Still Gutting

22 months after Katrina, and the gutting of homes is still going strong, as these volunteers from Raleigh, NC can attest to. This is why it bothers me so much to hear those who visit and only stay downtown and have dinner in the French Quarter say that New Orleans is back to normal. Has there been progress? Yes. Is it back to normal? Far from it. It's not that the people who say that, often people who are in town for business and stay at one of the big hotels downtown, are negligent on purpose. They're just misinformed. They see the inside of conference centers, 4-star hotels and the bars of Bourbon Street. Drive 20 minutes and it's an entirely different story. These particular volunteers in the photos above are part of a Church Group in Raleigh. They brought down over 50 people. I took a drive at lunchtime and passed by this house and decided to stop. Sometimes it's as interesting and insightful to talk to volunteers as it is to talk to residents. Most of the kids in the group are just freshmen in high school, and a few mentioned how struck they were when they shoveled through the house room by room. They found things like jewelry, books, photos, all of which just had to be put into piles and wheeled out to the curb to be thrown with the rest of the garbage. Remarkably, despite how much times has passed since the storm, there are still many homes that need shoveling.

Katrina Not the Only Hurdle For Some

It doesn’t take long to find a person or story that moves you around here. In fact, they often just find you.

I was over at the new Distribution Center this morning. We’ve moved it from the Civic Center to what’s called Vista Gym. It looks like one of those big self-storage centers from the outside, with sterile cement walls and a tin roof. But it’s filthy inside. Water must have just settled in there and built up, because the water lines and mud go up the walls at least 20 feet in some spots. Common sense isn’t always on display here, and the Parish decided to start moving some of the goods to the gym without cleaning it. I told a fellow volunteer while we were moving things around that I’d hate to see what would be in the air if we shined one of those really bright lights that can show all the dust and particles floating around.

Not long before I was going to leave, a woman walked in, alone. She had been to the Civic Center and saw the sign telling residents where we moved to. Someone had told her that this would be a good place to get some clothes, maybe some food and water. Turns out, she needed anything she could get her hands on. Rhonda has been living in a FEMA Trailer in front of her Aunt’s house just down the road in Violet. On Monday, the trailer caught fire and was destroyed, along with everything in it. Rhonda and her two children, a boy 8 years old and a girl who is 6, were not home at the time thankfully. She says they don’t even know how the fire started. All she does know is that all of her possessions, and those of her kids, are gone.

Tom (the other volunteer) and I told her to please take whatever she needs. She said she just wanted to get some clothes for her kids for the week, and maybe a few toys and some water. They’re staying at an Econo Lodge down the road through this weekend. FEMA is apparently going to have a new trailer for them by Monday. I couldn’t helped but be moved by this woman’s story. I kind of hung close to her, talking a bit, feeling out like I usually do with the residents if she was open to talking or if she didn’t want to be bothered. Given her circumstances, she had a great attitude, about everything, including talking to me.

Rhonda, just 40 years old but like many people here aged a bit beyond her years, explained how she was laid off from her job a month ago. She had never been to the Distribution Center, never really needed hand outs. But that all changed as of Monday, so here she was. To be honest, I sometimes think about if a resident may be embellishing his or her story; I’m quite positive several I have talked to have, it’s usually kind of easy to pick up on. With Rhonda, though, I never felt that way, and I just wanted to keep listening.

I didn’t push, though. She let me take a few pictures, and then I let her go through the clothes. She was very considerate. She said that she wanted to make sure that what she took was the right size for her kids, so that she wouldn’t take anything that she didn’t need. She was very methodical as she went through everything.

A short time later, I asked her if she minded if I went to see her burned out trailer. She offered to take me over there herself. So when she was done, with clothes, bed linens, water and some toys in tow, we went out, loaded her car and I followed her out. We had to make two stops, though. First, we had to stop at the store so she could get her son a cold Gatorade. He is at a summer camp right on St. Bernard’s Highway. I went in with Rhonda, and at the check out line she pulled out food stamps, to pay for a Gatorade. I told her to save those, and to please let me get it.

Then we went to her son’s camp. They play water games with the hose there, and her son didn’t have any swim trunks after the fire. Fortunately, she found some that would fit him at the Distribution Center, so she wanted to drop them off to him. It’s so hot and humid here, it’s borderline inhumane to not have kids who are outside in some form of water. When we got there, he was clearly happy to get the swim shorts, but he was equally embarrassed to have his mom right there in front of all his friends. I guess that’s what you get at 8 years old.

Walking back to her car, I was asking her how much the summer camp was costing her. She said that thankfully she had paid for it in advance, back when she was still working. She no longer has any money. The $200 she said she had in her savings is paying for the hotel room her and her two children are staying in this week (and it wasn’t enough; she had to ask family for another $200 or so to cover it). So for now, she’s living on donations, and food stamps. So are her kids, including the little boy I just met and watched her give some shorts and a kiss to inside.

A few minutes later, we were at the FEMA Trailer, or what was left of it. By this time, I felt like I had seen and gotten to know all I had wanted to. She stayed in the car, while I walked around it, snapping a few pictures, peering inside to see what had been her home, what were their belongings, all burned and charred. It just seemed anti-climactic. I stood there for a minute, thinking why this would happen to this woman, to her kids. I even wondered what the deal with this fire was, if maybe it was purposely set by her. People here have been known to do that, for any number of reasons. But then I said to myself why would she do that? So she could move into another trailer? To have to buy new clothes when she doesn’t even have any money?

This is what the lingering effects of Katrina do. It put people like this in crappy trailers and left volunteers like me to question why.

