TPC Katrina

Yesterday after meeting Elmore for the first time

Elmore stopped by again today.  When he realized we were from Rochester, he told us that he studied at Colgate Seminary!  Small world!  Elmore told us about how he grew up in the Upper Ninth Ward when racial segregation was prevalent.  Every story that Elmore told reminded us that he has been through so much.  Regardless, when we offered to show him the tile mosaic we were in the process of creating in his home, he said that he is sure that it is fine.  'But this is YOUR home Elmore' we said, and we were about to permanently cement the tiles onto the floor.  Elmore did not seem concerned.  Like Toni said yesterday, all Elmore wants is to come home.

 

 

 

Our mosaic

This afternoon those of us who were here last year took the others on a tour of New Orleans.  Despite leaving work a bit early for this tour, we knew that taking this tour could be more important than finishing our bamboo flooring.  By going on this tour, and seeing the damage that is still so prevalent in New Orleans five years later, we are able to bring this information home.  So many people  in Rochester don't understand that the damage from Katrina is not at all cleaned up. 

First, we went to the Lower Ninth Ward to see the Bayou Bienvenue.  This area of wetlands is so important to New Orleans' economy, yet it is being drastically reduced.  We then went to the levee that broke, now re-built, a powerful image.  Driving around the Lower Ninth Ward below the levee, there continued to be few houses.  Every house in that neighborhood, with the exception of one, had either been completely re-built or was gone, just a concrete platform sitting there in what was once a crowded urban neighborhood.  Houses in the Lower Ninth Ward could not be fixed up.  The water there came at such a speed that the houses there were simply gone after Katrina.  We then drove towards the house some of us worked in last year, just to see it.  We had heard that that area in St Bernard Parish had been significantly changed, and it had, but the damage is still drastic.  Houses near where we worked last year that used to be concrete slabs are now grass, as if the families have given up on re-building.

The levee

After the tour we stopped at the drive-thru for some local cuisine.  (Same place we went last year, Susan!)  :)  YUM!

- Sumalabarbgie :)