“The door is open!” I didn’t understand what she was saying until I looked at the front door of the house and saw it resting two-feet wide. Did we walk out of the house and leave the front door open? That doesn’t sound right, not with...
Outreach workers are still combing abandoned buildings and the broken streets of New Orleans for the most vulnerable victims of Hurricane Katrina, five years after the levees broke. Almost every night, UNITY's street-outreach workers comb abandoned buildings and streets of New Orleans, rescuing the...
When outreach workers first met Grace Bailey, she couldn’t talk to them, but her vulnerabilities were clear. Grace had just had surgery to repair her face and jaw after a severe beating on the abandoned streets of an abandoned neighborhood. It was obvious to the...
At 71 years-old, Mr. Hammond looks forward to his twilight years by indulging his gardening addiction. While most people his age are pushing around walkers or leaning on canes, Mr. Hammond can be found behind a tiller or maneuvering a weed whacker through his impressive...
He has been featured in major newspapers and his artwork hangs on permanent display in the Louisiana State Museum. Tommie Mabry’s stream of consciousness writings, written on the walls of a flooded public housing complex, captured the immediate confusion and terror of a city besieged...
She had to get to the school. As Carrie pushed through chest-deep water, she knew that the second floor of the school would provide safety. Before she reached the school, she was knocked off her feet and hit by a heavy piece of debris, pummeling...
A veteran with extensive military training, Stephen was trained to survive in brutal conditions – insect infestations, brutal heat, soaking rains, searing cold – surrounded by people who may wish to do you harm. However, he never thought he would have to use these survival...
The last week was a blur of excruciating hunger and several feeble suicide attempts. He sat down in the old abandoned factory along the river and just stared at it. He didn’t know what would happen, but he figured it wouldn’t be good. Depression is...
Published by Greater New Orleans Foundation, Second Line Blog, July 29, 2010 I’ve spent most of my professional life for the past five years since Hurricane Katrina thinking about home. What home means; what it means to lose a home; and how it feels to be...
Her five children, ages 8 to 17, have lived through their mother’s hell. Yet when they kiss her goodnight, they see a survivor. A victim of numerous rapes and unremitting domestic violence who turned to drugs for solace – Wendy has made the changes in...