Louisiana’s lingering devastation

Flooding in Delaware River Valley brings the issue home

By SANDY LONG

UPPER DELAWARE REGION — The increasing incidence of regional flooding raises the specter of nature’s awesome power and ability to change lives—sometimes forever—as communities along the Delaware River strive to coexist with this majestic and, at times, destructive entity.

For Connie Moser, one area resident who recently traveled to New Orleans, LA as a volunteer, the rising waters are also a reminder of the work that remains to be done in the southern city, which continues to struggle more than two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the north-central Gulf Coast.

Considered to be the costliest and one of the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history, Hurricane Katrina, which formed in late August 2005, claimed more than 1,800 lives and is estimated to have caused more than $81 billion in damages.

But the passage of time hasn’t proved particularly kind to the stricken city. “It’s just amazing to see how much still needs to be done,” said Moser, a Beach Lake, PA resident. The retired educator decided to join a group of 65 other volunteers after hearing a presentation at St. Francis Xavier Church in Narrowsburg, NY, where she is a member. “It inspired me to want to go and see for myself what the current situation is,” she said.

Moser and the group spent the week working on a single home in New Orleans East. Just across the street, decrepit homes remained unoccupied and boarded up. Moser observed such conditions in middle class neighborhoods, as well. “It’s not just a problem for the low-income sections of the city,” she said.

While there, Moser observed approximately 200 people living in tents under a bridge. According to human rights lawyer and New Orleans Loyola University College of Law professor Bill Quigley, critical shortages in low-cost housing are preventing roughly half of New Orleans working poor, elderly and disabled from ever returning home. Quigley writes in the online news source, Truthout, “The New Orleans homeless population has already doubled from pre-Katrina numbers to approximately 12,000 people.” Quigley charges that homelessness will increase even more following FEMA’s recent announcement that it is closing 35,000 still-occupied trailers.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development is demolishing thousands of public housing apartments, despite attempts by the United Nations to intervene. Such seemingly indefensible actions on the part of the U.S. government contribute to heightened anxiety over regional flooding in New York and Pennsylvania.

Moser and members of the group she traveled with were housed in a school during the week-long volunteer effort. She hopes to return one day to again help the victims of Hurricane Katrina reclaim their lives.

Hurricane victim Robert Green Sr., who lost both his wife and granddaughter to the natural disaster, has concluded that volunteers hold the key to any hope of rebuilding the city. Today Green still lives in a FEMA trailer, where he has posted a plea to President Bush that reads, “Mr. Bush: Rebuild New Orleans, Not Iraq.”

Moser’s group, organized through Catholic Charities “Operation Helping Hands” initiative, worked in the same neighborhood as a Lutheran and a Presbyterian group. Around the corner, volunteers associated with Habitat for Humanity tended to various tasks.

As of March 7, 2008, Catholic Charities had sent 15,367 volunteers to New Orleans, gutted 1,925 residences, has 35 homes under construction and had completed 22 additional homes.

The lack of adequate government management of flooding could become a problem here as well, where concern focuses on the management of the New York City reservoir system and its possible contribution to flooding in the Delaware River Valley. Storage in the system averaged 99.7 percent in February, about 15 percentage points above normal, and there are fears that inadequate voiding may increase the possibility of dangerous floods. If progress is not made in the national response to flood victims, another catastrophic flood in this area could leave us depending on the kindness of volunteers like Connie Moser to help us get back on our feet.

Visit ccano.org/operation_helping_hands.htm or habitat-nola.org/ for information on how to get involved in New Orleans.