – that your insurance did not cover flooding? Even with insurance money, would you return to a neighborhood filled with decaying structures, toxic rubble and stinking garbage? For renters the decision is out of your hands and what landlord will rebuild in these circumstances? In fact, no property owner will want to rebuild, unless everyone rebuilds. The problem is who goes first? It might have been best to bulldoze whole neighborhoods, because it is easier to rebuild on empty land. In fact, the city considered doing that, but was stopped by outcries from property owners. When town meetings, advisory boards, and so forth could not agree on a way forward, there was no way forward. Should the city, perhaps with the help of federal money, buy out the property owners? Consider the outcry when landlords get paid and renters get nothing. Lurking in the background, of course, is the reality that the vulnerability of New Orleans to storms is only getting worse. We have not rebuilt the dykes properly; we have not resolved the problem of the vanishing barrier marshes; we continue to pour carbon dioxide into the air; sea levels are rising; more storms are inevitable. But if rebuilding is resistant to any amount of caring, we must still remember how agonizing the loss of their city remains to those who called it home. In the November Friends Journal, Dorian Hastings, recording clerk of Friends Meeting of New Orleans, outlines the depth of that pain through the experience of their own members. Although none were back in their homes so soon, they met for worship in October 2005 at their customary meeting place. She tells us, “Despite the devastation, it is still very important that people continue to visit us, to witness the pain as well as the progress... The 20% of the city that was relatively unharmed is bustling and ready to receive you.” Shall we accept her invitation? |
