Sticking Together

by Marbella

When a catastrophic event happens, you never know what the end result will be. You never know what barriers you would fail or conquer or the emotions you would have to face.  Whatever the case is you always are aware of caring for your family. You will have the desire to go with them even if you are in the worst circumstances. In other words, your family goes first. Yet, it's also possible that you'll have an impulse to care for your community.  Though you may not know it, you might just feel compelled to reach out a hand.
          

This same situation was what happen with people in New Orleans. They never knew that August 29 of 2005 would be a terrible day. Experts were predicting catastrophic damage to New Orleans and the surrounding region just a few days before, yet many people thought it was just the news trying to scare people. Many chose to leave. They had in mind their family. Ninety percent of the residents of southeast Louisiana were evacuated in the most successful way. However that proved that they also cared about others. A hurricane of a category range of 3 hit them in the most undesirable day, still they pulled it off. 
          

By August 31, 2005, eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded by 15 feet of water. They did try their best at surviving yet still they had over 1,500 deaths. This event left them so desperate that many who remained in their homes had to swim for their lives to survive. Sometimes bad plays an unhappy trick on them. They called it a "total destruction" because the end result was not Louisiana any more. Therefore experts said that it could take six months or longer to pump all the water out of the city. 
          

This not only affected the community but politics, economy and their population. This event left them down when it came to the economy. All of the bodies without lives also made a big difference, not only to their families. Engineers and the total failure of the  built flood protection system,which experts agree should have protected the city's inhabitants from Katrina's surge. They made mistakes but those are now solved. We can learn from our mistakes. 

We can also learn from the example.  People came back.  People donated time.  Whole communities said, "We know that this place is a wreck, but we'll rebuild.  We'll continue.  We'll overcome."  Volunteers stormed the flooded city to pull out survivors.  Throughout the country, people raised money, donated their expertise, prayed for the victims and found every possible way to stick together.  
          

This is not only a "weather problem", but you can compare it into something that is now going on. Our economy problem and what is going on in our community can be compare to Katrina's disaster. In this situation we did not get hit by a catastrophic weather event  but by a hurricane of mistakes. You can't blame it to one person, everyone must have  done something to bring us to this point. I'm not not defending anyone but not blaming it on another person. Therefore we should learn from our mistakes to create better solutions. If we can follow the same example of Katrina, we can learn what it means to volunteer and stick together and love our neighbor.   

Photo Credit

Flickr Creative Commons

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pikmin/355795135/