Day 241 -- nine years later

Nine years ago today, a massive storm hit the Gulf coast devastating New Orleans where a catastrophic levee breech occurred. It held news interest for several weeks and then disappeared until the world marked annual anniversaries of the event, happily moving on with our lives and assuming everyone from the Gulf was living happily ever after. Sadly, news stories tend to reach a saturation point, where the audience ceases to pay attention and demands some new obsession.

I've visited New Orleans twice since Katrina and Rita hit the city, two years and four years after the events. The feelings were quite visceral and raw on the first visit. Survivors had stories that needed to be told and there was still vast areas that required cleanup, repair or rebuilding. The concept of rebirth and a more positive vibe were present on the second visit. Each trip was to attend a conference -- the rebuilding of local food systems in 2008 and the strengthening of local economies in 2010. Each conference included examples from the Gulf coast area with many guest speakers and site visits. I learned much about the resilience of the human spirit on these visits. The unique culture of New Orleans served it well, with more tourism evident in 2010. Sadly that summer saw the BP oil spill, so one of the joys (and sources of great pride), the cajun and creole seafood dishes were not the same as earlier. This situation led the culinary community to delve into historical recipe collections to discover new 'old' ways to prepare the food in innovative forms while keeping with the historical character of the cultural cuisine. (The collections were from the local library and SoFAB -- Southern Food and Beverage Museum.)

Fund raising for specific communities with losses was present during both visits. I did purchase a t-shirt with a screen print of what was left of Fats Domino's piano. I, too, had lost my piano in a flood a couple years earlier, so I felt that this one minuscule part of the pain I could begin to understand. The rest of the suffering is still beyond my ken. Television programs like the Treme series and many books and research articles have examined the loss, but spent much more effort on recovery and rebirth. I've found many of these fascinating, yet they still provided me with but a speck of the emotional baggage involved in living through and beyond such devastation. Proceeds from the t-shirt I purchased supported the New Orleans Musicians Relief Fund and on the second trip I was able to see the beginnings of the Musicians Village in the lower Ninth Ward. The village has been build by Habitat for Humanity and other organizations to provide housing for musicians who work to sustain the historical music history of the city.

When thinking of the hurricane effects, my mind always goes to one song. It contains some of the raw emotion. It was written and sung by a musician from New Orleans who also co-founded the Musicians Village. Enjoy!

All These People -- Harry Connick, Jr.ft. Kim Burrell