Tuesday, December 7, 2010
"Katrina did New Orleans a world of good"
Posted by Kevin Allman on Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 2:10 PM
The Eyres came to New Orleans two weeks ago ("As we drove through what is known as the Ninth Ward"), and have now filed a dispatch titled "Katrina Did New Orleans a World of Good," which probably needs a disclaimer that it's not actually from The Onion ...
The interesting thing about going back five years after the havoc wreaked by Katrina was that everyone we spoke to including our drivers, our friends in the organization we went to speak for, people in the restaurants and at the mall claimed that Katrina was the best thing that ever happened to them!Of course those who lost family members or a dear friend would not be able to say that but by and large people just couldn't get over the things they learned from being a part of the biggest hurricane disaster in US history! There were trials they would never have asked for but they wouldn't give up what they learned from them for anything!
Yes — I think we can all agree with them that those who lost family members or a dear friend would not be able to say that.
The thing that most people mentioned when they talked about their learning experiences was that they were forced to change! They soon realized that life was never really going to be the same. Of course many people left and never came back as they realized how good people were to them where they "landed". To everyone who experienced Hurricane Katrina first hand, life became more important and every day from then on was more precious.
The Eyres close with a quote by the writer Storm Jameson — "It is an illusion to think that more comfort brings more happiness" — so we'll be kind and invoke another quote: Luke 23:34.
Thanks to Humid City for the tip.
Comments (5)
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These people (I'm talking people like this in general) think they know everything there is about the situation in New Orleans and that they've figured it out when all they need to do is STFU.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have heard the stupidest things - "why don't they move New Orleans to Baton Rouge...?" Excuse me, WHAT?!?!? Or "why don't they just leave if they know a hurricane is coming?" Errr, because not everyone can afford to stay in a hotel indefinitely, not everyone has a car, etc.
I am SO sick of hearing these stories by people who think they know how to fix NOLA's problems - because they have NO CLUE.
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Bien sur. Some smiling out of town white people. Boy of boy, how coming to new orleans on a day trip makes everyone an expert from out of town
Erroll Laborde writing about the Alabama coast 2008
http://www.myneworleans.com/New-Orleans-Ma…
"Recovery there has been amazing. Like in New Orleans, the storm cleared away things that probably needed to be cleared out anyway and now new structures are rising. "
Isn't it worse when this attitude shows up amongst the city's own elites who make decisions and exert influence that affects our lives than when some random visitors say something stupid?
Good pull, Jeffrey. The truth is a lot of people are better off, and indeed benefited from, Katrina, though it's something most people don't exactly boast about. It's simply the flow of opportunity and good fortune. One could make a long list of individuals about whom we can say that Katrina was the best thing that happened to them.
Of course it's unseemly to say such a thing, but what did it mean, after all, to say in 2005 that New Orleans was going to come back and be "better than ever."
We always say New Orleans isn't America, but I am sick and tired and DONE, especially in this age of recession, rotting infrastructure and failed everything all over the country, with the fact that New Orleans is still talked about as though in isolation from the rest of America. Before, I used to think, "Wait until things start to fall apart around you, see how you feel and then see how we feel." Now, I think, "Things are falling apart around you, you're next and you still don't see."
For the record, The Storm WAS the worst thing to happen to me, but we're ok, still making our mental and physical way out of it. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, for sure, but even I don't presume to speak for the thousands dead and tens of thousands still homeless and broken from something that should never have happened at all. Better off - what does that even mean and who are you to make that judgment?
