Citizens had begun the day as normal. Some had actually left the city for cover, but many had not. It had been a year of close calls and false promises on the part of the weather, and many people didn't think that anything of any magnitude would occur.
We were wrong.
Today, more than five years after the disaster area that Katrina and New Orleans' failed levee systems left behind, people are still struggling to survive in a city that has been mostly forgotten by FEMA and our ADD media in favor of Haiti, Japan, Iraq, Iran, Libya, and the many protests occurring in our world.
But people are helping. My sister went to New Orleans as part of her school even before the hurricane hit, and worked with Catholic Charities.
Time passed. My English and Journalism major sister graduated and went to work at Bernstein Global Financial in Chicago, a wealth management company.
And for a while my family didn't hear anything about New Orleans. Until the hurricane hit in 2005.
Two years ago, my sister moved to New Orleans to continue what she had done in school; helping people rebuild their homes, their lives, and their communities. She still worked with Catholic Charities. And in time she became the volunteer coordinator in Operation Helping Hands.
And even though I'd be proud of my siblings no matter what they did or where they went, I think that made me the proudest.
I visited her last year for spring break for a week; my parents had visited her for Mardi Gras, just a week or two earlier. They left work boots from my dad's company (Link!) and took with them the knowledge that my sister was happy and safe. When I went, I worked for a day or so. I learned how to prime a house and how to paint windows. I also learned a lot about my sister.
See, when I was a kid, I used to think she was perfect. She got good grades, didn't stay out too late, and I never saw her get into a fight with my parents. But last year I learned something even better. My sister isn't perfect. Like me, she has a tendency of wearing very nice clothes to paint houses or sets and getting them covered in dust and paint and wood glue. But she is pretty damn awesome.
Operation Helping Hands was only supposed to last for four more years, but they've instead decided to close in two years. The reason? When the initial surge of donations and volunteer work began, a lot of drywall was donated from China. And that drywall had unsafe levels of sulfur in it. The sulfuric acid that it eventually exudes corrodes metal. Operation Helping Hands has decided to replace all of the unsafe drywall that they used then with safe drywall, and that's going to use up the rest of the grants.
So that leaves quite a few volunteers in that program wondering "Where do we go from here?" The end of that time limit is coming up faster than you'd think.
And so my sister is returning to Chicago.
And after two years, her handprint is joining the handprints of other volunteers who have come to work with the great people at Operation Helping Hands.
And just like my sister, it's pretty damn awesome.
(Edit: A few hours after I posted, my sister emailed me with a few details I got wrong. So here's to the edit button on the blog. :) Hopefully this satisfies both of us.)
And here's a shout out to the many volunteer programs that are still fighting Hurricane Katrina's devastating aftereffects: Project Homecoming, Lowernine, United Saints Recovery Project, Beacon of Hope, Habitat for Humanity and Phoenix of New Orleans. You guys are great! :)
