Hurricane Katrina, one year later

[Green Gaia]

Profiling Vicky Cintra and MIRA, a Gulf Coast Relief Fund partner

http://www.uua.org/news/gulfcoastrelief/1year/mira.html

When Hurricane Katrina wiped out much of life as it had been in the Gulf Coast region, it washed away casinos, condos, private homes, restaurants, and businesses, and slammed gambling barges into piers and cars into the sand. It was an equal opportunity destruction machine, and the damage done isn't close to being undone even now, one year after the storm hit.

 

[michel]

Profiling Vicky Cintra and MIRA, a Gulf Coast Relief Fund partner

http://www.uua.org/news/gulfcoastrelief/1year/mira.html

Thanks for sharing A, I found

Mississippi put a priority on reopening its gambling casinos and hotels—an important source of revenue in a state that is struggling to restore its economic base

a bit sad, but the region obviously needs money coming in.

 

[Green Gaia]

The gambling casinos are a big draw for the region, big money maker bringing in tourists.

 

[Green Gaia]

Profiling Mary Croom-Fontenot and ACT, a Gulf Coast Relief Fund partner

http://www.uua.org/news/gulfcoastrelief/1year/act.html

Mary Croom-Fontenot's office is a table in a restaurant—one that is favored by community activists in New Orleans and is ready to accommodate folks who have lost their homes and their work places and who now hold meetings in cars, on street corners, or wherever a few people can gather. Croom-Fontenot directs ACT (All Congregations Together) in New Orleans, a Gulf Coast Relief Fund partner organization. Fontenot has lived in New Orleans all her life, growing up in the lower Ninth Ward. She is a mother of three daughters, ages 25, 24, and 20, a homeless homeowner, and a child of the civil rights movement. She is a product of the New Orleans public school system, and she is angry. Her organization is working to support the survival of the citizens of New Orleans at the root level. "Our main focus is to ensure that each citizen has a voice, and that all people have the right to return to their homes if they wish to come back," she explained. "People need to benefit from the opportunity and the money in the city, coming from the grass roots, directly from the people. Right now the voice of the people is silenced...or if we don't act, it will be silenced. So in acting we ensure their voice will be heard."

 

[Djamila]

I'm sure the survivors in that area of the United States will be fine eventually, it's just a question of how much longer government regulations and - in many cases - incompetence are going to hold them down.

It was front page news here, though. They even did a cute thing with the headlines. We have a Queen Catherine Kosaca-Kotroman, now in our language her name is Katarina Kotromanic but they called her Katarina Velika (Catherine the Great) because she became this big, mythical heroine.

Anyhow, the papers of the hurricane here had their title as Katrina Velika (Katrina the Great). I thought it was cute.

 

[lamplighter]

I actually live on Mississippi gulf coast and the only way to describe the destruction is compare it to the movie The Day After Tomorrow, because those casino barges are enormous and to find them moved from oneside of the highway out in the water to the other side on top of hotels was rather amazing really. But it'll be a decade before things are normal again, especially with local goverment getting greedy and allowing all these condos to be built.

 

[lilithu]

I'm sure the survivors in that area of the United States will be fine eventually, it's just a question of how much longer government regulations and - in many cases - incompetence are going to hold them down.

It was front page news here, though. They even did a cute thing with the headlines. We have a Queen Catherine Kosaca-Kotroman, now in our language her name is Katarina Kotromanic but they called her Katarina Velika (Catherine the Great) because she became this big, mythical heroine.

Anyhow, the papers of the hurricane here had their title as Katrina Velika (Katrina the Great). I thought it was cute.

Djamila, I'm not sure that the people who lived through Katrina and saw their loved ones die would think it was cute.

 

[lamplighter]

Yeah the 30 foot wall of water wasn't really cute, more of a horrific realization of how helpless we are against the forces of nature.

 

[Green Gaia]

Hurricane Katrina, one year later: Voices from the Gulf

One Year from the Day the Levees Broke


UUA Moderator Gini Courter traveled to New Orleans to be with the three area Unitarian Universalist congregations and community partners as they marked the fist anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Below is her personal account of the UU participation in One New Orleans Procession, a unique jazz memorial and celebration.

(New Orleans—August 29, 2006) It's 83 degrees with a cooling breeze when we join the Rev. Jim Vanderweele and members of Community Church at the site of the breach in the 17th Street Canal Levee. One year ago, Hurricane Katrina was packing up and leaving town when the levee, located about six blocks from Community Church, failed and water poured into New Orleans. The rest is bitter history. This morning members of the Lakeview community gather to remember. The crews working on the temporary levee (a permanent levee is scheduled to be built in 2010) pause while a brief ceremony is held. A bell is rung at 9:38 am and a black wreath placed in the canal to commemorate the lives lost.

Complete article here