Two Years Later, Still Working for Recovery

Rick Denhart

On behalf of our New Orleans-based team, I want to update you on what's happening here two years after the hurricane's landfall - and on what we're doing to help bring people back home.

One of Hurricane Katrina's cruelest blows was scattering the people of the U.S. Gulf Coast, particularly residents of New Orleans. Almost two years after floodwaters covered 80 percent of the city, only an estimated two-thirds of residents have returned.

What's keeping them from coming home? A variety of reasons, many of which become clear just from driving around. For one thing, hundreds if not thousands of homes remain in disrepair. What is livable is not cheap: fair-market rents are more than 40 percent above pre-Katrina levels. Jobs are scarce, too, and hundreds of businesses remain entombed in plywood. Some city residents have to drive 10 miles or more just to reach the nearest grocery store.

Two years after Katrina, the challenges are still staggering. But Mercy Corps is still here, working alongside the people who are committed to bringing their city back.

One of our biggest successes has been bringing people together. Like I said, Katrina scattered people and left them feeling isolated. We're working with neighborhood associations and local nonprofits to unite and empower residents so they can get what they need to rebuild their lives. We're helping them buy the supplies to restock their small businesses, reopen public libraries, and mobilize to clean and rebuild their neighborhoods.

One way we're helping the recovery is by using deconstruction rather than demolition to dismantle ruined houses and put young people back to work. We're training workers to take houses down piece-by-piece, a strategy that preserves reusable materials, puts building materials back onto local markets, provides tax benefits to low-income homeowners and protects the environment by keeping tons of materials out of landfills. Deconstruction lets New Orleanians preserve their collective memory through the reuse of both the architecturally important and the simpler, familiar artifacts that can help bring a sense of closure to the catastrophe. (Read a Q&A with Rick on the topic of deconstruction.)

Mercy Corps' Gulf Coast programs have helped bring residents of Louisiana and Mississippi back home, and have put several New Orleans neighborhoods on the road to recovery. They have helped preserve the city's rich cultural heritage, and protect its fragile environment.

Today, we need your help to keep bringing people together to rebuild what they lost. New Orleanians are determined to persevere. Your donation will help boost their spirits as they continue to recover from one of America's greatest tragedies.

Again, on behalf of the people we serve, thank you so much for your generous support. Your thoughts, prayers and gifts have made a difference.

Rick Denhart is Mercy Corps' Director of Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery, based in New Orleans. Read a Q&A with Rick on his efforts to promote deconstruction over demolition.