KATRINA - AUGUST 29, 2005 - NINE YEARS LATER
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| Our Lady of the Driveway |
Thanks to Athenae at First Draft for the photo and the title. She took the picture when she was in New Orleans at the end of March, when a group of us led by FD bloggers, Athenae and Scout Prime, gathered to gut a house, view the destruction, and squeeze in a little fun.
The statue of the Virgin Mary lay in a driveway with the head broken off, but a kind person stood the statue upright and put the head back in place. The photo and the title struck me with such force when I first saw it that I have never forgotten it. The image of the statue of Mary in the driveway - "Mary, full of grace" as Athenae calls her - was the symbol of my destroyed and broken home town, my abandoned city, my beloved New Orleans - always full of grace to me.
Our Lady Of The Driveway
O Mary of the Driveway,
Broken like your city,
Your head lies on the ground.
A sorry sight, a sign,
A sign of devastation
Wrought by wind and water,
Angry blow and raging flow.
A passer-by, one of tender heart,
Sees and stops and mourns your head
Lying there apart,
And gently, gently takes it
And replaces it.
There. Our Lady's whole again.
Or so it seems. Or is it so?
June Butler - 5-13-07
I posted the picture, the commentary, and the poem first on May 13, 2007 and then again on the anniversary of Katrina in the years that followed. Until I change my mind, I will post the picture and the poem every year on the anniversary of Katrina and THE FEDERAL FLOOD, which, in New Orleans, was not a natural disaster but an ENGINEERING DISASTER. I remember the nearly 1500 people known to have died and all those who loved them. I remember the 275,000 who lost their homes. I remember those who survived, but suffered through horrendous conditions in the days after Katrina. I remember those who have not returned to their home towns, and who want to, but can't find affordable housing. I remember those in Louisiana and Mississippi still struggling to recover and rebuild their homes and their lives.
Thank you for this moving work of the written word. It captures so much of that horrendous time from FL panhandle, across the coast of AL, MS, LA, and to TX. It is still difficult to go home to Biloxi and see the vacant properties and boarded up buildings. And it seems that some families separated by the storm and its destruction will continue being separated for lack of affordable housing, lack of jobs which will support one, 23+ ft flood zones for property previously occupied by residences, etc. It makes me sad...
ReplyDeleteThanks,
Ann
Thanks, Ann, The Mississippi Gulf Coast bore the brunt of the worst of Hurricane Katrina, with entire communities destroyed. Structures well over 100 years old were gone. I went with my neighbor to check on her property in Waveland. Her house was swept away, with only an overturned bathtub and a few dishes left on the site. Amazingly, some of the dishes were not broken. Her neighborhood was gone. The homes of friends in Pass Christian were completely destroyed. That's not to mention friends and family in New Orleans and Metairie whose homes were destroyed by flooding.
DeleteRecovery has been slow, and you're right that some families may never return or be together again.
Thanks for reminding us of this every year, Mimi.
ReplyDeleteTim
You're welcome, Tim. A very sad reminder, indeed.
Delete