Rhonda has good spirit and a good outlook, though. She insists they’ll be ok, that their new trailer will be better than this one, that she’ll find work and that they’ll move forward. Before she drove off to go see her youngest daughter I told her to please come back to the Distribution Center next week as we’ll have more stuff out, hopefully some new stuff that she can use. She promised she would.

(PHOTOS: Rhonda at the Distribution Center, looking through a tub of soap supplies, posing with her son while at his summer camp, and their "former" home)

CNN Visits Again

CNN's Anderson Cooper broadcast live from New Orleans again on Monday night. Cooper has hosted his nightly news show, AC 360, a number of times in the past year, and anything that brings attention and awareness to the region is a positive for the recovery efforts. It's important to get the message out that this area is a long way from being back to normal. Hurricane Season is also underway and stories focusing on the work on the levees and water pumping stations is extremely timely and relevant.

(for more on AC 360 and Cooper's blog, go to: www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/anderson.cooper.360/blog/)

Unfortunately, Monday's telecast continued a trend that Cooper's show, and the media in general, demonstrates when it comes to 'talking about' New Orleans. That is, they remain enamored with a constant focus on the Lower 9th Ward, as well as on the crime and violence. Memo to mainstream media: there is much more going on than peril in the 9th Ward and murders in the neighborhoods, and it's time that the media power brokers (CNN, Fox News, Time and Newsweek) recognize that.

There are a number of areas equally, if not more, vulnerable to potential levee breaches than the Lower 9th Ward. Cooper spoke live with Col. Jeffrey Bedey, who leads the Army Corps of Engineers Hurricane Protection Office, and before wrapping up his interview asked the Col. what he would tell people who wanted to come back to the 9th Ward about the state of the levees. Well, Anderson, what about the people who are already in or might want to come back to St. Bernard Parish, the West Bank, or Plaquemines Parish? I understand Cooper used the Lower 9th Ward as an example to frame a legitimate question. Still, it's irresponsible for the media to continue giving the impression that that one area is the only one struggling or affected. Lower 9th Ward residents themselves should not be thrilled with this. They and their neighborhood were and still are used by the media because it makes for sexier story-telling.

The fact is there is an entire REGION, and not just one neighborhood, that is in peril still and could very well be facing a treacherous 4 months if Hurricane Season turns out to be as active as some are predicting it to be. Of course, listening to the mainstream media, you wouldn't know this.

The other bothersome part of Monday's newscast centered around two of its feature pieces. One consisted of another story on violence in the city. Yes, the reality is that crime is still a major problem in New Orleans. CNN cited a chilling statistic -- the murder rate in New Orleans currently sits at one murder per 1,400 residents. That's pretty high, especially when you consider it's one per 14,000 residents in New York City. But, reality also says that much of the violence is centered around drug and gang activity. Just about every murder I read about it in the paper or hear about on the news falls into those categories. Well, isn't that the case in most major urban areas? Ask the folks of Baltimore, Md, if the homicide rate there helps them to sleep easy at night. There were over 400 murders in that city last year, and they're currently on track to top that in 2007.

The problem that's unique to New Orleans is that the police force has remained under-staffed since Katrina. CNN does point this out; in fact, it has focused on this angle several times. My point, though, is two-fold: a.) we've heard this story before, many times over; b.) spend some time doing features on some positive recovery stories, people who have made it back, rebuilt their homes, are helping others, etc.

A second feature that ran focused on FEMA trailers that have been vandalized, presumably by their owners, and having been collected by the government now sit in a lot almost useless. Three times the correspondent doing the story made reference to how tax-payer dollars paid for these trailers and now they're damaged goods. Are you kidding me?

I don't care how much we, AS AMERICAN CITIZENS, spent in our tax dollars in order to help FELLOW AMERICAN CITIZENS who were in need. Shoot, I don't care if all my tax money found its way down to the Gulf Coast region to pay for something. Whatever the amount is, it's not enough. And, if some of what "my tax dollars" funded is now damaged, so be it. That is the last thing on my mind and should be the last thing on just about anyone's. Instead, FEMA and the media should be focusing on why it is some of these trailers are damaged. Perhaps people's stress levels are through the roof. Perhaps people who have been stiffed by the insurance companies and put on the backburner by the Federal Government's Road Home Program need money. Perhaps the trailers are completely inadequate to house Oscar Madison let alone a family of four.

No, I'm not excusing stealing, or vandalism, or blatant disregard for someone else's property. It's unfortunate it even has to happen. But the reality is the conditions and state of affairs in the New Orleans area lend to this kind of stuff being inevitable. Live with it, and work on what really needs to be fixed, such as getting residents the money they need to rebuild their homes.

CNN and Cooper aren't totally off the mark. I give them credit for being down there every few weeks for over a year now (at least that's how often it seems AC 360 broadcasts live from there). It's a great help in terms of raising awareness and bringing this region to the forefront. But like most of the mainstream media, AC 360 needs to relax the focus on the Lower 9th Ward and stories related to crime rates. There's a lot more going on in New Orleans, good and bad.

Quick Sports Take: I could not be happier that the ratings for the first two games of the NBA Finals are tanking. Dennis Rodman's career scoring average was higher than the marks Games 1 and 2 pulled in. Sopranos or no Sopranos interference on Sunday night, David Stern's product is a joke. If he wants to "allow" ESPN/ABC to call the shots and therefore have a five-day layoff of no basketball before Game 1 and then another three-day layoff before Game 2, well David, you get what you deserve. No, it's not Stern's fault that the Spurs are an absolute bore, or that Cleveland is not capable of making of making this series interesting (although Lebron will win a championship or three someday). Still, this is 95% the league's own doing, and we couldn't be happier with their payoff.