2 Years Ago Today, All Hell Broke Loose...

For those waxing nostalgic, excerpts from my Katrina Blog:

Here She Comes...
August 28, 2005

7AM: Kids woke up. Wife sends me to the store for water, batteries, food and flashlights. Wal-Mart is completely picked over. No water, no batteries, no flashlights. Lines are long. Leave with only toilet paper and spaghetti-o's. Success at Walgreen's. The store is virtually empty. SCORE ON WATER, FLASHLIGHTS, AND BATTERIES!!!! WOOHOO!!!!

12PM: Calls from around the country coming in to check on the family: Virginia, Texas, NJ, Cali. Sun is shining bright. Cooler and drier than normal. Blue skies to the west, mass of clouds to the east. Poor New Orleans. One friend and family left New Orleans at 5pm on Saturday and took them 8 hours to drive 120 miles. Went back to Walgreen to get prescriptions filled. Store was packed. Water almost gone. Still had beer though, so picked up a case for emergencies.

3PM: Clouds have set in, but no wind. The children are planning their "hurricane party".

5PM: New Orleans is screwed! Doom and gloom all over the news. FEMA reporting that their simulations are showing up to 60,000 deaths. Mom just called wanting us to drive 60 miles further west to stay with her. Planning on riding out the storm from Baton Rouge. Can't fathom driving 6 hours with 2 kids to drive 60 miles. My company's security and safety department just called to check in. Wondering if I should be more nervous.

Here Comes The Rain. August 28, 2005

650p. Just started raining. The kids are bouncing off the wall. Put 3 mattresses on the floor in the front kids room. There's a 50 foot tall sycamore in our backyard. Probably safer for everyone to sleep in the front of the house.

Hurricanes are Sport... August 28, 2005

9:03p. Growing up on the gulf coast, hurricane tracking maps were available at every gas station, bank, and McDonald's. On the radio about every 10 minutes or so the DJ would announce the latest coordinates of the latest hurricane, and you would then put an "x" on your map matching those coordinates. Kind of like bingo I guess. My grandfather had this huge chalkboard with a map of the gulf and would get so excited about keeping track of the hurricane's progress. Back then the weatherman would have this magnetic board with the map and would move this large lawnmower blade shaped magnetic around with the coordinates. It was almost like tracking a relative coming for dinner or Santa Claus. The storms also had the friendliest names like Betty, or Bobby or Charley. Nothing to be afraid of.

Today, our children watch the weather and there this great big freaking red swirlie monster barreling across a geologically and geographically correct map heading dead straight for that point on the map where they are taught to say that they live. Not only that but someone must want to bring back the anxiety of the cold war giving the storm mad Russian names like Boris or Ivan or Katrina.
Longitude: 27.2N Latitude: 89.1W -for those keeping score at home.

Good Night K-K-K-Katie... August 28, 2005

1000P: Actually lost power for 30 minutes already. Not a good start.

Reality Check. The wife talked to a cousin, and her 80 year old great aunt had to evacuate from NOLA. Her aunt has been crying since she left, left her home of 50 years with all her memories, not sure if she'd ever see it again. Weatherman says cat 5 hurricane is like a 30 mile wide tornado. Looks like hurricane might be turning more westerly, which means not a direct impact on NOLA, but Biloxi is screwed either way. Powering down the laptop and heading for the campout in the kids bedroom.

If we lose power, I'll still try to blog via cell phone. Good Night, Good Luck, and God bless.

Largest City in Louisiana... August 30, 2005

Thanks for the emails and calls. The immediate family is doing fine. During the storm, the worst in Baton Rouge was downed power lines and tree branches. The power to our house is still down and not expected to be up until Saturday. We are staying with my wife's aunt as she has power and AIR CONDITIONING!!! Our small sales office has turned into a mini refugee camp with other employees and family staying here until the power is back up. Extended family from New Orleans has moved in with other relatives in Baton Rouge for an indefinite period as their homes are probably completely destroyed. But that's only the worst from a physical point of view.

Emotionally, Baton Rouge is just as devastated. Over night we have gone from the second biggest city in Louisiana to the first. Nearly 100,000 refugees are seeking shelter in Baton Rouge and Lafayette. Last account, New Orleans will not be habitable for 2-4 months, and not just a neighborhood or two but the whole city as well as the surrounding suburbs. Right now it looks like the entire power and water utilities will have to be rebuilt from the ground up, and most of the brick and wood homes will have to be rebuilt too. This is just the tip of the ice berg as we are heading into a period of rebuilding never seen before in America.

New Orleans isn't the only Louisiana area to suffer such devastation. The entire parishes (counties) of St. Bernard and Plaquemines are under 10-20 feet of water. One politician said after a fly over that these parishes have been swallowed up by the Gulf of Mexico.

MORE HERE...

1 Dead in Attic...

If you've read the "My Turn" article below, you will see that I've spent much time in Louisiana the last 16 months (8 months living there + 8 months telecommuting). On one fly-through the NOLA airport, I picked up a little book by Chris Rose called "1 Dead in Attic". Rose is a journalist for the NO Times-Picayune, and the book is his blog postings from pre, during, and post Katrina (my own katrina blog here). It really hits the nail on the head of the feelings and attitudes in Louisiana. I laughed, cried and got angry. No, not just a cliche, I really did, and I'm man enough to admit it.

