The axes are gone

"If terrorists had achieved this result, it would have ranked as the greatest terrorist success in history."

Sure, storms and hurricanes happen frequently. In fact, we just endured one hear in New Orleans. The power went out, the streets flooded, trees fell, and evacuations occurred. But come this week, all is back to normal--not more than two weeks later. Seven years ago, there was a storm named "Katrina." I know everyone has heard of her: she was a psychotic bitch. But days, weeks, or months after you heard about Katrina on the news, she probably slipped your mind, unless you live on the Gulf Coast. Here, seven years later, residents of NOLA refer to Katrina as "the storm." And she certainly was the storm that changed everything.

The rate of homelessness in New Orleans has increased 70% because of Katrina. Prior to the storm, 5,360 people were homeless in the city. In post-Katrina New Orleans, 9,165 people are homeless.

Although I obviously was not here for Katrina, I've learned a hell of a lot about her since I've been here. The day the levees broke was one of the worst, if not the worst, engineering disasters of all time, and the city is still in the beginning stages of recovery. There are 38,382 abandoned buildings in New Orleans, of which 4,700 homeless people reside in. The storm also brought about the nation's largest housing disaster of all time: 51,000 rental units were lost.

For a nation that has moved past the storm, this city is only starting to mend its wounds. As I've been traveling around the city, it's easy to see which houses haven't been rebuilt, which neighborhoods still suffer, and which neighborhoods clearly drowned under water as people lost hope--some of those people are still left entirely hopeless.

As I lay comfortably in my bed, I know that seven years ago, this same bedroom I'm in right now was under six feet of water. I went to dinner with someone last night in an area where the levees failed, and he told me the neighborhood was under 15 feet of water. This kind of flooding is unimaginable, and I want to make sure that the rest of the nation starts to realize that this city still needs your prayers.

I've been told that in order to save themselves, a lot of people in the city had to break through their attic roofs with axes, only to be stranded on the tops of their houses, begging for somebody to come save them. As I encounter many people still suffering from "the storm" at Unity, I realize that these people are still begging for somebody to come save them, just this time they don't have an ax in hand--they have nothing.

Rest in peace to the 1,833 who didn't make it out.