Commemorating Hurricane Katrina through Quilts & Love
Nearly Washed Away: To read more please visit: http://freedomcenter.org/voice/nearly-washed-away
Hurricane Katrina Memorial Quilt: To read more and to view the beautiful quilt please visit:http://catherinemariecreations.com/project/katrina-memorial-quilt/
Katrina Recovery Quilts: To read more and to view the beautiful quilts please visit: http://www.katrinarecoveryquilts.org.
The Signifying Quilt: A Voice for Hurricane Katrina Survivors: To read more please visit: http://media.hyperrhiz.io/hyperrhiz12/gallery/ferrier/sectionl.htm
Quilt Patches Together Story of Katrina Exile: To read and to view please visit: http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/060407_quilt_patches_together_story_of_katrina_exile.cfm
Brown Sugar Stitchers Make Quilts For Hurricane Katrina Victims, to read more visit: http://clarafordfoundation.org/2005/10/09/brown-sugar-stitchers-make-quilts-for-hurricane-katrina-victims/
Katrina Quilt: To view please visit:http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/quilts/47/
Hurricane Katrina Quilt: To view please visit: http://www.lurvely.com/photo/2817371419/Hurricane_Katrina_Quilt/
To view more beautiful quilts created from 2005-2010 just type into your browser – “Hurricane Katrina quilts.”
Compiled by Faye Wilson-Kennedy in memory of her late mother- Annie Wilson Kennedy, a quilter. Faye is also a member of Sisters Quilting Collective (SQC) and former resident of the Gulf Coast (Mobile, Ala).
A Personal Commentary on the Hurricane Katrina Aftermath by Faye Wilson Kennedy, September 2005
National Day of Prayer—today, Friday, September 16 was declared “National Day of Prayer” in honor and in memory of those who died due to Hurricane Katrina’s wrath and our government’s lack of actions.
As I watched the horrific images of our beautiful brothers and sisters on the television and in the newspapers I was teleported back 400 years in America when enslaved Africans had to beg for food, water and a little human dignity. I saw history repeat itself in August and September 2005.
Please let’s pray for our brothers and sisters, but also let’s use this day to make a commitment to hold our government accountable (accountable for their lack of actions) for these deaths.
We want reparation now!!!!!
- We want a national dialogue on race, poverty and the high cost of oil led by people with some sense.
- We want an independent commission (similar to the 9/11 Commission) to investigate what went wrong.
- We want our brothers and sisters treated with dignity and respect by the various relief agencies and numerous volunteers.
- We want our brothers and sisters reunited with their missing children (it’s estimated that 2,000 children are now separated from the parents).
- We want funding for local community-based job training programs staffed by sensitive people with some sense.
- We want funding at the local level for affordable housing for the survivors and their families.
- We want funding for local schools and training for staff to assist the survivors.
- We want funding for local culturally appropriate mental health services to assist in the healing process for the survivors (many of us need some healing just from seeing these horrifying images).
- We want banks to provide low interest loans to assist survivors, businesses, and local government to rebuild their communities.
So, mourn the dead. But please make a commitment to struggle for justice for the living (the survivors) by writing, calling, e-mailing, and faxing your congressional representatives, Mr. Bush and his administration. Send letters to editors to your local newspapers. Call for local community town halls meetings to discuss the issues. Write a check to an organization that is providing aid to the survivors. Volunteer to host a family. Hold family meetings to discuss how your family will handle emergencies. Do whatever you can to pray this never happens to any people again. History does not need to repeat itself. Please Take action now, contact the following:
Homeland Security- http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/homeland/
http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/ (Honorable Barbara Boxer, CA Senator)
http://www.house.gov/htbin/wrep_findrep (Honorable Doris O. Matsui, U.S. House of Representatives)
http://feinstein.senate.gov/email.html (Honorable Dianne Feinstein, CA Senator)
http://vitter.senate.gov/ (Honorable David Vittter LA Senator)
http://landrieu.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm (Honorable Mary L. Landrieu)
contact@gov.state.la.us (Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco)
Sacramento Bee- Letters to the Editor: opinion@sacbee.com. Or fax it to (916) 321-1996
Sacramento News and Review: Letters to the Editor:sactoletters@newsreview.com
Faye Wilson Kennedy, Community Member and former resident of the Gulf Coast (Mobile, Ala.)
fayek@springmail.com (916) 484-5025
September 2005
Hurricane Katrina’s Impact
- Sacramento was home to about 1,200 evacuees.
- The official death toll for Katrina is 1,695 people — 1,464 in Louisiana, 231 in Mississippi. In Louisiana, the official number of missing is 135; in Mississippi, 18.
- Hurricane Katrina displaced 1.5 million people.
- Hurricane Katrina’s destruction stretched across 90,000 square miles.
- Government officials estimate that 500,000 people may need mental-health assistance to deal with higher rates of anxiety, depression and hostility.
- Hurricane Katrina is estimated to be responsible for $75 billion (2005 US dollars) in damages, making it the costliest hurricane in U.S. history
- 40 % of New Orleans homes are still without electric service today (May 2006).
- In a study by, Louisiana State University states that New Orleans lost 190,000 jobs and employment fell by more than 30 percent from August 2005 to December 2005. Statewide, Louisiana lost 214,000 jobs, or 12 percent of the state’s total.
- In the Biloxi-Gulfport area of Mississippi, employment dropped by 26,900 jobs — a loss of more than 23 percent of jobs in the region.
- An effort to catalog, identify, or even to collect remains of the dead is still ongoing as of April, 2006.
- FEMA has provided more than 100,000 trailers to families displaced by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita (which hit the area four weeks after Katrina). Another 10,000 Louisiana families are still waiting for trailers, often because of problems with utilities or site access, according to FEMA’s New Orleans office.
- Close to 2.3 million people were left without power.
- More than 200,000 homes, mostly in New Orleans and the surrounding area, were destroyed by the hurricane, far surpassing any previous disaster. A study conducted by James Richardson, an economics professor at Louisiana State University, found that after Hurricane Katrina 11 percent of homes were destroyed or deemed uninhabitable in the New Orleans area alone. Throughout the state of Louisiana, nearly 18 percent of businesses were in a similar state.
Angels and Quilt Pieces…Our Journey with a Katrina Family, by Stephanie Ehmen
