This letter was written by ms.lydiajean at the peak of Hurricane season in New Orleans 2008:
Dear friends, loved ones, and comrades,
Over the last few weeks I have been marinating on the email I would write you all to reflect and remember the 3-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Nowhere in these thoughts did I imagine I would be writing you as another hurricane was on its way to strike Louisiana almost three years to the day of Katrina. But it is exactly the responses that I have seen in the last 48 hours to news of Hurricane Gustav that reminds me both of the spirit of resistance in New Orleans and the continued failure of the government (city, state, and federal) to meet people's basic needs along lines of race, class, and gender.
Over the last few weeks, as the anniversary has drawn nearer, I have started to let myself re-feel the sorrow and grief I so often ignore and push away in my day-to-day life. I have begun to look at buildings again and take in that the Katrina X's on their houses and remember the lives that were lost in so many of them. To remember that these were roofs that people waited on for days, praying that rescue would come. And that in the midst of a desperation I have never known, people rescued their neighbors in boats, floating in refrigerators, swimming to carry one another from one roof to the next. Even in the most desolate of times, people found the strength to look out and care for each other.
And their repayment for such a sign of human spirit and dignity was the forced removal and displacement of poor and working class Black people. Tens of thousands of people were marched out of their home at gunpoint by the National Guard to be taken to the Superdome and onto buses to unknown locations across the US. I remember this as I heard today of an elderly woman who is a former public housing resident refusing to leave the city. She does not want to lose her home again or be put on a bus like an animal not knowing when or how she will return. While I wish she was evacuating, I cannot say I do not understand parts of her response. How must it feel to again be told to leave—knowing last time it followed with the demolition of you and your family's (along with approximately 3,000 other families) home.
As it is announced by Governor Jindal that this morning 1,500 National Guardsmen will be entering the city as part of "hurricane preparedness" with another 1,500 to follow and 2,000 standing by, I cannot but fear that this is part of an excuse to further militarize the city again (because it never stopped being militarized since the storms). I am deeply concerned that when I return, despite how hard the storm has hit, the National Guard will be here to stay.
I think about at a moment where there has been great gains in the criminal justice movement in the city—that New Orleans of all places is not the first city East of the Mississippi to have an Independent Police Monitor gained from community organized not from federal mandate. Yet, also the terrible lost in the fight for police accountability when the 7 cops who shot at civilians killing two and seriously injuring several others (while cheers went up over NOPD radios) in the aftermath of Katrina had all their charges dropped two weeks ago. It was from that news that I let myself to feel the grief of people already forgetting the horrors of Katrina. And now, as Gustav approaches it has been announced the NOPD will set up five undisclosed "emergency looting response stations" and will patrol Wal-mart and other department stores during the storm. I cannot help but worry about how many unarmed Black people will be shot in the name of public safety.
I also worry about all the inmates at OPP and other local parish jails. People are worried we are only going to see a repeat of three years ago where prisoners were left for dead. Folks were calling all day trying to get the city to tell them of an evacuation plan for prisoners with only sketchy responses. Theoretically people will be transferred to Angola and other nearby jails (including the former youth jail in Jena), but there is little confirmation of such a move. And who knows if it will be to late? Local community activists are mobilizing people to put pressure on the sheriff and other city officials to make the official plan for prisoner evacuation public and to move quickly and effectively. We will not let this happen again.
I am also deeply inspired by people's focus on making sure one another have evacuation plans. So many community organizations are activating the phone trees of their bases and making sure they know each person's evacuation plan. For example, yesterday I helped the New Orleans Women's Health Clinic, a project of the Women's Health and Justice Initiative connected to INCITE! New Orleans, call all their patients to check and see if they had evacuation plans and needed assistance. The genuine gratitude and surprise from patients that a health clinic was concerned enough to call made me wish we lived in a world where such an action was the norm instead of an aberration. It made me realize that no matter what anyone has said before or might say again about the people of New Orleans, this is a place where people place one another as a priority—even if they do not know each other.
I am inspired that today's Katrina commemoration events are occurring on schedule. Because as noted by Rosana Cruz the co-director of Safe Streets/Strong Communities, "we will not lose this opportunity to fight back." There will both be a march in the morning starting at the levee break in the Lower Ninth to commemorate the lives that were lost and a secondline and rally in the afternoon highlighting the continued fights around housing, education, healthcare, criminal justice, and workers' rights being waged in the city in the hopes of looking backwards to build a better future. Even as the storm heads closer to us, there is hope that this coming year will be one of successes and strength.
I hate to say this inspiration is also coupled with the frustration of a lack of an adequate evacuation plan for the city. While a mandatory evacuation has yet to be called, it is already announced the public transportation will stop between Friday and Saturday night. There are only 30,000 spots on buses available to those without personal transportation and the number to call to reserve a spot is constantly busy and often hangs up on the caller. Once again, it is the end of the month the time hardest to be poor in America with little resources for food and supplies. The Red Cross has supposedly resources but is not yet stating where or how they will become available. The levees have never been adequately prepared, and a water pump is busted. Let's not forget the Latin@ workers, with estimates of their numbers being between 100-150,000 while there are still little to no Spanish speaking services. There is much to worry about.
And then again, many people have reminded me that there have been many hurricanes before with very few producing the results the level of Katrina. I am hoping that this turns out to be one of the most anti-climatic moments of my life. That I will return in a few days happy to have gotten an extra day or so off from work. That this city with its joy of life and insistence of its survival will be intact ready for a fall filled with secondlines and dancing in the streets; with po boys by the river and beignets with friends; with wins for the peoples' right of return and a renewed movement commitment to racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice. I have hopes that we can build and move forward even at the moments I am filled with the most worry and dread.
And then again, many people have reminded me that there have been many hurricanes before with very few producing the results the level of Katrina. I am hoping that this turns out to be one of the most anti-climatic moments of my life. That I will return in a few days happy to have gotten an extra day or so off from work. That this city with its joy of life and insistence of its survival will be intact ready for a fall filled with secondlines and dancing in the streets; with po boys by the river and beignets with friends; with wins for the peoples' right of return and a renewed movement commitment to racial, gender, economic, and environmental justice. I have hopes that we can build and move forward even at the moments I am filled with the most worry and dread.
Much love and solidarity to you all,
ms.lydiajean@gmail.comAugust 29, 2008
