The Lower Ninth Ward

On August Monday 29th, 2005, the city of New Orleans was hit by a horrible hurricane. This phenomenon was named Hurricane Katrina, and it was a category 5 hurricane with winds over 120 miles per hour which sound very dangerous. As usual, city officials and the governor advised everyone to evacuate the city since heavy rain was expected, and it could  cause a flood that will affect about 14,000 people. Many people did evacuated except people form the Lower Ninth Ward which the predominant race was African Americans. This was the poorest neighbor in the city, and they did not have any place to go, and obviously no money to go away to another city. Their only alternative was to stay and pray for no disaster to happen. However, it did not went so well since about 80 % of New Orleans was  flooded. After the heavy rains and high winds were over, everything left was completely destroyed or houses, and cars ended  up in other places. One of the survivors said " there are no words to describe the intense of the devastation caused by the flooding" ( Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans Lower 9th Ward).

 

 

In the other hand, the government help them, but affected people were still hopeless because they had loss absolutely everything including their loves ones since thousands of people died or were reported as dismissed.  Many years later, the Lower Ninth ward was not recover from the hurricane, and the grass was as tall as people so that it looked like a "ghost town" ( Blackvoices article).

  

 

The situation was so critical that polation decreased from 14,008 to 5,500 people, At this point politicians and volunteers still are trying to make New orleand what it looked like years ago. The actor Brad Pitt contributed to created 50 modernistic houses which was a noble cause from him. But, even though people tried to help, residents from the Lower Ninth Ward feel "left behind" (Blackvoices article) because there are too many things to get done. In addiction,  one of the main reasons this neighborhood has not progress yet is because they are a the neighbor with the lower income, and that is why some section of this devastated neighbor still inaccessible.

 

Bibliography:

 

 "6 Years After Katrina, Lower 9th Ward Still Bleak." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 Aug. 2011. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/28/6-years-after-katrina-low_n_939782.html.

 

"Hurricane Katrina: The Drive: New Orleans Lower 9th Ward." Interview. Web log post. YouTube. YouTube, 16 June 2006. Web. 12 Nov. 2012. http://www.youtube.com/.

 

 

 

 

 



Naomi's tweet

Naomi ‏@NaomiRam14

How come they only served pork while in prison? Zeitoun is Muslim nd doesnt eat pork.

Well, I like this post because is a question that probably many people would ask since we know that Muslim people do not eat pork, and that was the "menu" in prison. So, how could a Muslim survive in a place where the only thing to eat is pork?. In my opinion, I think  that they would rater either or starved. In addiction, if that was my situation, I would just eat it, and after I was out of jail, then. I'll figure what to do!!  

Hurricane Sandy

When I heard that Sandy was heading toward our direction I assumed that it was not a big deal because last years when Hurricane Irene hit NYC, it did not affect the city as the meteorologist expected. However, this time, it was very different because Sandy came with winds of 80m/p which is super dangerous. Some of the things I was able to see from my window were a couple of trees moving from side to side, and I thought there would fall, but they still alive. Also, I saw a piece of metal, which I could not figure what it was, flying over the streets. That was pretty much all I saw, but I kept myself informed watching the news. In the other hand, it was somehow exiting that we had to witness this experience since we are discussing climate change (hurricanes) in our ENG 101 composition class, and I finally understood why a phenomenon like this happen. So, I felt that it was a connection between this hurricane and our class. Honestly, at one point, when I was looking through the window I though that, maybe  this hurricane came to us so that we could see how a hurricane feels in the big apple, New York City because every time a big storm, hurricane, or earthquake, etc happens, NYC barely taste the consequences of it. 

Furthermore, I think that the mayor did a wonderful job this time. Since Sandy was coming to us, he started to announce that people who live around the coast and places near the rivers should evacuate before the storm hit the city because floods were expected in those areas. So, if I was the mayor, I would do the same thing Bloomberg did by keeping the New Yorkers informed with the latest new, and the same time given them instruction to evacuate to be safe from a major disaster. Moreover, I remember that for my first assignment in the class, I had to write a letter to the mayor where my main point was that NYC was not prepare for climate change or a big hurricane like Sandy, but it turn out that he prepared New Yorkers to be safe since the flood was inevitable due to the heavy rains and the rising of the sea level which only occurs four times in the year, and it happens on Monday.

Finally, this experience is also connected with the book we are reading in class “Zeitoun”.  This book basically described what happened in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit them. Zeitoun, which is the main character of the book, decided to stay in the city to see what would happen because he though that Katrina would not be something different from what they had experienced before. However, this was a category 5 hurricane which destroyed New Orleans and comparing to hurricane Sandy which was only a powerful storm when it hit New York City, Sandy destroyed a lot of neighbors as well.