Diane Greene Lent Photographer

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Rebuilding New Orleans

Katrina Anniversary Aug 2006

June 2006

March 2006

New Orleans and Gulfport, MS

Lower Ninth Ward March

Hands around the Superdome and other events

Gulfport, MS and Common Ground

Walkin to New Orleans Vets and survivors march

June 2006: I made another trip to New Orleans to see how the Rebuilding is going. This time I feel there is hope. The people are taking back the city. Common Ground is organizing thousands of volunteers to help. Residents of public housing are taking back their apartments. Mostly, the hope comes from the music. New Orleans heart and soul is coming back.

If you want to help Rebuild New Orleans make a contribution to Common Ground.

commongroundrelief.org

From a brochure; " A Vision. Common Ground's mission is to provide short term relief for victims of hurricane disasters in the gulf coast region, and long term support in rebuilding the communities affected in the New Orleans area. Common Ground is a community-initiated volunteer organization offering assistance, mutual aid and support. The work gives hope to communities by working with them, providing for their immediate needs and emphasizes people working together to rebuild their lives in just sustainable ways."

Neighborhood children help clean up a church which is being reconstructed by Common Ground on North Claiborne St. in the Upper Ninth Ward.

The little Blue house on Deslonde and N. Derbigny in the Lower Ninth Ward serves as Common Ground's center in the devastated neighborhood. A few dozen volunteers and lower Ninth Ward residents are living in houses that have been partially restored. The Bluehouse provides a distribution center which collects donations and gives food, water, clothing, tools and supplies to Lower Ninth Ward residents who are fixing up their homes. There are no services in the area, no water or electricity. The community lives on the frontier, and is the heart and soul to bring back the Lower Ninth.

Common Ground has organized many volunteers who are now part of the New Orleans community and thousands of college students on spring break who gutted hundreds of houses at the request of the owners. Several hundred students are spending the summer gutting and dry walling houses for their owners.

Carol Campbell and her grandson distribute goods at the Bluehouse. Carol lived nearby before the levee break swept away her rented house.

Carol is the mother of the community living and working in the Lower Ninth.

Two sisters came in to the Blue house for water and cleaning supplies. This sister spent 3 days on her roof with her 3 children.

The two sisters were living in Houston but had to come back to New Orleans because it is home. They are now staying in a trailer with their mother and their children while they fix up their houses in the Lower Ninth.

Michael Lent accompanied me to New Orleans. The sign put up by the pioneers of the Lower Ninth Ward is not respected. Many tourists with throw away cameras prowl the Lower Ninth. Tour buses bring people to the destruction for a look. Although there is something sinister about the gawking of tourists, the more people who see firsthand, what happened to New Orleans the better.

Common Ground's Bio Remediation project plants sunflowers which detoxify the soil and allows the grass to come back.

From the Common Ground Lower 9th Ward brochure: "Now. The communities of the lower ninth ward are currently located at the center of a national conversation about government neglect racism and the future of historically disenfranchised residents. Together we hope to recover this community and enter the national debate with a strong, clear and powerful voice.

The Lower 9th's once solid communities have been scattered across America, robbing them of a voice and denying them political power. It is only now after 4 months of a government enforced non-entry policy that residents are returning to their homes and neighborhoods. However while the Lower 9th is an open space, coming home remains a daunting and at times overwhelming task. This is the struggle Common Ground aims to aid.

Our work attempts to stabilize communities by gutting houses and distributing provisions, creating temporary housing spaces; seeds for the future amidst the rubble. Common Ground does not attempt to define or direct the future of the Lower 9th, but rather to support the wants and needs of the Lower 9th community.

Lower Ninth residents cook on camp stoves for volunteers and residents in the outdoor kitchen of the community.

Army helicopters patrol the Lower Ninth.

Residents shop for clothing and cool off with popsicles that volunteers provided at the Upper Ninth Ward Distribution Center on North Robertson. The temperature was in the nineties on Monday June 5, but luckily the humidity was low.

Residents found fresh produce, tomatoes and potatoes at the Upper Ninth Ward Distribution Center. People stop by all day with donations and to pick up food, clothing, tools and supplies.

Left: Hello, I Love you, welcomes residents to the Common Ground Upper Ninth Ward Distribution Center on North Robertson.

Right: Amber Young helps clean up a church.

Volunteers cut paneling for the Church's meeting rooms.

Volunteers measure paneling for small meeting rooms in the church. I visited this same site in March and was amazed at the progress Common Ground had made.

Eric Young, Briana Roi, Amber Young and Ronisha Roi help clean up a church on North Claiborne Ave

Eric Young, Briana Roi, Ronisha Roi and Amber Young take a break.

A musician sings for volunteers and neighborhood kids as they have dinner.

Common Ground summer volunteers have dinner on the steps of St. Mary of Angles school which is the main Common Ground site. Hundreds of young volunteers live at the school while they are in New Orleans to gut houses for residents.