Humanitarian Aid Legal Organization

Driving through Mississippi is like entering a twilight zone, a post-apocalyptic world. The trees are bent and dead, bark torn off, leafless. The roadsides are barren and overgrown. On one side, white sandy beaches, and the other, vacant emptiness. Until you pass the half-blown out Outback sign. Or maybe the stairs leading nowhere. Or the lone toilet. Or the overgrown swimming pool. And then, the eerie row of rebuilt mansions, or brand new casinos.

Two and a half years off, this is deplorable. Even driving on the highway out of New Orleans to Gulfport was incredible – as far as the eyes can see, a wasteland of dilapidated houses. An abandoned hospital, tent city, the juxtaposition of a beautiful blue building beside a pile of rubble… now, two and a half years later.

Mississippi was hit differently. While New Orleans flooded and stewed, Mississippi was mowed clean by wind and water and a storm surge of Biblical proportions. Whole towns were washed out. Pass Christian, Mississippi, for example, was completely wiped out.

Restoration Point is a non profit that works in communities like Pass Christian and the neighboring Bay St. Louis, which were wiped clean by Katrina, by rebuilding homes for low income residents. Behind each empty lot and barren foundation is a story. Half of us painted a house in Bay St. Louis. The surrounding neighborhood was a mixed bag – some houses were completely rebuilt, while others had been abandoned. In the neighboring lot, there was nothing but a few concrete stilts sticking out of the ground – all there was to show that there had once been a house there.

Downtown Gulfport is a shadow. It’s impossible to imagine it as a resort town – the downtown is full of boarded up facades, crumbling buildings, and for-sale signs.

Who really is recovering, two and a half years later? Why are the casinos rebuilt, but not the homes? Where do you live, without a home? In a tent city? In a formaldehyde drenched FEMA trailer? Do you leave your family home?

Two and a half years later, this should not be an issue. The fact that there is still rubble on the ground, homes unbuilt, people homeless and ill and falling prey to contractor fraud and price gouging – people should still be talking about it. There are great disparities in the rebuilding process – drawn along racial and socio-economic lines.

I asked a close friend of mine what he thought of my photos of the ruins of Katrina. I asked, “Were you surprised?” In response, he told me, “I hadn’t thought about it.”

We, as a nation, must think about it. Why are the casinos back, but not the homes, especially the homes of the poor, the minorities? Why have we allowed this region to remain so thoroughly devastated? Why have we forgotten?

This week, we will be working at the Mississippi Center for Justice – and hopefully our work, in some small way, will make some impact on the lives of those left behind and forgotten in the wake of Katrina.

posted by Finella Murphy # 9:50 PM

Wrong side of the tracks.

Mike Davis, one of my history teachers, said to always start off with geography. So let's begin with geography of the Gulf Coast. The Gulf Coast is shaped like an upside down "T" with the Gulf of Mexico to the south, a small bay to the west and a larger, longer bay to the east. Gulfport, the city we are staying in, is towards the middle of the "T". Biloxi is to the east at the end of the T. Pass Christian is to the west, at the other end of the T. The flat part of the T, along the coast, is traversed by a rail line. Winds blow, north, from off shore.

Like many towns, across the train tracks means the poor side. In Mississippi, this is often the "black" side of town. The reason for this, in older towns, is that the wind would blow the trash from the good side of town to the poor side of town. The wealthy here often live right by the beach in big beautiful houses.

When Katrina hit, a 30 foot wave of water surged into the Gulf Coast. At the edges of the T water poured in from the gulf and the two bays. The casino barges were washed from their off shore locations onto the Biloxi landmass. The damage to the houses along the beaches and on the T's was immense. The sea took almost everything.

The railroad formed a type of natural barrier for those further inland. Their houses were instead struck by 140mph winds. Most of the houses on higher ground were rendered unlivable by the hurricane. To be fair, they were barely livable before the storm.

Katrina is not just the failure of our government to provide adequate emergency resources. Katrina aggravated the preexisting problems of structural racism in our country. Furthermore, the recovery effort has ignored those pre-existing problems.

Mississippi's reconstruction effort targeted those that experienced flood damage. I am not in anyway attempting to minimized the phenomenal losses of those families. They deserve our help as well. In fact, we spent Sunday, putting the finishing touches on a house that had been washed away and rebuilt by volunteers. However, we should be also helping those at the lowest rungs of the social ladder.

