Finding disaster

This short blog entry won't fully explain all the reasons — selfish, generous and indefinable — we came to the New Orleans area. But one of the reasons is to be part of rebuilding New Orleans. This begs the obvious question: Should New Orleans be rebuilt? National Geographic asked the question, pundits aplenty asked the question and many of our friends and family asked the question.
Many believe the city should not be rebuilt because it is likely to be hit with another severe hurricane. I don't buy that argument because so many places are subject to natural disasters.
Our home town of Denver faces deadly snowstorms on a regular basis, and is subject to other potential disasters (and I'm not just talking about the Rockies' World Series performance).
On our drive from Denver to New Orleans, we saw the aftermath of several disasters. Colorado brought us the remnants of damaged buildings and livestock deaths in last year's severe blizzards. Greensburg, Kansas has a wide swath of destruction from a horrific tornado.
In Oklahoma City, we saw the devastation of the terrorist attack in 1995. This was not a natural disaster, but that makes it no less tragic, sudden or terrible.
Tragedy knows no address, so it seems unfair to blame Gulf Coast residents for the storm because they chose to live in the path of disaster.
Moreover, the New Orleans area — and St. Bernard in particular — was abandoned in a way that other disaster areas are not.
I met a couple who both work for the St. Bernard Sheriff's Office. They stayed through the storm surge, as did most of the Sheriff's office, they said. They said church groups and volunteers were the first people into the parish to help stranded residents. This is both disturbing and heartwarming.
On one hand, how can the richest government in the world fail its most basic responsibility?
At the same time, I remain inspired by the volunteer effort. That comes back to the reasons we are here. I was inspired by my fellow volunteers and I remain inspired by everyone I work with, and everyone here at Camp Hope.