Six Years Ago Today

On the evening of 28 August, metropolitan New Orleans was a ghost town [city]. The roads were empty, houses sealed up and two million people evacuated the largest and meanest storm to hit the continental US in a very, very long time. Worse, it was aimed at just about the worst place where the storm surge reached 25-30 feet, with 10-15 foot waves on top of that. Almost two thousand people died in that storm and its aftermath, 500,000 homes were destroyed and for the first time since Washington DC was burned in the War of 1812, Atlanta in 1864, and the Chicago & San Francisco fires, a US city was completely devastated - the entire infrastructure was decimated: police, fire, schools, medical, power, water, drainage, streets, phone (cell and line), and the city was cut off from effective relief efforts.

On the 28th, the day was sunny & blue, hot - not-as-humid, and... quiet, very quiet. That night the breezes were normal summer by the sea winds, but as it got later the winds increased until midnight when it was raging. By dawn on the 29th, we were in the thick of it!

On the 29th (6 yrs ago today) the storm raged until about 3pm when the sun came out again, the sky got blue and it was hot. No cicadas though, no crickets and no lights anywhere at all. Just dark and quiet. People began venturing out that afternoon and surveyed the damage.

We knew the wind damage was huge and the coastal areas were "washed away" literally! Then that evening it happened - the levees broke from long, long hours under the worst surge they'd ever endured.

I recall being here, and the personal, selfish and shameful relief that I did not have to live with this; that I would evac my family, get on a plane and fly back to New Zealand. I didn't have to live through this dark catastrophic mess. I didn't have a house destroyed. I didn't have to find schooling, etc. I got to go home and watch it on BBC... Yep, I cried, I grieved, for home, for my home city, for the people I know. BUT, I didn't have to "deal with it".

Summer 2006: We arrive to simply visit. We were on the way to the UK...and we were only here to see friends, to see family, to survey the city as missiologists (God's sociologists). I'd been to war zones, global worst poverty, tsunami sites, earthquake sites... I'd seen it all. I knew it would be bad in New Orleans. I'd seen pictures.

I had no idea how bad. Susanne and I wept DAILY - several times. We wanted, were compelled to see it - see it all. From the ponsy corporate suburbs, to the poorest inner-city neighborhoods, we HAD to see it all. We had to engage the people, hear the fatigue, the ache, the post-traumatic-stress, the cynicism, the anger, the loss of hope. I was headed to London and leaving here! I couldn't stay, didn't want to stay... I hated it! I hated it! My city was gone and it sucked to see it - and it sucked to even dare think of staying - NO!

God had other plans.

It's now six years since the storm hit to the day. It's five years from that visit during a move to London. We never left. We still live in new Orleans.

AND WE LOVE IT!

Warts? Plenty!
Lots still messed up? Absolutely!
No answer to so many of these challenges? Yep!

Coming along? You bet! We've got great leadership in the city, in the metro parishes (counties), support from both the state and fed's. Business is coming along great and N.O. is the #1 destination for entrepreneurs...a true creative class city. Schools are doing super and getting better every day. Streets are getting worked on, people returning home, we laugh again, there is hope like never in my life time. Heck, the Saints won a super bowl! And the storm protection has made the city safer than anytime before in my life! And it's getting better... they don't talk protection from 100 years storms - now they're working on 500 year storm protection.

Don't get me wrong - there's lots left to overcome. From business and poverty, crime and education, neighborhoods, and certainly the spiritual. BUT, it's coming along and it is a great place, a great place, a great place to live again! The spice is back, the savvy is back, the swagger is back. She's a muse again calling people here.

So, what we do - we dig in, help, sacrifice, love, give, help and pray. We pray for the complete shalom of the city. You see shalom isn't just peace, not even just peace with God. It's the holistic peace where everything - all peace - is related to that right joy and peace with God. We pray for business, education, crime, people wanting to come home, people moving here for the 1st time, for the recovery, the healing, the racial issues, the city government, the churches and the spiritual revitalization of the entire city - that God's name will be made renown....again.

Six years ago today, everything changed.







God wants to rebuild the cities - and make them better than the Towers we built on our own.