you hear people say they were not prepared for what they saw despite knowing the story they are entering. visiting new orleans and the gulf coast in 2007, a full year and a half after katrina made landfall, you might feel like a year and a half is a long time. however, for a storm that bent steel beams, a year is a blink of an eye. seeing utter destruction makes one appreciate and understand that perhaps you can never be prepared to see true desolation and you will not understand it without feeling it. you can be warned to stay clear of certain parts of the city but until you see entire neighborhoods, thousands of homes abandoned and dark, you don’t really understand what unsafe looks like. 10 years on and this is still a significant scar through the middle of our country.
march 2 2007, bay st louis, ms
