August 29, 2010 marks the fifth anniversary of the widely destructive Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged United States’ Gulf Coastal region and devastated a countless number of individuals around the world.
Many remember Hurricane Katrina as the category five storm that affected the southern areas of the United States; more specifically, they associate it as the devastating force that began in Louisiana, setting on a path of destruction throughout Mississippi and several counties in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia and Kentucky; until the storm eventually began losing momentum, making its way north and adding to its total destruction count.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “the storm made landfall in southern Plaquemines Parish Louisiana, just south of Buras, as a Category 3 hurricane, maximum winds were estimated near 125 mph to the east of the center.”
According to those same Saffir-Simpson ratings, the hurricane would eventually be powered up to become a category 5 hurricane and also become the most destructive hurricane in US history [as it relates to the estimated costs of the destruction].
“Although Katrina will be recorded as the most destructive storm in terms of economic losses, it did not exceed the human losses in storms such as the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed as many as 6,000-12,000 people and led to almost complete destruction of coastal Galveston,” according to the NOAA.
“Hurricane Andrew, in 1992, cost approximately $21 billion in insured losses (in today’s dollars), whereas estimates from the insurance industry as of late August 2006, have reached approximately $60 billion in insured losses (including flood damage) from Katrina. The storm could cost the Gulf Coast states as much as an estimated $125 billion.”
Southern University played a vital part in the days and months after the storm.
Southern’s F.G. Clark Activity Center was used as a shelter and housing quarters for those “refugees,” the term associated by government officials when referring to those evacuees of Katrina, of the Greater New Orleans areas.
Although it was not made a mandatory requirement of the faculty and staff of the university, volunteers like Dr. ValaRay Irvin, director of counseling center at the university, worked as care takers for those persons housed in the activity center.
“When we moved people to our ‘mini-dome,’ I volunteered over there and again I witnessed not only an outpour of care, but also I witnessed a lot of people, the evacuees, being uncomfortable and sort of shying away from people,” said Dr. Irvin. “Sometimes not wanting to ask for things that we had available for them because the weren’t sure about ‘who these people were,’ we were all strangers to them.”
“Although we were there to assist, you know, you are who you are and so you are sometimes like, ‘well I do need this roll of paper, but they have already gave me x, y, and z.'”
Being around new people, often some people experience feelings of un-comfort or anxiety; especially, in a situation where you are forced to be around these new people and unsure of when you can return to your own home.
“I think people probably held on to and held in a lot more than they actually needed to because they were not sure about their environment and surrounding, and how safe it was to adapt to the new situation,” she said.
Although Dr. Irvin herself had to make certain adaptations to the situation, she certainly was not alone. For some, like Darjae Kensey, 14 at the time, Katrina hit closer to home.
“I was actually there during the storm,” said Kensey, 19, now a junior at Southern. “I sat there through out the whole thing,” she explained. “We weren’t at our house, we got a hotel off of Crowder and the service road; it was only a two floor hotel and the bottom [floor] flooded. They actually had to move people from the first floor to the second floor; and the water just looked like it would never stop coming and before you knew it, it was almost on the second… good thing it stopped.”
After the water actually stopped and the storm had taken its toll on the New Orleans area, Kensey’s father was allowed to drive an 18-wheeler to New Orleans’ convention center, which provided mass shelter to those evacuees. The problem… Darjae, unaware to her father, was not allowed to get on that particular truck he was driving, therefore, she was separated for her family for a stint.
When she finally reunited with her family, the problems did no cease at the convention center.
“This little girl who was next to us got kidnapped in the middle of the night,” said Kensey. “Some other kids around us, not right next to us, they were found in the freezer of the convention center, they had raped the little girl and the little boy,” she said.
“It was an upsetting time, but a lot of people took it harder than I did. I just saw it as a blessing, we made it out! A lot of people didn’t make it out, a lot of people were floating down the street. We saw a lot of dead bodies; they shot somebody in the street and left him laying there in the street.”
Today, the people who were involved in the melee´ of August 29, 2005, seem to have a greater appreciative of family and it became obvious through the activities of residents throughout recent hurricanes Rita and Gustav, that they have began to take heed to these warnings that possibly could have lessened the grief New Orleans residents were subjected to.
“If they say category two, we are out of there,” Kensey expressed when speaking about the Saffir-Simpson ratings.
Of her own testimony, Kensey said this… “specifically I want to say that with these stories it’s just peoples own experiences, not everyone had the same experiences; people fail to realize that,” she said. “I have heard people say ‘I don’t like people from New Orleans because they think they can do whatever they want, or tried to run our city, but they fail to realize when your moving people from one specific city to another one, they are not necessarily trying to take over your city, they are trying to do what they know how to do, whether it be right or wrong… and it’s not always right.
Counselors urge to those closely involved in the hurricane to remember, traumatic experiences such as these can reoccur around the same time of year. It is vital to know and understand your progression.
“What’s really important [to remember] on this pending anniversary, as we know in the mental health field, is that people can re-experience trauma again and again,” said Dr. Irvin. “At the two year anniversary mark, we put out information for the university community, sort of warning people and giving them permission to check in with themselves and see how well they were functioning. You are not going to perform well academically if you are having issues emotionally.”
“I think its really important for our population to understand that it’s ok to give themselves permission to grieve. I don’t think we feel comfortable allowing ourselves to be vulnerable around this type of grief. If a love one dies we can grieve, we’ve been sort of taught that’s ok… but these are losses too,” Irvin concluded.
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Katrina: Five years later
August 26, 2010
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