Life Still Ain't Easy in "The Big Easy"

Over the last month the Udall Legacy Crew has had the opportunity to meet with a lot of really amazing people. While conversing with these individuals at special events, project sites and during meals, we often find ourselves being asked which stop we’ve enjoyed the most. Obviously, this answer will be different for each of the riders; but I personally have a really, really hard time answering.

Each stop has truly been incredible. I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned about environmental and Native American issues in the last month. Even more importantly, it’s been really great meeting with individuals, organizations and communities who are finding ways to address and solve these important issues. There really is a lot of good happening out there!

However, what I can tell you is that our recent visit to New Orleans was one of the most emotionally intense experiences of my life.

It seems hard to believe that it has been almost two years since Hurricane Katrina wrecked havoc on the Gulf Coast. I was a senior at Ferris at the time and can easily recall seeing the devastation on the news. Yes, it was disturbing and I immediately wanted to help – I had volunteered with several Hurricane Relief efforts at my university and even chaired one fundraiser with a couple friends - but I never actually got down to NOLA to pitch in, and that was something I regretted.

When we arrived at our hotel in the downtown-area the first evening, a few of us took a walk around the French Quarter and down Bourbon Street, where I foolishly asked myself, “Where’s all of the damage from the Hurricane I had seen on the news?” It seemed to me the city had fully recovered.

The next day, however, when I had a chance to leave the tourist-heavy areas of New Orleans, I realized how ignorant I had been.

A few days before, Juana Ibanez, our faculty representative from the University of New Orleans, had contacted me and said she’d like to give some of the riders a tour of the city. I gladly took her up on the offer, as I thought this would be a good opportunity to see other areas of the city that we were unable to walk to from our hotel.

On July 4, Juana picked Jessica, Sapna, Jen Baldwin and I up at our hotel and drove us all around the city, showing us the city’s public housing projects, Lake Pontchartrain, some of the areas where the levies had breached, the Ninth Ward and even her own neighborhood near Gentilly Ridge.

Juana’s home had been destroyed by the flood waters, and she had just finished clearing it out with her husband. We walked through their empty home, and then through her neighbor’s home, which hadn’t been touched since the flood waters receded almost two years ago. We walked through, stepping over ruined carpet and clothing, warped floorboards, soda cans, and broken and scattered toys and household items. A doll house, clothes and other items were stuck up in the home’s support beams, carried up to the ceiling by the ten feet of water that once flooded their home.

No one had begun to clean it up. It had been abandoned.

I spent most of the tour in silence with my mouth hanging wide-open. Feelings of guilt ran through me, as I kept thinking of ways I could have done more, and how I should have spent the spring break of my senior year in New Orleans trying to help instead of having an unproductive week in Myrtle Beach. I kept asking myself how I could have been so selfish…


But, what was even more moving was listening to Juana talk about how the Hurricane impacted her, her family and her community, and how they plan to rebuild.

She told us about how uplifting it was to see so many people from across the country reaching out to the residents of New Orleans and the surrounding communities – in a variety of ways – from donating money and goods to actually volunteering to gut homes and help rebuild. All of this assistance helped, a lot.

Now, it also seems that those residents who decided to come back to New Orleans are also playing a big role in the rebuilding. Neighbors are helping each other out. The city has also seen a flock of new residents since the Hurricanes, many who have decided to make a permanent move to help in the city’s rebuilding efforts.

It’s clear that change is happening within the city, especially on the grassroots level.

During our short visit, we had the opportunity to work with several great organizations like the Alliance for Affordable Energy (which we worked with on July 3 to celebrate energy independence by installing compact fluorescent light bulbs in homes and educating the public about how to make their homes more energy efficient) who are playing a big part in rebuilding and revitalizing the community.

On Thursday, we volunteered with another great grassroots effort - Replant New Orleans - a local nonprofit dedicated to restoring NOLA's urban vegetation.

Their mission is simple - "to provide trees and shrubs, healthy soil, and education outreach services to the residents of New Orleans at no cost" - but without a doubt, is successfully helping to remediate one of the largest and most complex environmental effects of Katrina.

Theo Eliezer of Replant New Orleans with a compost pile

We met with the organization's ultimate duo, Hillary Strobel and Theo Eliezer, who serve as co-executive directors of the group. They talked to us about how the city’s soil had been contaminated with heavy metals and other toxins by the floods. In fact, in most cases, the soil can not be used by residents who want to have gardens and grow their own produce, because it is unsafe. However, Replant New Orleans is also using the process of bioremediation (applying compost and compost teas), to restore the health of the soil.

So, the Legacy Crew spent the morning and early afternoon helping them begin the construction of a composting cooperative in the Marigny Neighborhood. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by a thunderstorm early that afternoon, so we had to cut our time with them a little short; however, we helped give them a great start to this new cooperative.

Hillary and Theo, with the help of a lot of great Replant New Orleans volunteers (many of whom are residents of the city), will continue their efforts to remediate the local environment and help rebuild their communities - another great example of how even a small grassroots effort, can have a big impact.

Yes, the City of New Orleans has a long way to go before it is completely rebuilt. It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, or even over the next couple years. And yes, NOLA could still use your help – and I encourage anyone who can, to do so. But I’m confident that these strong communities will continue to build relationships and work with each other to rebuild their city, and that New Orleans will come out stronger than ever.

By: Bret Muter