IMAGINE losing your home and possessions, having to flee your home and then, if you were able to return at all, having to live in a trailer in your front yard. Then imagine living there for the next 14 months in a neighborhood nearly devoid of life. For many people on the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Katrina made this nightmare a reality last year, and it remains a reality as efforts to clean up and rebuild have proceeded at a painfully slow pace.
The head of Randy's Rangers, who simply goes by Randy, operates a non-profit organization sponsoring a relief task force. According to Randy, in Mississippi, 30 feet of water accompanied by 140 mile-per-hour winds came ashore, tearing up all in their path. The reasons for the slow rebirth are myriad: poverty of the impacted areas -- Mississippi and Louisiana rank 50th and 42nd in per capita personal income among the 50 states--, a quagmire of insurance litigation and even the physical and psychological barriers returning refugees have faced. All of this has created a tremendous hurdle for the people of the Gulf Coast to surmount, and they require the help of those who are able to give it.
Over Thanksgiving break, I made my second relief trip to New Orleans and encountered signs both of hope and of discouragement. For example, in March, the inhabitable part of downtown New Orleans extended a few short blocks from the river and French Quarter before giving way to buildings fronted with plywood and gutted inside entirely. Stop signs regulated traffic, as there was no power for traffic lights. When I returned this fall, the commercial district had progressed significantly and reclaimed several blocks from the devastation. Power had also returned to most of the city. However, the divide between what had been repaired and the rest of the city remained stark. Beyond areas of commercial interest, the city has been slow to rebound.
Another example: On both trips, I gutted houses of damaged or moldy material. This fall, I returned to a house I had helped clean in the spring. The family that owned it looked to be well on their way to restoring their house to its pre-Katrina state. But the rest of the neighborhood looked like a ghost town. A few houses had FEMA trailers in front, but they stood in the midst of a sea of empty homes, unkempt and browning lawns and cracked roadways. The few people who have returned are bastions of hope in this span of desolation.
These people are what keep me coming back and make me excited to be part of the rebuilding effort. There is so much to be done; in the poorer parts of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi especially there remain thousands of homes that need to be cleaned so that their inhabitants can make a new beginning. In Pass Christian, Mississippi, near where the hurricane came ashore, a wasteland of foundations and twisted trees, supports for raised houses and debris mark former home sites. Here a community needs to rebuild entirely, and to do so they need our help.
In both New Orleans and Miss., there is much to do, for those with the time and the inclination to do so. Students have a tremendous opportunity to aid in the recovery of the Gulf Coast. There are two main ways to do so: by doing relief work or offering financial aid. Relief trips provide a powerful image of the impact of Katrina as well as an opportunity to contribute in a tangible way. If relief trips are not your forte, other opportunities do exist. Individuals or groups can raise money or collect gift cards to stores like Lowes or The Home Depot and send them to organizations such as Randy's Rangers, which can make sure they are applied where most needed. According to Randy, relief workers are constantly in need of building supplies, so contributions such as these are more than welcome. So look for opportunities.
For travel, Alternate Spring Break offers a trip, as do many religious organizations; Alpha Phi Omega, a coed service fraternity on Grounds, also went down last spring break. Financially, contributions can be sent to Randy's Rangers, or other organizations. If you feel the urge to go down to New Orleans, go. Most importantly, be aware that the work has barely begun, know that you can make a difference and make sure that those in need are not forgotten this holiday season.
Robby Colby's column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at rcolby@cavalierdaily.com.
Read More
WILLIAMS: Donald Trump will be a threat to student loan forgiveness
By Ryan Williams | 5 hours agoTo be sure, this is not a problem of the University’s making. Nevertheless, understanding the uncertainty of financial accessibility in education, the University must step up to the plate.
PATEL: Personal development courses support students beyond the gradebook
By Heer Patel | 5 days agoThe University must rethink its approach to education beyond traditional major-specific requirements and mandate personal development courses.
EDITORIAL: Commercialization threatens U.Va.’s educational mission
By Editorial Board | 6 days agoAfter all, measuring the University’s worth in terms of accrued capital, operational efficiency and numerical rankings molds this space into just another cookie-cutter institution.
