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The Big Easy? SEVRAR Magazine March 2007
Written By: Kriste Melcher, GRI, CRS, TRC, AHWD
Bachelor of Science - Real Estate
ASU School of Business
New Orleans is a destination that, by name alone, creates a vision in one’s mind. Bright colors, powerful jazz and blues, enriched and plentiful culture, Mardigras, Cajun dishes and culinary delights, and Southern hospitality to name just a few. Many visions had floated through my imagination about New Orleans, in the many years before I first visited this incredible city. Many have dreamed of a day in which they can experience this city— which is like no other in the world!
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina altered the fate of New Orleans in such a tragic manner that outsiders and locals are still wondering how the devastation that followed could have happened. The stories of the tremendous storm and the levee failures have been told. But today, most people are unaware of this city’s progress and current condition. Apparently, it is no longer newsworthy to local stations or even stations such as CNN.
I recently visited New Orleans for the very first time when I chose to attend the annual National Association of REALTORS ® (NAR) Convention, otherwise known as “NARdiGras”. It was a huge success, with a record breaking 25,000 REALTORS® in attendance!
The tourist area of New Orleans met these REALTORS® and their guests with “open arms”! From the hotels, to the restaurants, to the convention center and tours… the people showed us the true meaning of “southern hospitality”. If there was one word I could use to describe the way I was treated in New Orleans, it would be “APPRECIATED”. The locals were so grateful to receive us, since their tourism industry has taken such a huge hit since Hurricane Katrina. People thanked my fellow REALTORS® and me in such a kind, heartfelt manner that of which I have never seen or experienced anywhere in the world. And I have been lucky to travel quite extensively.
New Orleans is undoubtedly working feverishly to bring back its tourism industry. I arrived several days early to New Orleans, in hopes to get some sightseeing in prior to the beginning of the convention. As I ventured out the first night upon my arrival, I was shocked to see that Bourbon Street was like a ghost town. It was a week night, but I have always heard this city never sleeps. I felt as if I was walking down a Hollywood stage set. I had to keep checking out the street signs to make sure I was on the actual “Bourbon Street”. If not for the music, which one could hear up and down this famous street, I would be certain I took a wrong turn somewhere.
However, the REALTOR® convention truly brought the city alive! Once the other REALTORS® began to trickle in, there was an energy building throughout the city. The streets started filling up, and the cash registers began to ring again. The spirits of the locals seemed to lift, and the soul of the city seemed to sing again. Then there was the faux Mardigras, which packed the streets during a celebratory parade with REALTORS® all wearing NARdiGras t-shirts stating “REALTOR.com has your back!” The beads were flying, the music was playing, and I was in New Orleans!
With all of the celebrations and seminars, many REALTORS® did not have the time to venture outside of these famous streets. Since I had arrived early, my guest and I decided to take several tours outside of the Parrish of Orleans. Driving in the bus from the French Quarter, we witnessed water line stains two stories high on buildings, homes, freeways, and other surroundings. We took in the 17th St. Canal, which was a common picture in the media when it flooded during the hurricane. These sights were to be expected.
However, we truly witnessed sites that I had never imagined—15 months after Hurricane Katrina hit. What really surprised us was what we saw once we were out of the tourist area. We saw entire neighborhoods that are still destroyed with no hope in sight. We witnessed horrifying scenes of homes, which were in several different neighborhoods (both poor and rich) that are currently sitting as if the water was pumped out yesterday. Entire areas are practically still not occupied or habitable. Many lots now sit empty from where homes have been demolished and never rebuilt.
The spray paint remains on many doors reporting the dead, and location upon which they were found within the home. Many homes are still without electricity, water or gas 15 months after Hurricane Katrina hit.
The New Orleans Charity Hospital sits mostly vacant and shattered like many of the gazes I saw in the eyes of people who remain in New Orleans and the surrounding cities. If one seeks emergency medical attention and cannot afford to pay while residing in New Orleans, it is necessary to travel out to Baton Rouge or Boca Rotan, since the Charity Hospital shows no sign of life within its walls.
