Katrina brings fear and hope in wake of rebuilding

WASHINGTON -- The last of the stranded residents and visitors to New Orleans are expected to be rescued by this weekend, allowing them to escape from a harrowing past while facing an uncertain future. Thousands more - the mayor estimates 10,000 or more - were not as fortunate and counting and recovering the dead could take weeks, officials say.
Dorothy Cloud fears that Hurricane Katrina and the attendant flooding may have destroyed her home and belongings - and she counts herself among the fortunate ones. "It's heartbreaking," she says in a telephone interview from Houston, where she has been living for almost two weeks with her daughter, Enice Temple, and son-in-law, Kenneth. "I could be there on the expressway. I could be in the Superdome. I could be at the convention center. I could have dead bodies in front of me. We're just blessed that my family got out and had somewhere to go."
She and 20 other relatives arrived in Houston two days before Hurricane Katrina struck Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Now, they are all crowed into the Temple three-bedroom home, where they spend most of the time watching news about New Orleans in particular.
"There are five kids --two in high school, one in middle school and two young boys --we had to get them registered," Cloud said. "People on my job and my church have been really good about giving us money and clothing. That we can't use, I take to my church so that they can help others."
Stacey Mays-Douglas and her family fled their home in Kenner, La., near New Orleans, and went to Indianapolis. She owns a small advertising business and contemplates business decisions and where she will enroll her children. "We lost everything, but each day I wake up with gratitude for God's grace and mercy," she says.
Rather than focus on the misfortune of Cloud, Mays-Douglas and countless others, the news media has come under criticism for referring to them as refugees. Even worse has been the way Blacks and Whites have been described in similar situations. For example, two photos showed flood victims dragging a bag or box of food or beverage. Though the photos were almost identical except for race, descriptions in the captions were notably different. The Associated Press caption under the photo said the Black person had just finished "looting" a grocery store. The AFP/Getty caption described two Whites in the photo as "finding" bread and soda from a grocery store.
The around-the-clock cable coverage and network specials also featured repeated footage of Blacks breaking into stores. Temple's mother says that though she doesn't condone the acts, even the negative behavior should be placed in context. "They're looting because these people have been raised with a lot of anger," explains Cloud. "They were raised in homes with a lot of fussing and fighting, and that's all they know. They were abandoned by their families, and now they're abandoned again."
Margie Payne, a professor at Delgado Community College in New Orleans, has mixed feelings about whether New Orleans will ever recover. "There is a possibility of recovery, but it will take a strong commitment from the federal government."
Terry Jones, publisher of the New Orleans Data News Weekly, lost his newspaper and his home. "I was away in Atlanta when it happened," he said in a telephone interview from that city. "I had come here for a birthday party. The first reports were that the hurricane was headed for Florida, and then it turned and hit New Orleans." Jones' family went to several cities. He remains in Atlanta until he can return to New Orleans to inspect the damage, noting some poor people will be ignored in the rebuilding process.
"Some areas will be salvaged, but others won't," he explains. "There are three major housing projects, and they may not be replaced. Originally, they wanted to turn them into condos. Now, they're going to knock them down and not replace them." Because of the need to monitor the rebuilding process to make sure Blacks are not treated unfairly, Jones says he plans to resume publishing his newspaper, which has been distributed for 39 years. After that process ends, he says he will turn his attention to his future. "Now, there is going to be a lot of money being donated to New Orleans," Jones says. "We must make sure that part of that money goes to the people who are the most disenfranchised.