Those who experienced wind damage alone do not qualify for assistance under the Mississippi three billion dollar program federally funded disaster relief program. The neighborhood I walked in today was devastated by winds. Houses were crushed. Many were caved in. No one in that neighborhood has ever had the money to repair their homes and probably never will.

I counted quite a number of FEMA trailers. How long are these people supposed to stay in these? Why isn't the nation helping them? Do they deserve less help? They don't need much help to get them back just to some sort of starting point. The average MEMA cottage, an alternative to the temporary trailers, costs 40,000 including installation. It has a life span of 15 - 30 yeas and is designed to withstand up to 150 mph winds. Those in the flood plains were eligible for up to 150,000$ in aid. Just recently, the Governor has attempted to divert $600 million from the housing assistance fund to build a new port extension. This money was specifically earmarked to help low income families. Why are the barriers still in the way?

I can expand on the political situation a bit later. However, long story short, we are leaving a lot of people behind.

Labels: North Gulfport

posted by Aaron Thompson # 9:07 PM

The Politics of Rebuilding

I expected to be surprised when we arrived. Not only have I never been to the South, I've never been anywhere hit by a hurricane. I've seen the pictures, the footage, heard the sad stories. But coming down here and seeing how complete the destruction is almost three years after the storm hit, changes your mind. And speaking personally to anyone who was here when the storm hit and, more importantly, has been here for the aftermath changes the way you feel about the issues permanently.

We arrived on Saturday and started our trip by exploring the gulf coast region before having to start our legal work on Monday. We flew into New Orleans then drove down the gulf coast to Gulfport, Mississippi to the church where we are staying. We spent Sunday driving through some gulf coast towns in Mississippi, and went back to New Orleans on Sunday night for an orientation with our sponsoring organization, the Student Hurricane Network. Then we were able to explore a little bit of New Orleans, including Bourbon Street and the French Quarter, making an effort to sample some of the local culture and cuisine before venturing back to our home base in Gulfport.

Something I learned very quickly about the hurricane damage is that while it affected areas all over the gulf coast, it affected everywhere differently. In New Orleans, as we drove down the freeway, at first glimpse nothing looks too amiss. It actually reminded me of driving toward the river into downtown St. Louis. We saw the infamous SuperDome and plenty of tall buildings. When you take a closer look, though, you see that while many buildings are still standing, they are completely gutted. Some things have clearly been rebuilt, but many buildings, from the biggest skyscrapers to the smallest homes, are still completely hollow. It is very eerie. The smaller gulf coast towns, on the other hand, look entirely differently. We drove through towns such as Biloxi, Gulfport, Bay St. Louis, and Pass Christian, and they just look completely decimated. Nothing is left. Rather than buildings being gutted and standing like hollow skeletons, most everything in Mississippi was simply swept away leaving nothing behind. It reminded of me of seeing areas ravaged by forest fire. Foundations that once held up homes just stand alone. The extent of the damage didn't even really hit me until today when we were told that the long highway that we drive down (which goes right along the beautiful, white sandy beach) was once lined with a number of strip malls. Now it is just empty. It's truly unbelievable.

What is more unbelievable than anything else is that the storm happened almost three years ago, and it looks like it couldn't have been more than three months. After hearing all of the press about Katrina and hearing the optimistic updates about how people have "pulled themselves up by their bootstraps" (words spoken by the governor of Mississippi), I didn't expect things to look as do. But they still look awful.

It seems simple to me. You just rebuild. But I learned this weekend that rebuilding is far from simple.

We spent Easter Sunday volunteering with an organization called Restoration Point. They funnel volunteers into the gulf coast region to help rebuild homes. We spent the day painting what will soon be a new kitchen in a new house for a man whose home was destroyed, and it was definitely a positive experience. What was more interesting, though, was to hear the leader at Restoration Point, a man named Jim, talk about the storm coming in, the chaos that ensued, and continues to ensue. He told us about how so many nonprofits and faith-based organizations have come in, along with government aid, all with their own idea of the best way to rebuild and start over. He expressed frustration about a lack of accountability among organizations, a lack of a cohesive plan, and all of the trouble it has caused. I had never considered the politics involved when so many people have been affected and so many people are trying to help. You wouldn't think so many people trying to give their time and support could be a bad thing, but it seems to be a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth. Not too many cooks really, because much more help is needed, but just every cook insisting on his own recipe.

