Three Years Later

One cannot comprehend the haunting levity we felt when placed in the same streets and homes we’d seen in the news. The same streets and homes where so many people had swam, struggled, lost nearly everything and died. The Lower Ninth Ward was once the most dense and populous section of New Orleans. Eerily, there were areas that looked as if they belonged on countrysides in the Midwest; for all the aged homes, vacant lots and tall unmaintained grass. We would get lost in our imaginations as we observed the people; we noticed the weight still on many of their shoulders. And one couldn’t help but want to ask what happened to each specific person, where they were three years ago. Buildings also offered a tremendous amount of daydreaming. There were entire walls missing, exposing mangled rooms with faded wallpaper that transported you to the underwater grotto it once was; there were uncountable abandoned homes overridden by plants and waterlines, homes that were just as important to families as mothers and grandmothers; there were markings in spray paint on each of the houses that described the date it was searched, who searched it, anything notable about it and hauntingly, the number of dead found inside. The nonchalant and systematic process was disgusting to us. Also disgusting was the sight of freshly built McDonald and Wendy’s restaurants in the same proximity of areas where families have no means to rebuild and restart. Those with economic means to do so hire contractors, many of which take all the money in one payment and elope. It is hard to say that we saw merely the effects of Katrina, for the layers of devastation that we observed on the brief tour were so incredibly vast that we were clearly seeing all the problems of the city, our country and our society washed up in The Ninth Ward, three years later.

Reviews

[Chloe..Across the Unive..]

This is chilling , reason being it is so true .. I felt each word and my heart breaks for those in NoLa and all along the Gulf shore..Mississippi and parts of Alabama .. Katrina did a number on these people and then the government forgot all about them .. hate to make this political so i will hush .. I love the City of New Orleans .. fell in love with her my first visit .. to me cities have souls.. and her soul was shattered.

This is well written.. i do feel the weight of the people through your words today.. as i did three years ago .. thank you for remembering and reminding.

Chloe
xoxo

[Raef C. Boylan]

This is chilling. Very well-written; the side we didn't quite get to see on the News - not over here anyway [UK]. Imagine making the same journey to work or school every day past houses of your neighbours that are marked with the number of Dead...feck.
It is horrible to notice capitalism's lack of conscience and compassion; preying on devastation.
Some good points made, in haunting detail. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[InkBlack]

Did you see this in New Orleans or something? If so, that's really interesting. I could really feel the pain of the people who suffered from Katrina and lost every thing they had. It was good and I wouldn't change anything about what's already written. But, perhaps you could add something about the pets that got washed away in the floods or got killed because their owners left them behind. I don't know, its just a suggestion, as well as the animal rights activist in me :).