Katrina Learnings

Slide 1: August 29, 2005 Hurricane Katrina The most damaging natural disaster in U.S. recorded history – encompassing more than 90,000 sq. miles. 1

Slide 2: Some Learnings • We are all Vulnerable • We are both Privileged and Underprivileged • We are all Dependent and Inter-Dependent • We Find Comfort and Strength in Community • We Must Live By Faith 2

Slide 3: We Are All Vulnerable (susceptible to attack or injury or hurt) We know not the time, the place, nor the hour. Life always hangs in the balance at any moment, and it’s chance that tips the balance. 3

Slide 4: We are both Privileged and Underprivileged • Katrina did not discriminate between rich and poor – all were affected. • But some more so than others. • The patterns of evacuation, return, and rebuilding. 4

Slide 5: We are all Dependent and Inter-Dependent • I need some electricity around here! • Why can’t they deliver my pizza? • I want my own bed! .... etc. etc. etc. etc. • When is that darn plumber coming so I can get a hot shower? • Are they gonna pick up garbage this week? The “least” among us give the rest of us life. 5

Slide 6: We Find Comfort and Strength in Community • Loneliness is an alienating thing. • This is too big for me to tackle alone. 6

Slide 7: We Must Live By Faith When you are staring at everything and nothing at once, only faith in God and the support of neighbors, family, government, etc. ... makes the next step possible. 7

Slide 8: And so now we can better understand the suffering of our sisters and brothers living in other parts of our world ... in places like Haiti, or Nicaragua, or in the Sudan, or in Iraq . . . 8

Slide 9: who daily experience their lives as vulnerable . . . 9

Slide 10: . . . our suffering can become a form of solidarity with people who suffer daily in all parts of our world . . . 10

Slide 11: . . . we can now understand better the suffering of people on death row or undocumented immigrants, or the poor ... 11

Slide 12: and know only too well the vast gulf that exists between the privileged and underprivileged . . . 12

Slide 13: . . . we can understand better now the bitter suffering that is a daily and lifelong experience for so many millions of people in our world . . . 13

Slide 14: . .and find strength in family and community . . 14

Slide 15: And it is the people of the 3rd World who continue to inspire us to live by faith. 15

Slide 16: More than 1 billion people live on less than $1 a day. Poverty in the developing world goes far beyond income. It means having to walk more than 1 mile everyday to collect water and firewood; it means suffering diseases that were eradicated from rich countries decades ago. Every year 11 million children die - most under age 5and more than 6 million from completely preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia. 16

Slide 17: To provide universal access to basic services; education, health, nutrition, safe water and sanitation is estimated to be an additional $40 billion per year. This is less than one-tenth of one- percent of world income. 17

Slide 18: “Faith that does nothing in practice is thoroughly lifeless.” (James 2:17) 18

Slide 19: A Reflection “... unless we somehow live the reality of disasters, we are turning away from the cross of the crucified peoples – whether the cross takes the shape of a hurricane, an earthquake or other natural disasters, or of wars, repression, injustice. And we are turning away from the paradoxical light that can come from these things, and even from the hope and solidarity that can grow out of suffering...” from “Where is God” by Jon Sobrino S.J. 19

Slide 20: Ideas from presentation by Jim Huck, Jr. of Tulane University have been used in the preparation of this Power Point presentation. Matthew F. Rousso, Director Maryknoll Mission Education Office New Orleans, Louisiana February 2006 20