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New Orleans Neighborhood Rebounds from Katrina’s Destruction
Allen Crabtree, Special to RedCross.org
Friday, March 03, 2006 — NEW ORLEANS, La. - Alice Major always waves from her second story porch at the American Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicle (ERV) when it pulls up in front of her house every day. It was not until Feb. 21, though that she came down for the first time and began interacting with the Red Cross volunteer drivers. Once started, it was as if she had to make up for lost time. She took them on a tour of her house explaining all the restoration she and her husband were planning.
Alice Major waves from the balcony of her home in Venetian Isles, a neighborhood east of New Orleans on Feb. 21, 2006. (Photo credit: Thomas Jacobson/American Red Cross)
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Alice and Joe Major, in their 70s, lived through Katrina’s fury, were evacuated and have now returned to their Venetian Isles home of 22 years. They have replaced their vehicle that was ruined in the storm, stripped out insulation and dry wall, and have had an electrician rewire the house.
Six months after Hurricane Katrina roared through the Venetian Isles neighborhood east of New Orleans residents, like the Majors, are returning and working hard to repair and restore their homes.
Streets are nearly clear of storm debris and contractors are busily replacing roofs, installing new dry wall and carpeting, hooking up electrical service, and repairing storm damage to many of the 330 homes there. FEMA trailers are set up in front yards to give a temporary place for residents to stay while working on their homes.
Signs of normalcy returning to the Venetian Isles neighborhood of New Orleans are the U.S. Post Office truck making mail deliveries, Feb. 21, 2006. (Photo credit: Thomas Jacobson/American Red Cross)
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A mail truck now makes door-to-door deliveries, a significant symbol of normalcy returning to the neighborhood. Just as important for the residents is the Red Cross ERV that makes its way down the streets daily delivering hot meals, water, supplies and encouragement to residents in need.
Bunnie and Dean Morgensen, the Red Cross ERV drivers who cruise the locality every day, are heartened by what they have seen in the Venetian Isles neighborhood over the last several months. The volunteers from Oklahoma City have been driving an ERV in New Orleans since Nov. 9.
“Every day more and more residents are returning to their homes, and the streets are now a beehive of activity as people clean up and repair their storm damage,” Bunnie Morgensen said. “They really appreciate our daily visits, and wave to us as we drive the streets. We have made so many good friends here, and I am so glad that we can help them come back after this terrible disaster.”
The Major’s house sits high on a berm that backs up to a waterway running through the neighborhood. The first floor of their house was flooded with nine feet of water and the storm surge came up to their second story.
“It was 9 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 29 when I looked out and saw the storm surge roaring across the lake at us from the northwest,” said Joe Major. “It was a huge wall of water, and I couldn’t believe my own eyes. My wife Alice and I went upstairs and put on our life jackets and prayed.”
“I built this house 22 years ago and it is as sturdy as a rock,” Major said. “By Monday night the water receded, and we were able to take up the wet carpets and throw out food that was damaged.”
Major told how rescuers, including the local fire department in a boat and an oil company seaplane, came on Tuesday and offered to evacuate him and his wife, but they declined. On Wednesday three game wardens from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries pulled up in an 18-foot Boston Whaler and evacuated them to a Red Cross shelter in Covington, La.
Joe Major receives hot meals from American Red Cross emergency response vehicle #2125 at his Venetian Isles neighborhood of New Orleans on Feb. 17, 2006.
(Photo credit: Thomas Jacobson/American Red Cross)
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“There the Red Cross gave us ice water and food and, boy, was that nice,” Major said. “Then they moved us to a Red Cross shelter at the Northshore High School in Slidell where we stayed until September 4th.”
His daughter located them safe and sound at the shelter through the Red Cross Family Links data base. She brought them to stay with her at her Pensacola, Fla., home.
The Majors returned to their Venetian Isles home on Dec. 3. Sitting next to his new maroon Tundra pickup truck in the carport is a pallet of plywood that Major will have a contractor use to repair their roof, now partially covered with a blue tarp.
Other contractors will install new carpeting and drywall in the next few days. Electrical power will be hooked up “any day now,” he said.
“We are thankful to be alive and to be back in our home with our neighbors again,” he said. “Three of my neighbors and our priest died in our neighborhood during Katrina, but we were lucky. A lot of people helped us during it all, but the biggest vote of thanks goes to the Red Cross. They are still here and are helping us every day. Bunnie and Dean stop and check on us every day, and it is their love and concern that have helped my wife come out of her shell.”
Joe Major talks with American Red Cross emergency response vehicle driver Bunnie Morgensen outside the Majors’ Venetian Isles neighborhood of New Orleans on Feb. 17, 2006.
(Photo credit: Thomas Jacobson/American Red Cross)
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“Here, you can’t leave without taking some of these Mardi Gras beads,” Mrs. Major said to Bunnie Morgensen. “It is just a little something to show you how much we appreciate all you’ve done, and what good friends you have been to us and our neighbors. God bless you!”
The rebirth of the Venetian Isles neighborhood is a heartwarming example of the resilience of the people who live in southern Louisiana, and a testimony to the compassionate role that the American Red Cross has played, and continues to play, in helping these strong people come back from Hurricane Katrina.
Allen Crabtree is a volunteer from the Southern Maine Chapter of the American Red Cross and lives in Sebago, Maine. He is a writer, antiquarian book dealer, blueberry farmer, town Selectman, volunteer fire fighter and ambulance driver.
Thomas Jacobson took the pictures that accompany this story. He is a volunteer from the Scenic Bluffs Chapter of the American Red Cross and lives in Viroqua, Wis., where he is a professional photographer.
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