On Friday, August 26, 2005, we learned that a storm was in the Gulf of Mexico and was headed our way. It was early in the hurricane season and the storm had formed in the Gulf, not way out in the Atlantic, so we weren’t particularly concerned. Saturday, we learned that it was strengthening and still headed our way. On Sunday we packed enough clothes for three days and headed north in our cars, just as we’d done many times in the past. Little did we know how our lives would change, literally overnight.
One year after that powerful storm forever altered our lives, I tried to write down some of the lessons I had learned from the ordeal. Here is that story.
Katrina
One Year Later
Lessons Learned
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed into Southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Katrina was the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States. It is not possible to comprehend the total loss of life and property as a result of this disaster.
To try to give you some idea, consider that on the Mississippi Gulf coast, for about a 30 mile stretch of coastline, 95% of every building within three city blocks of the shore was totally destroyed by the huge storm surge. In New Orleans, imagine an area 5 miles wide by 15 miles long, and every house and business within that area totally or substantially destroyed by flood waters that settled into the homes and buildings and stayed there for weeks.
What is even more difficult to measure or understand is the emotional damage this storm did.
Often, it’s helpful to reflect on things that happened and try to draw some lessons that may be useful in the future.
Life as we knew it in the Greater New Orleans area will never be the same. There are major hospitals, shopping centers, schools, churches and countless businesses that have not re-opened. Thousands of houses were destroyed by the storm. Many of them have not been touched since the hurricane.
Many businesses that were thriving before the storm are struggling to remain open. Others have ceased to struggle. Unfortunately, many individuals have also ceased to struggle, choosing to find a new life elsewhere or ending their lives with suicide.
To say that there has been a lack of leadership would be a gross understatement.
It would take hours to recite the damage and destruction, and many more to list the lack of progress in restoring the city. However, that is not the purpose here.
I can only share from my perspective. There are several important lessons we can learn from this disaster.
We should always keep in mind what is important. No one likes to lose their home, cars, clothes and all the treasures they collected over a lifetime. But in the greater scheme of life, those things are only as important as we make them. The first lesson I learned is to keep things in perspective.
I learned that the way we regard things has a huge impact on how those things affect our lives. The media did us all a disservice. We were all called victims of levees with poor design, construction and maintenance. We were constantly reminded that we were victims of neglect. From the reaction of the people, I learned that the greatest threat to the future of the citizens of the Gulf Coast in the short term and America and its citizens in the long term can be reduced to six words:
I am a victim of ____________________________.
You can fill in the blank: Katrina, broken home, broken marriage, poor economy… whatever you choose to be a victim of.
By declaring yourself a “victim,” you create a self-fulfilling prophecy of limitation and forfeit your freedom and opportunity. You build an insurmountable wall between yourself and the possibilities of tomorrow. You declare and accept as lord and master a person, circumstance, or condition that will control your destiny. You allow yourself to become a slave to the victim status.
I also learned that natural disasters bring out the very best and the very worst in human behavior. We should be thankful for the best and forgive the others. Harboring resentment only hurts you.
I learned that all grief is rooted in resistance. Unfortunately, the area is filled with people who will not or cannot accept the loss. To resist what happened is futile. Trying to hold on to the past only accumulates more grief. There is nothing that can be done to bring back the possessions we lost. Only by accepting what happened and letting go of the past can we begin to rebuild our lives.
I learned the importance of family and friends. Too often we take for granted our family and friends. In times like the aftermath of Katrina, it is often the moral support of our family and friends that get us through the difficult times.
Did all levels of government fail us? Of course they did. But complaining about what happened will not bring back one item that I lost in the flood. If some action isn’t going to benefit me, what’s the value in doing it?
I learned that I have no control over some things that happen. I only have control over my reaction to what happened. I can choose to dwell on the negative and ask the “why me” question or I can accept that things happen and resolve to move on with life.
And last, I learned perhaps the most valuable lesson: it is not the material things that we accumulate in life that makes a successful life, it is what we become in life. Strive to become a better person, be more caring, sharing, understanding and of greater service to others. Find your mission in life and fulfill it. No hurricane or floodwaters can ever take that away from you.
We were all changed by Katrina. Let us work to make sure the change makes us better.
Five Years Later
It has now been five long and, at times, very difficult years since Katrina altered our lives. In lots of areas of New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, life seems to be back to normal. But if you know where to look, it’s easy to find lingering areas of destruction. What is much more difficult to see are the internal scars.
But if you listen to the conversations of natives, you often hear references to life before and after Katrina. There are still deep emotional wounds.
We can and should learn lessons from the past. But we must not try to relive or change the past. That only prolongs the pain. We will always have problems in life. The quality of our lives depends on how we choose to face our problems. We can accept reality or rail against it. Only by accepting the reality of our lives can we effectively deal with them.
Don’t get bogged down by your problems. Life is short enough as it is. Don’t waste precious time dwelling on misfortune that comes your way.
Copyright © 2010 John Chancellor