Louisiana
They’re Tryin’ To Wash Us Away

By Marylee Orr,
Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper

Can you believe it is almost hurricane season again? We could lose New Orleans again this year… seems surreal.

Life is divided between before Katrina and Rita and after Katrina and Rita. I will never forget my call to our expert on hurricanes the night before Katrina. Dr. Ivor Von Heerden, even though incredibly busy, was kind enough to take my call. “How bad is it?” I asked. Ivor has a soft South African accent and his voice is very soothing and calming. He said, “It is very very bad.” I got chills up and down my spine. This is it. This is what I heard about all my life growing up in New Orleans.

I grew up in the Crescent City, I buried my mother there a year and a half ago, my father 22 years before that. My brother and his family and my children’s grandparents live there still. In my house my father kept a hatchet under his bed and one in the attic. When you went up the stairs the hatchet was tucked in the right corner of the attic. Decades ago my father’s secretary was trapped in an attic by floodwaters for three days. He swore that he would never let that happen to his family. He said he would rather die on the roof like a man than die like a rat in the attic. Those words haunted me for weeks after Katrina hit. If I am truthful, they still haunt me.

When the hurricane hit, we took action. We were the first people to get food and supplies into parts of Washington Parish. We delivered food and water to St. Bernard and Jefferson Parish and other hard-hit communities around the city. I could not believe that the “jewel” of Louisiana, New Orleans, was abandoned the way it was. I couldn’t believe my neighbors were dying because they didn’t have food or water. I am in America... aren’t I? How could this be happening? It appeared that the agencies that should have been assisting here were paralyzed. But while our government failed us, people began helping people. It is what makes our country great. Ordinary people pitched in to assist each other. Some local and state officials were in boats rescuing anyone they could get to. Folks called here from all over the country asking, “What should I send?” As a school principal said in a small rural parish, “Imagine having nothing. That is what we have. We are starting from scratch.”

Our members lost homes and businesses. They lost family photos and cherished mementos.

Baton Rouge, the city where we are located, doubled in size overnight from the evacuees. We had no electricity and communication was difficult. We were the lucky ones. We helped coordinate getting the first medical team into New Orleans. A surgeon, nurses and a mobile medical unit were told by agencies that they were not needed. They called me and asked if we needed them. I said absolutely, even though I had no idea what to do with them. We ended up with Major May of the New Orleans Police Department getting them a special pass and into New Orleans. They treated the first responders who were wading through water filled with sewerage, chemicals and dead bodies. We received e-mails when our electricity returned telling us where people were still trapped in attics. Heartbreaking.

Near our house in Baton Rouge is the helicopter pad for the Louisiana State Police. Every few minutes day and night you would hear Blackhawks buzzing overhead. It sounded like the classic TV program MASH. I was always expecting someone to yell “incoming.” Every time you heard them you prayed they would make it in time to save some of the thousands of people still stuck on their roof days after the storm.

Timothy Kerner is mayor of Jean Laffite, LA, a fishing community south of New Orleans. He also assists the three unincorporated fishing communities in the surrounding area. Our team met Mayor Kerner at Jean Laffite City Hall, the only structure in the area that didn’t flood. Mayor Kerner personally manned the pumps through out both hurricanes. He saved some folks in his community as the water was rising. He had a small cot in his office and basically had hardly slept from Katrina to Rita. His face was the picture of heartbreak. He spoke about how much he loved his people. How he couldn’t get the help needed from FEMA. He felt desperate. The anguish on his face showed what a toll the hurricanes were taking on our citizens. His father died between Katrina and Rita and they didn’t have time to have a service for him. Crypts were floating in the street. While they had lost so much, they had not lost their fighting spirit. They worked tirelessly to repair their homes and boat docks and vowed they would be back. There was no question ever. They would return. No hurricane would keep the people of south Louisiana from returning.

Paul, my son, went into New Orleans the first day that folks were allowed back in and saw the devastation first hand. He also went in the day the Lower Ninth Ward was opened. He called and said, “This must be what Hiroshima must have looked like.” I have walked that area myself and it is tragic. I am not certain any words can express what happened or any picture can tell the story. Close your eyes and imagine your street if a bomb went off big enough to flatten things for miles. Now imagine there is no sound. No bird, cat, dog, child, no living thing for miles. Mounds of debris in some places higher than the houses. Mold covering every surface like an old science fiction movie. The nightmare we were all afraid of is here.

We worked seven days a week from August until November. We received requests for everything from nebulizers, help with housing and assistance finding a love one, to needing a helicopter to save cattle or pets. Our phone rang from early in the morning until after midnight. Leaders in areas knew to call us and we felt privileged to try to respond. We had more than eight people living in our office for more than three months.

That is the reality. But the good news is that New Orleans and the Gulf Coast will come back.

LEAN/Lower Mississippi Riverkeeper continues environmental protection.
• First citizen group to collect, analyze and report the impacts of sediments, sludge and toxics along the hurricane storm surge path through Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama – this information is crucial for people making life-impacting decisions.
• First group to conduct workshops for communities and government officials dealing with reentry, public health and safety.
• Conducted ground tours for public officials and media of hurricaneimpacted areas.
• Provided technical information and human-interest stories to the national media.
• Filed a lawsuit this spring to protect communities from the adverse effects of improper debris disposal.
• Chair of U.S. EPA’s National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee on the impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.