Kyle Bonaccorso

It is depressing to think that in August of 2005, an entire community was destroyed. The Lower Ninth Ward was under up to 32 feet of water. Everyone was forced out of their homes, and those who didn’t get out were killed as a result of the storm. This disaster was very tragic, but what is even more tragic is the way we, as a nation, handled it. We did not give the people affected the proper support network in order to help them through the adverse time. People were bussed out all across the country and many are just waiting for a chance to come back. Sadly though, the Lower Ninth Ward doesn’t look that much better than it did six years ago. There are still houses with holes in the roof where people had tunneled out of their attic to escape the water. The schools were destroyed and only one is currently functioning. The kids need a place to get an education and one school is not sufficient. Building more schools and educating the kids is important to potentially bringing down the crime rate. In order for anything to actually happen, there needs to be organization.

Having been to the Lower Ninth Ward Village two years in a row, I have witnessed the start of a vision becoming reality. Mack wants to see his village become a community center which will help bring people back to their homes. His goal is to change the way that people embrace disaster. The work that has been done over the last couple days has made a huge impact and has turned the Village into a comfortable and fun place for people of all ages. We cleared out a lot of space that was only being used for storage and turned it into a small library and game room. We also cleaned up the backyard and removed the broken windows. We have set up a framework for other volunteer organizations to pick up where we left off. It is great to know that when we leave this place, we will have made a big difference. This disaster was embraced completely wrong. But it serves as a good lesson. We can learn from this and make sure that if we ever encounter another disaster, we will embrace it correctly.

For more information about the Lower Ninth Ward Village please visit their website here and if you would like to make a donation, you can do that here.