Johnson

Johnson

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Katrina Land Right Next Door

So, now that Rob and I have moved, our new apartment is right next to the 17th Street Canal. As many of you know, the 17th St canal is one of the canals that broke during Hurricane Katrina. We are living on the side of the canal that didn't break. The neighborhood right on the other side of the canal from us is where many of my family lived, including my gradmother. What once was an area of life, has now been replaced by complete destruction. In recent days, I find myself driving home from work, passing houses that were once so familiar, and now gone.
Living down here in Katrina land, there are times when I just get completely use to the destruction. Sometimes when I am driving down the road and I see water marks on the eves of homes, vacant guttted houses everywhere, I don't even give it a second glance. And then there are times, when I pass by my grandmother's house, schools I have attended or even the house that I grew up in and I greive as if Hurricane Katrina just happened yesterday. I have so many memories of this city. It is amazing how a place can be so familiar and so foreign at the same time. Despite all that has happened, there is one thing I know for sure, New Orleans will always hold a speacial place in my heart, no matter what it looks like.