- Jun 8, 2004
- 3,210
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Returnees slip past roadblocks to see remnants of New Orleans homes Mon Oct 3, 2:15 AM ET
NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Palazzolo Simmons snuck past police roadblocks, over a bridge and through knee-deep water to see what was left of his house in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans leveled by the twin blows of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
When he found the roof of his home on the ground where the house once stood, he wept.
"I needed to know," the 49-year-old man said as he stood in a landscape littered with mud-caked remains of an obliterated community in the city's Lower Ninth Ward. "I'm devastated. Traumatized."
While New Orleans' Mayor Ray Nagin beckoned for residents in upscale areas such as the French Quarter to return and rebuild their lives, people in poorer African-American communities dodged police for glimpses of their ruined homes.
The Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish remained off limits. The blocks Simmons called home were the only part of the city still submerged in floodwater.
"This was my 'hood," Simmons said as he rode through floodwaters and past splintered houses atop a monster truck driven by a volunteer rescue worker who called it "a deep penetration vehicle."
"We were like a family," he recounted.
"Now, everybody has the same thing: nothing."
The Army Corps of Engineers expected the last of the floodwater would not be pumped out for two more days.
"There is nothing pretty about it," city council woman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents the ward, said as she did "an eye ball check" of the corps' progress.
Mayor Nagin has dodged questions on whether the Ninth Ward will be forsaken or rebuilt. Willard-Lewis said she is demanding homes be resurrected and the property rights of displaced African-American residents be defended.
"There are probably other agendas, but nobody has approached me with that," the council woman said, explaining she represents the impoverished community and is tracking down those displaced.
"The families will come back. We have to honor our ancestors."
Rumors about the ward include turning it into a chemical plant site, a golf course, or a wetland buffer zone along the levee that broke in two places during the recent storms.
"I had to see what they were talking about. It's unbelievable," said 22-year-old Gregory Lewis, who got by checkpoints, but was barred by water and debris from getting to where his house was when he last saw it. "I see now why it should be bulldozed."
The ExxonMobil oil company worker was among those who said they would not rebuild.
Rernard Thomas used his city job and truck to get a cousin into the Lower Ninth. He wanted to show the deaf, mute woman the ruin so she could use the Internet to spread the word in her circle.
"When Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965, they blew the canal," Thomas said, nodding to the patched levee lining the Industrial Canal dividing the Ninth Ward. "Now, all your black neighborhoods are destroyed again."
"There is nothing to come home to here. There is no home."
Quinston Jones, 43, and his 36-year-old brother, Patrick Johnson, reached the heart of the Ninth Ward to find Jones' boat still locked to a pole in front of his tattered house.
Not far away, a dog scampered across the roofs of homes smashed against each other by the floodwaters.
"I never in a million years would have believed things could have happened like this," said Johnson, who wore a large, rhinestone-crusted medallion of the state of Louisiana as a memento of the disaster.
"I think they are going to bulldoze it. There are a lot of toxic things in the ground."
Three months ago, Johnson moved his family to St. Bernard Parish so his children would have better public schools. That neighborhood was also cordoned off and in ruin, he said.
"You can't do nothing but accept it," Johnson said. "This is not a dream. It really happened. I just want to get started again."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2005100...dwmWccF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--
pEACE!
iSAIAH
Returnees slip past roadblocks to see remnants of New Orleans homes Mon Oct 3, 2:15 AM ET
NEW ORLEANS, United States (AFP) - Palazzolo Simmons snuck past police roadblocks, over a bridge and through knee-deep water to see what was left of his house in a poor neighborhood of New Orleans leveled by the twin blows of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
When he found the roof of his home on the ground where the house once stood, he wept.
"I needed to know," the 49-year-old man said as he stood in a landscape littered with mud-caked remains of an obliterated community in the city's Lower Ninth Ward. "I'm devastated. Traumatized."
While New Orleans' Mayor Ray Nagin beckoned for residents in upscale areas such as the French Quarter to return and rebuild their lives, people in poorer African-American communities dodged police for glimpses of their ruined homes.
The Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish remained off limits. The blocks Simmons called home were the only part of the city still submerged in floodwater.
"This was my 'hood," Simmons said as he rode through floodwaters and past splintered houses atop a monster truck driven by a volunteer rescue worker who called it "a deep penetration vehicle."
"We were like a family," he recounted.
"Now, everybody has the same thing: nothing."
The Army Corps of Engineers expected the last of the floodwater would not be pumped out for two more days.
"There is nothing pretty about it," city council woman Cynthia Willard-Lewis, who represents the ward, said as she did "an eye ball check" of the corps' progress.
Mayor Nagin has dodged questions on whether the Ninth Ward will be forsaken or rebuilt. Willard-Lewis said she is demanding homes be resurrected and the property rights of displaced African-American residents be defended.
"There are probably other agendas, but nobody has approached me with that," the council woman said, explaining she represents the impoverished community and is tracking down those displaced.
"The families will come back. We have to honor our ancestors."
Rumors about the ward include turning it into a chemical plant site, a golf course, or a wetland buffer zone along the levee that broke in two places during the recent storms.
"I had to see what they were talking about. It's unbelievable," said 22-year-old Gregory Lewis, who got by checkpoints, but was barred by water and debris from getting to where his house was when he last saw it. "I see now why it should be bulldozed."
The ExxonMobil oil company worker was among those who said they would not rebuild.
Rernard Thomas used his city job and truck to get a cousin into the Lower Ninth. He wanted to show the deaf, mute woman the ruin so she could use the Internet to spread the word in her circle.
"When Hurricane Betsy hit in 1965, they blew the canal," Thomas said, nodding to the patched levee lining the Industrial Canal dividing the Ninth Ward. "Now, all your black neighborhoods are destroyed again."
"There is nothing to come home to here. There is no home."
Quinston Jones, 43, and his 36-year-old brother, Patrick Johnson, reached the heart of the Ninth Ward to find Jones' boat still locked to a pole in front of his tattered house.
Not far away, a dog scampered across the roofs of homes smashed against each other by the floodwaters.
"I never in a million years would have believed things could have happened like this," said Johnson, who wore a large, rhinestone-crusted medallion of the state of Louisiana as a memento of the disaster.
"I think they are going to bulldoze it. There are a lot of toxic things in the ground."
Three months ago, Johnson moved his family to St. Bernard Parish so his children would have better public schools. That neighborhood was also cordoned off and in ruin, he said.
"You can't do nothing but accept it," Johnson said. "This is not a dream. It really happened. I just want to get started again."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2005100...dwmWccF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5bGVna3NhBHNlYwNzc3JlbA--
pEACE!
iSAIAH