11/22/2006
By JONATHAN GIBBS
When lives are stripped away of frill, affectation, artifice and the generally unnecessary, what's left? What's needed, as opposed to wanted?
Most would settle on food, shelter and safety as the bare essential minimum needs. Try going without the security of having those three basic elements of survival for, say, more than a year, and you have a situational crisis unprecedented in this, the most affluent country in the world.
This crisis has a name that will long be associated with bureaucratic inertia, governmental ineptitude and neglect on all levels: Katrina. We all saw the images: submerged houses with people clinging to their rooftops; streets turned into canals dotted with floating detritus and worse.
The area that bore the most extensive damage was Louisiana, specifically New Orleans. It was here that a group of realtors from Rhode Island joined last week with the National Association of Realtors (NAR) members - 20,000 strong (out of nearly one million total) - to help bring some life and much-needed cash back to the flagging convention industry in New Orleans.
The numbers associated with Katrina tell one truth: 645,000 people displaced from their homes. About 6 in 10 of these persons were again living in the home from which they had evacuated. The metropolitan New Orleans area saw 1,185 people die, and there are 485 still missing.
And those who saw the TV images and read the accounts were aghast at the numerical representations of this national tragedy. But it can safely be said that the only way to truly experience the state of the city in all of its terrible ruination is to see it close-up, in person. And that is what the Rhode Island contingent of the NAR convention did.
Ron Phipps of East Greenwich, the National Chapter of NAR Liaison for Housing and Diversity, was among those who toured the city.
"It can't help but leave you with a profound sense of lossBIG EASY, from page 1 and sadness," Phipps says of his visit. The most visceral of these feelings was felt during the group's visit to the city's Lower Ninth Ward, where many of the houses still have 'X' marks on the doorway for every dead person found who was found within.
"It's appalling how bad the Ninth Ward is," he says. Burnt-out and rolled-over cars, trash all over the street and water-ravaged, mold-encrusted houses staring back as if scolding the onlooker for the blatant neglect that had been paid to them.
NAR decided to do something about the carnage about one year ago, says Phipps, who in his role as NAR Liaison, directed the effort with Rebecca Moniz of North Kingstown. Not only did the Rhode Island contingent raise $70,000 for the Habitat for Humanity effort to rebuild New Orleans , they contributed their time and poured sweat into the rebuilding by framing four (of a planned seven) houses. While there, they dedicated another completed house the group built this past August.
They put their money - and calloused hands - where their mouths were.
"You can write a check but there's no real connection there," says Phipps. "When you build a house and then watch a family move in, there is a sense of involvement. The time you spent working on the house is always there."
Moniz says she, too, was shocked at the suffering she saw there and the lingering nightmare experienced by those who are trying to rebuild their homes.
"I want everyone to know that the devastation of Katrina has not gone away," Moniz says. "New Orleans and the Gulf Coast live this nightmare everyday. Imagine losing your home, and every record existing that you are actually the property owner. Most people don't understand that even the chain of title was washed away. ("Prove it was yours. Where is your lot line? Prove it.")
Along with the water damage, bureaucratic roadblocks also persists.
"The landscape [of this kind of disaster] is virtually uncharted," adds Moniz. "Imagine trying to come up with a record that has vanished and the only source you have is the insurance company that you're fighting with. In this section, where the levy actually broke, houses were swept off the foundation and fell apart. Nothing was left. They certainly need more help."
The NAR volunteers certainly helped. During their one-week stay there, they put in more than 8,600 hours.
In addition to the putting up money and man-hours to build the houses, they helped out with the cleanup of area hospitals and city parks. They worked organizing books for the New Orleans Library, helping it get back on its feet and open sometime within the next two months as opposed to the previously-expected six months timeframe.
"Realtors are, by their nature, 'fixers,' says Phipps. "It was really something to see some of the leaders in the market, some very affluent and successful people, down on their hands and knees picking up trash to get the site ready for building. It was one of my proudest moments as a realtor. This was a true group effort for Rhode Island and all of the realtors across the country."
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