Amazon Synopsis:
"1 Dead in Attic is a collection of stories by Times-Picayune columnist Chris Rose, recounting the first four harrowing months of life in New Orleans after Katrina. It is a roller coaster ride of observations, commentary, emotions, tragedy and even humor - in a way that only Rose could find in a devastated wasteland. They are stories of the dead and the living, stories of survivors and believers, stories of hope and despair. And stories about refrigerators. With photographs by British photojournalist Charlie Varley, 1 Dead in Attic freeze frames New Orleans caught between an old era and a new, New Orleans in its most desperate time, as it struggled out of floodwaters and willed itself back to life in the autumn and early winter of 2005."

BUY THIS BOOK NOW!!!

Christian's "MY TURN" Newsweek Submission...

This is how I ended up with a passion for K-12 Education Transformation. I submitted this essay to the Newsweek "My Turn" people back in September '06 ; never heard anything.


Growing up on the Gulf Coast, hurricane-tracking maps were available at every gas station, bank, and McDonald's. When a storm was threatening, the radio DJ would announce the latest coordinates of the latest hurricane every 10 minutes or so, and we would mark an "x" on our map. My grandfather, known as Big Daddy to his 5 grandchildren, loved rolling out his huge, chalkboard map and charting out the hurricanes’ progress. Big Daddy and I loved it; our version of male bonding. It felt almost like tracking Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.

The days after the hurricanes were spent shuttling between relatives’ houses that were extra full with long lost aunts and uncles who were running from the path of the storm. With no electricity, these houses always had something cooking as we tried to eat everything in the ice box before it spoiled. Man, the food was good. The storms bore the names of the crazy cousins who’d come for a quick visit; Charley or Bobby. They made a mess and left us to clean up. They were chaotic, but certainly not frightening; who could be afraid of something called Betty?

Today, the scene is different. Our children anxiously watch the red, swirlie monsters on the Weather Channel, barreling across a geologically and geographically correct map and heading straight for the point they call home. Someone must want to bring back the anxiety of the Cold War by giving these storms mad Russian names like Boris or Ivan or Katrina.

Katrina. The history of the storm has been written, reported and turned into a Spike Lee documentary. In all, Katrina left over half of a million people homeless. Seventeen of these people are my extended family.

When the waters receded, Katrina exposed the poverty and other failures of the Gulf Coast. It left us to physically rebuild homes and businesses – and all of the systems that have failed generations of its people. The most broken of these systems is our K-12 education system.

Believe it or not, a lot of folks – my family and my friends included – feel lucky for Katrina. I guess we feel like we survived cancer; we’re forced to look at life in new ways. We’ve been given an opportunity to start fresh, an opportunity to think outside the box. Things can only get better, and there are a whole lot of people willing to help us. Personally, I feel like the luckiest man alive. My company, Cisco Systems, has given $40M and the knowledge and expertise of ten people over the next 3 years to help build 21st Century education systems in Mississippi and Louisiana. I am one of the ten who accepted a 12-month assignment to work directly with the schools and education reform experts. I’m helping my fellow Gulf Coasters create something great out of the nation’s worst natural disaster.

Our school leaders feel as lucky as I do. Thirteen months later, they’re still living in FEMA trailers in front of their irreparable homes. But they thank God for Katrina and the second chance it afforded them. They tell us that, if it weren’t for the hurricane, they’d never be able to do the things we’re asking them to do. We’re pushing them to rethink education and build a school system with no boundaries. We’re showing them how technology enables them – and their students – to explore and experience the world.

We connected the Moss Point, Miss., school district, nestled an hour down the road from Katrina’s worst damage, with another Cisco 21st Century Education project in Ethiopia. Now, two school systems from across the globe are planning to collaborate using video technology and the Internet. When I was growing up, Ethiopia was a reason for a rock concert, not a country; not a face. Now, kids in Mississippi are learning about Ethiopia first hand thanks to new technology. Teachers are also using high-tech digital white boards, school announcements are taking place on state of the art systems, and whole communities are beginning to see how a school can become the center of a community.

Over the next three years, we will be working to tackle the digital divide between students and teachers in the Gulf Coast. Today's video game generation is often asked to check their MP3 players and PDAs at the school's front door and, as a result, many students lose interest without constant stimulation. The teachers we are working with are excited to blend new technology into their lessons and further engage their students. New technology solutions will allow them to bring lessons to life and fuel higher student achievement.

Personally, the last 18 months have been mostly about emotional rebuilding. When I first returned to visit schools in Mississippi and Louisiana, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for a tear or two to be shed. People needed to tell their stories; people needed to cry; people need to summon their strength for the hard tasks ahead. Although tears still flow, they are tears of joy, tears of hope. Before the storm the students in the schools where I am working ranked near the bottom in the nation. We don’t yet know for sure what this year’s testing will say, but I can say that the enthusiasm, pride and renewed commitment to learning I see in classrooms is a large step in creating a better future for our children.

What do y'all thing?