The First Five, Five Years Later

This post was started 2 weeks ago and I've just had the time to piece all my thoughts together.

Last night as I wrapped up a great weekend hanging out with one of my best friends, I sat on the sofa to watch Dateline NBC's Hurricane Katrina special. For an hour they recounted the events from 5 years ago and the first 5 days following the storm and it gave me a chance to reflect just how that storm affected all our lives and where we are today and just what has been done...

Five years ago, this hurricane rocked our world. For months all of my friends were spread out- many in interesting living arrangements and many resulting in life changing events.

As this special recounted what happened to all the people who had no place to go and were at the convention center waiting on relief and help and were receiving no responses, it didn't focus on what happened to everyone else! Yes, I have sympathy and I cried as I watched those images, but...

What about those who stayed behind as first line caretakers?
- Doctors, nurses all suffered while trying to take care of others.
My own mother took post at the hospital while almost losing her own life due to high-jacked supplies and the horrifying heat and conditions resulting from not having power. The longest days were not hearing from her and knowing what was going on with her. A feeling I hope to NEVER relive.

What about those who evacuated and lost everything and while living out of town or out of state on their own dime...were just waiting for an opportunity to have a "home" again?
- We had several members displaced and working out of our office trying to keep their businesses together
- My friends were all dispersed trying to find refuge and housing in Baton Rouge and places west of NOLA
- My own little condo housed my family and friends of the family, which often got to be challenging

Why didn't they recount the horrible experiences of the national guard who were activated and stationed in New Orleans before the storm hit?
- My now husband was in New Orleans before the storm hit and while I don't know all the details of what he experienced and what he went through specifically in the Super Dome and while he was living in a tent on Tchopitoulas... I do know his dreams were haunted for a long while as a result of the things he witnessed.
- But those people were there dealing with savages who were so "victimized."

Now five years later, many families have rebuilt, returned, and continue to rebuild. For those groups that sat around, helpless and waiting for the federal government to intervene- well it's apparent that those people are still waiting.

And while many marriages and families were started as a result of Katrina- they too have grown into their own. Many lost things, never recovered and all in all everyone still has hope and a love for the city we all called home. Many realized material possessions aren't the things that truly matter. And now in the wake of the oil spill crisis, we still don't know what challenges lie ahead, but people have hope. Hope for a state that has always recovered and rebounded. Is this overall optimism denying the problems we do have? FAR FROM IT!!!But the spirit of the people here is one of perseverance and I don't know that there is any other place in the world with this attitude like where I am today.