Hurricane Katrina Pictures » Another Anniversary Approaches

Another Anniversary Approaches

Since the first of August I’ve had a feeling of gloom rising in me a little each day. At first I didn’t even think about it being August again and what August meant. Then it hit me.

The third anniversary of Katrina is coming up on August 29. It seems that was in another lifetime or another universe, and at the same time it seems like only last week we were without power and unable to go out in our back yard because of the downed power lines. It’s surreal.

I’m still at a loss as to how I’m supposed to feel about all this. In the grand scheme of things I didn’t lose any possessions in the storm. The closest thing I have to a real loss is now my mother lives 7 hours away in Plano, TX instead of 90 minutes away in Algiers (the west bank of New Orleans). She moved there because it was far away from a coastal area and my sister lives 15 minutes away from her. She calls and talks about how different life is Texas and how people are not southerners. They’re friendly but it’s just not the same. She really misses fresh fish and seafood.

I think it was better when my sister lived in a working-class neighborhood. Her particular street back then had a few New Orleanians living there and a taste of home was a few houses down. My sister has lived in Richardson for about 15 years now and has fully adapted to the Texas way of life. She’s very comfortable with it and she’s quite well off. She and her husband have done very well for themselves and they now live in a very upper middle class neighborhood.

My business failed, but it probably would have anyway. It wasn’t what I really wanted to do with my life. Katrina just made it obvious more quickly. I’m bankrupt now from the lack of business revenue after the storm and the paralysis of depression that kept me from going out and earning a decent living. I’m still depressed but it’s manageable on my current medications. I’ve been sleeping more than I should, but it’s not as bad as last year.

I tutor math and science about 3/4 time and I have an online blogging and affiliate marketing business. I delivered pizzas for awhile but the economy isn’t doing well and people are ordering fewer pizzas so I wasn’t making enough to warrant the time or wear on my car. I’ve started working with a few others who need my blogging and WordPress skills and are willing to pay me for my work on their blogs and websites. I started blogging 15 months ago as an outlet about my indebtedness and about living through Katrina and Rita, and I have picked up a large number of marketable blogging skills as a result. If you want some work done on your WordPress based website please email me at joubess at gmail dot com. I charge either an hourly rate or a flat fee depending on what you need done.

New Orleans is beginning to really recover in some places, but in too many others there are empty blocks where neighborhoods used to stand. Some of the students I tutored last year were seriously looking at being able to go back to New Orleans at the start of this school year. I need to call some and find out if they were able to return home. I hope they were, but from what many said in May, there still weren’t enough services and neighbors close to their houses to make the areas livable yet. Some were unsure if there schools would reopen this fall.

My son is still deeply traumatized. I’m not sure what caused his trauma because we didn’t lose anything, but it seems to be related to the closeness of the people soon after the storm and then the loss of that closeness to so many people he met after the storms. We seemed to all cling to each other so tightly whether we were close friends or not. Then we didn’t after awhile and the world got to be a lonely place again. I know I miss the community closeness that developed soon after the disaster. We’re still closer to our neighbors than we were before, but it’s not the same. Everyone has moved on, but there seems to be this place in each of us that is stuck and will always be stuck.

I also worry every time August comes around because if the house is damaged by a hurricane or tropical storm, I now have to pay for the first $8,000 worth of damage. I pray that we don’t have a major storm this year because I don’t have nor can I get my hands on anything close to $8,000. I hope our financial situation will be better next year. It’s better this year than last year, except that I’m going through a bankruptcy. As soon as that’s over I’ll be able to start picking myself up. But right now I don’t even have enough money to pay my attorney’s fee and court costs. I still owe $549, but I’m also still expecting my government stimulus check of $900. I’ll be able to pay my attorney and pay my dentist the rest of what I owe him for my crown. That will leave me $26 to help stimulate the economy. That money will either put half a tank of gas in my car or buy groceries. The economy has better not be looking at me for any stimulation.

I’m still on an emotional roller coaster but either I’ve gotten used to the ups and downs or they aren’t as big as they were. I just keep moving in what I believe is a forward direction. I figure if I keep moving I’ll eventually come to a much better place. So far that seems to be happening.

If you’re a survivor, how are you doing? How do you feel? Let me know by leaving your thoughts in the comments.

Sherri

See more pictures in the Hurricane Katrina Picture Book by Jeffery Morgan

Read Breach of Faith: Hurricane Katrina and the Near Death of a Great American City by Jed Horne.

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