Update on New Orleans

Many thanks to Mr. Terry Feingold, who just spent a week in New Orleans and Louisiana doing some fine volunteer work. It's still a mess down there. Terry got back to Chicago late last night and files the following excellent report. With him was Francis Scudellari, who posts a photo essay about the trip at Life in Buras, LA -- Day 4 (Photo Essay). Changes in Latitude by Terry Feingold April 21, 2007 - I was in Buras, Louisiana this past week staying at the Emergency Community Volunteer Center. There was no run-off election. Neighbors for a Healthy Rogers Park (NHRP) found that volunteers were living in tents and working out of a YMCA with no walls. Francis Scudellari and I had heard that the recovery pace here was much slower than Mississippi. We wanted to see for ourselves. It's about thirteen miles from the start of the road (I said "end of the road" earlier but a local corrected me on my terminology!) If you picture the state of Louisiana, this town is near the tip of the boot. It's an hour and a half south of New Orleans. The levees on either side can't be more than a mile apart. It's a trip seeing a huge barge float by beyond the wreckage that runs almost up to the levees. Very few businesses and homes are built back here. The Post Office is still a pile of rubble. Piles of bricks, trash and glass line the roadways and empty lots. There are only cement pad-foundation remaining in way too many spots. Since Katrina hit, it’s become a graveyard homage to dead homes. The Volunteer Center is the hardiest I've ever seen. By "hardy" I mean basic. It's a YMCA that has no walls halfway round it. It houses the Lower Plaquemines Parish library, a free Laundromat, a play space for kids and a small Internet center. They are serving three meals a day to residents and to volunteers. The kitchen is half a soccer-ball-style tent inside the main structure. There are no cooktops, so what we have is glorified-sheltered camp cooking. There is a distribution center, which seems lean. I thought that was minimal. The volunteers stay in tents in a blown out warehouse. To get to the tent city from the main hall, you walk across a path lined with cinder blocks. On it, someone spray painted Follow The Cinder Block Road. Port-a-Potties are out in the parking lot. There are four showers available in a trailer - a luxury in the midst of so much lack. The fact that the volunteers live in conditions similar to the residents has done much to gain respect from the community. I spent time talking with Luke Ippoliti, the Site Coordinator for Emergency Communities. He has been here since they started this center in March 2006. He told me that they started serving meals while they were still clearing debris from the building. As he thoughtfully studied his surroundings while we sat talking, he said in reference to the Volunteer Center, "This entire world was created based on what Need needs. It's an honor and a privilege to work with United Way to serve this community." He has led his team with a service first mentality. He understood from the beginning that this community was filled with hard-working, self-reliant people. If EC wanted to be of service, they would have to start from the point of doing the work for the sake of the work, not under some misguided liberal mentality that they would be saving Buras. He listens to what the residents want and does his best to provide it to them on their timetable. They are starting to transition from a relief effort to a recovery effort. To that end, they are working to start a Tool Lending Library for residents who want to rebuild but lack the resources to do so. The United Way Grant for running the Volunteer Center ends at the end of June 2007. They had intended to close up operations at that time. However, there has recently been some movement to possibly extend their work here. While we were there a United Way executive told Luke that it may even be possible to rebuild/save the YMCA. “It's an organism that is evolving, much like the entire recovery effort,” said Luke. Luke invoked Darwin's theory that it is not the strongest species that survives but the one that is most adaptive to change. I hope that they receive the support they need so that Emergency Communities can continue being "a conduit for good will" to this community. The residents are committed to staying. It's their home. They are filtering back, but it’s a slow process.