On that note, I took part in Gray Line's Hurricane Katrina tour on Friday afternoon, which focused on Gentilly and Lakeview. I had mixed feelings about it because I have issues with tourists who visit "Ground Zero" and act like they're at Disney World. (Don't get me started on the vendors who try to profit from what happened on September 11, 2001.) But I rationalized this expedition by telling myself that, unlike what happened in New York, Katrina was a natural disaster.
The tour guide and bus driver announced that ten percent of the ticket price would be donated to a charity of one's choice that supported one of the following causes: affordable housing, cultural preservation, ecological conservation, or an animal shelter. (All four endeavors are worthwhile, but affordable housing is the starting point for the city to get back on its feet.) For the next three hours, I saw block after block of abandoned houses, wrecked vehicles, boarded-up shops, and desolate streets.
The images I saw on television and in print didn't prepare me for the horror of seeing nature's wrath in person. Knowing that people's lives, and livelihoods, were swept away like litter in a sewage drain brought tears to my eyes -- which was fitting, for it started raining.