Jim proclaimed himself to us as a conservative Republican. This shocked me. Most people in social services in general tend to be liberal. I would have bet money that he was a liberal Democrate after hearing him talk to us. He added to my shock by saying that he thinks the federal government and FEMA did all that they could do in response to the disaster. This is not a commonly held opinion, on either side of the political divide. He was blaming the parade of people that have come, or not come, after FEMA. I never would have imagined that someone so passionate about the relief effort would feel this way. I think it really speaks to how incredibly complicated the aftermath of this disaster is and that no matter what anyone does, there's no simple solution.

Even at our Student Hurricane Network orientation, I could feel the political tensions involved. We went to Tulane University and listened to national board members tell us about the disaster and about what SHN has been doing. We arrived a little late after a long drive to New Orleans and walked in to a student speaking about New Orleans and what Katrina means. He referred to the post-Katrina south as the "center for a new civil rights movement". I think this is an interesting concept, and it is one that I have been considering since. I like the idea of taking something positive out of this disaster and allowing it to be the beginning of a movement, but I'm not so sure if that is possible amongst all of the shattered people and lives here. He also repeatedly referred to "the Northern Masters" and how they are holding back this new civil rights movement. I can't say that this didn't make me feel a little uncomfortable. It was not the first time that I heard echoes of my history lessons about post Civil War Reconstruction in the talk about rebuilding. He was innocently comparing the post-Katrina south with the "global south" facing some of the same issues, but it really made me think about the repercussions of all of the politics. It's not merely a logistical issue of how to rebuild structures, roadways, and businesses. The politics really reaches the people, the societal infrastructure, and how they can be rebuilt as well.

In addition to learning a great deal about the politics of rebuilding, the weekend did nothing short of move me. Seeing the destruction up close is totally devastating. Hearing Jim, a man who has been fighting to get people back into their homes for three years, talk about how he had promised a woman dying of cancer that he would get her back into her home before she died and then not being able to make his own deadline, is totally devastating. We were even able to go visit one of the families that Restoration Point has helped and to wish them a Happy Easter. But pulling up into their neighborhood where there are still homes without roofs, huge potholes filled with oyster shells, and people that are clearly still so deeply affected physically and emotionally, is totally devastating. Devastating and infuriating. Because to some degree this devastation can be remedied and just hasn't been yet. It is certainly serving as good motivation to do the work that we came here to do.

posted by Lorin Kline # 8:57 PM

Welcome to Ole Miss!

On Saturday, before the sun came up, 22 of us met at the Sac airport to depart on our highly anticipated trip to Mississippi! We spent the whole day traveling and our first sight of Katrina was during the drive from New Orleans to Miss. Just from the freeway we saw plenty of damages: houses with no windows and/or no roofs and/or entire portions missing out of them.

On Sunday we spent the day working with Restoration Point, an amazing organization that rebuilds homes in Miss as well as keeping in contact with the families after they move in. Jim, one of the people that head Restoration Point brought up a different perspective that I never thought of--that a house doesn't end the problem. So many people have been displaced and suffered so many losses that even after they have a new home, the house is empty.

We just started at the Mississippi Center for Justice today and we split up into different groups. We're just getting started but the people at MCJ are amazing. Crystal, one of the kind attorneys at MCJ, took us to eat gumbo at this tiny hole in the wall joint which made me sinfully happy. Everyone has been so nice and welcoming and genuinely happy that 22 California kids came to spend their spring break in Ole Miss.

I'm so glad we decided to come to Miss. Driving around, we can see entire neighborhoods that have yet to be rebuilt. At MCJ we learned about an organization called Steps, which gets their name partly from the imagery of the empty steps that sit on lots. All that's left are 3 or 4 steps that don't lead to a home, and we see this everywhere. A lot of Gulfport is still a ghost town, interspersed with gaudy casinos. I can't imagine coming home and only seeing 1 or 2 houses left on my block. There have been so many injustices in Miss and I hope more people will pay attention and do something. I'm excited to continue working at MCJ this week and learning more about Miss. There are tons of photos of the devastation, so make sure you check out my fellow trip-goers posts!

posted by ji-hyun # 8:51 PM