I can’t believe that five years have passed since Hurricane Katrina devastated Gulf Coast communities in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. And although groups and advocates who were experienced in disaster recovery told us that it would take at least ten years to rebuild, I never imagined that five years later, we’d still face the same challenges.
The fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Are we celebrating growth and recovery, commemorating a tragedy, or both?
As I viewed Trouble The Water this week, I was mixed up inside. The ACLU of Mississippi partnered with an organization started by Katrina Survivors who relocated from New Orleans to Jackson, called Rise Above Katrina, to show Trouble The Water at Tougaloo College, a historically black college in Mississippi. As I interacted with Wilma Taylor and LaShawn Traylor and some of the other survivors, I thought about how far they’d come. Wilma is a Gulf Coast Fellow who is starting her own organization to advocate for individuals with disabilities. LaShawn is finishing her education and continuing her ministry. They’ve moved into new homes, celebrated births. Life has moved on. They have risen above Katrina.
Still, a glimpse of sadness remains in their eyes. It’s a sadness that allows you to travel into their bodies and view the pain in their souls. You hear it when they talk about loved ones who didn’t make it through the storm. You hear it when they talk about their disappointment in the governments that let them down.
The city of New Orleans did not provide transportation for people to leave; the state of Louisiana who brought military and law enforcement in to shoot and arrest survivors; the state of Mississippi that withheld federal dollars from everyone except for homeowners; the city of Jackson that moved everyone out of the temporary shelter of the coliseum because a Disney show was coming to town; Harrison County, the place that has not rebuilt shelters for the homeless and arrests people for not having a place to rest their heads at night.
The list of disappointments is endless. And still they rise. They rose above the storm to accomplish great things. They rose above the storm with new friends and family who were survivors too. They rose above the storm with a new sense of awareness about the importance of fighting for those who cannot fight for themselves. And even though they are still rising, they don’t forget; they won’t forget; they can’t forget. I’ll be there with them, rising too; until there is true freedom and justice for all!
~Nsombi Lambright, ACLU-MS Executive Director
