Two Years After Katrina: "If I Am Still Standing, You Can Stand Too."

Written by Martha Thompson, program manager, Rights in Humanitarian Crises

Today is the second anniversary of the day the levees broke in New Orleans. On the front page of newspapers, bold headlines announce that federal assistance has still not reached the majority who need it. A drive through New Orleans East or the Lower Ninth Ward is all you need to see that bleak truth as you pass slabs on lawns, and broken houses, with holes in the roof where people climbed through trying to save themselves two years ago today.

A group of us from UUSC is here to attend activities that commemorate the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. We were in the Ninth Ward, trying to locate the anniversary march organized by several of our program partners. We stopped to ask directions from a group of three women standing in front of one of those houses with broken doors and holes in the roof. When we started talking, we noticed the bouquet of paper flowers in the mailbox.

We realized that we had stepped into a memorial. One of the women, Iris, told us in a soft whisper that her sister, two daughters, and a niece died in that house when the water came in from the levee. Her cousin then took up the story of how she was on the phone with them, trying to explain to them how to break through the roof when the phone cut out. They both repeated how they could hear the youngest over the phone, crying for her mother. The father, who'd joined us, quietly said that he just has to take one day at a time.

Then they told us of the daily frustrations, the way FEMA kept putting them off for rental assistance for weeks only to finally decide they are not eligible. Vanessa told us how hard it has been to repair her house – she is still waiting for federal assistance.

Story after story we’ve heard lays bare the daily humiliation, frustration, and obstacles survivors have faced in trying to put their lives back together. But they have kept going, they are back here in the place they are from. They are still standing. Iris said at the end, "I say to people, 'you can stand it. If I am still standing, you can stand too.'"