One Year

A year ago today, Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Louisiana and Mississippi.

The storm surge on that day wrecked the house where I grew up, my home for over half my life, where my parents still lived. My parents themselves had evacuated, thankfully, and it took them most of a week to make their way back to learn the extent of the destruction. Vast swaths of the area where I grew up were washed away entirely. A city that I loved and romanicized was flooded.

That's just my personal view of the loss. Many lost so much more -- lives, family, livelihoods -- either in the storm itself or due to incompetence and negligence after the fact.

In the past year, my parents have resettled and started a new life for themselves. Other have done the same, or been able to start reconstructing their lives in the affected areas. Many more, though, seem to be stuck in a kind of limbo, without the resources to make a new start.

So much more I wish I could say, but can't find the words...