Many people have left the areas that have been devastated, never to return. There was evidence of this while traveling near a Yacht Club, in Lakeview, with ships still stacked in a destructive pile - as if thrown in a child's toy box. There were ships still emerged in the lake with nothing but masts sticking out as evidence of their existence. Our amazing tour guide explained that they had just removed the ships lodged in the branches of the surrounding trees two weeks earlier. He showed us a median (which may have served as a greenbelt area) off the main entrance to this once vibrant neighborhood. He explained that trash stood up to heights of 40' tall from the debris collected from the interiors of the surrounding homes. This had all only been removed two months prior to our tour.
I have stories of a tourist guide desperately fighting to remain in New Orleans after surviving the storm, which literally tore his rental home in half! Meanwhile, he and his sixteen year old daughter frantically threw a couch upside down and crawled under it for safety.
They lay there for hours as they witnessed half of their home blowing away, and the other half flooding with water. They didn't even know that 80% of the city was flooded until the next evening, since they had no TV or radio. They waited for emergency crews to save them, but they never arrived. Fortunately for them, some neighbors found them and helped them find an escape route.
Now, after the storm, this tour guide struggles to keep adequate housing for himself and his daughter. The area, which once only brought $600/month in rent, now captures $1700/month or more for homes that are in need of repair from the damage ensued by Hurricane Katrina. The rents rising are just the start though. Before Katrina, he worked upwards of seven days a week with the thriving tour company with which he worked. Now that same company tends to offer only 1 day of guaranteed work a week, since the tourism industry has basically screeched to a halt.
The people of the Orleans Parrish and its surrounding Parrish’s are still being affected by this storm every day. Where is the help? Where is the money? Where is the shelter from the upcoming winter? Where are the medical services? Have we shut oureyes to this mess because it is no longer newsworthy”? Do the people’s lives not matter?
People are still waiting for FEMA trailers. There was a news program on the Channel 4 local news with a woman crying that she still doesn’t have water to bathe or drink, electricity to warm her from the cold, and her family is sleeping on cots in a gutted home. She is not used to living this way. She is awaiting a FEMA trailer and has no idea if and when she will ever get one. It was a heart wrenching story for those that witnessed it, but a story too often told. Entire neighborhoods could share a story similar to that one.
While at the National Association of REALTOR® Convention, former Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton spoke on Saturday, November 11, 2006 regarding the Bush Clinton Katrina Fund. Although the NAR had originally collected $18 million dollars, then an additional $4 million, as well as building 54 homes in New Orleans through Habitat for Humanity (with the cooperation of many state REALTOR® Associations), Bill Clinton discussed the dire need to do more. He stated the areas in which help has been offered and received, but there is so much more that needs to be done. I solemnly listened, and I silently agreed with his statistics and statements.
I spoke to many REALTORS® during and after the convention, who admit they did not experience the areas that were still destroyed. It is easy to walk the French Quarter and arrive at the Convention Center each day to be unaware of the extreme devastation that still exists outside of those streets.
However, I urge the citizens of the United States to discover what I found which totally shocked me. It made me feel sick that our people and our cities, in the richest country in the world, could still be ignored in this fashion. I am not blaming the citizens for their ignorance of the facts. After all, it's no longer really in the media. I wouldn't have known had I not seen it with my own eyes. But something must be done!
There are still ways in which we can help! Do not let this disaster get swept under the rug. This is our country. Our people. Our New Orleans. Comic Relief 2006 was on cable on November 18, 2006 being simultaneously broadcast on HBO and TNT. I had just returned from New Orleans, and I was happy to see that Comic Relief was dedicated to helping rebuild New Orleans. The website has a fact sheet I encourage everyone to read: http://www.comicrelief.org/this_years_show/themission.htm. Read it with an open heart. It is utterly astonishing. Donations are helpful. Prayers are welcome. However, action is powerful!
Don’t let these people be ignored. REALTORS® nationwide have come together to donate. We came together to support New Orleans’ businesses and tourism. REALTORS® worked with Habitat for Humanity to build fifty-four homes. REALTOR® have a position of strength and compassion in this country. We must start at the local level and work our way towards truly re-building New Orleans! It is time we come together to end this disgrace.
Other sites in which to give donations or obtain more information:
http://www.bushclintonkatrinafund.org/
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/new-orleans-imagery.htm
By Kriste Melcher, CRS, GRI, TRC, AHWD, Bachelor of Science in Real Estate, W.P. Carey
School of Business - ASU |
