[StBernard] Letter: Student tells of St. Bernard devastation

Westley Annis westley at da-parish.com
Fri Apr 14 08:13:18 EDT 2006


Letter: Student tells of St. Bernard devastation


Published: Apr 14, 2006


As a member of the Vision Louisiana Residential College at LSU, I and some
fellow students were given the opportunity April 2 to visit St. Bernard
Parish, which was greatly affected by Hurricane Katrina.

I wrote this letter with the intention of informing and inspiring Louisiana
citizens to volunteer in affected parishes.

The vast majority of St. Bernard Parish homes are uninhabitable; there is
still debris everywhere; and many houses are left untouched. White FEMA
trailers dot residential neighborhoods, and whole shopping centers have
reconstructed facades of towering piles of debris.

The elementary and high school children of St. Bernard now all attend
Chalmette High School, which still lies in disrepair. All of the fallen
trees lie in the same direction as if to stand as a testimony to the wrath
of the flooding waters from the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet. Houses stand
without roofs, slabs without structures and homes without families.

As I was looking out the window of the bus on the way back to LSU, the
following question came to my mind: "Where am I?" And then I had to remember
that I was in Louisiana, the Lower 9th Ward to be exact. I had to remind
myself that this was less than TWO HOURS away from Baton Rouge. I was amazed
that we were less than 150 miles away from Baton Rouge, from LSU, and it
looked like this.

I leave you with the following quote: "Please know that together we will all
transform despair into hope ... and show the world the true meaning of
determination." - Gov. Kathleen Blanco

Sarabeth Rivet
LSU student
Central




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