Katrina

Coden, Alabama – On Saturday, this small coastal community became home to one of the largest solar power systems in the state of Alabama.

The 25,000 kilowatt system, powered by 108 solar panels, was installed in the Coastal Response Center, a hurricane shelter, community center, and home to the local group South Bay Communities Alliance, whose advocacy repaired and renovated the building after Hurricane Katrina.

Bayou La Batre, Alabama - Like so many on the Gulf Coast, Ana Chau is dealing with two disasters.

This time last year, she and her husband made their living shucking oysters.  Now they are out of work, their industry crippled indefinitely by the millions of gallons of crude oil and toxic dispersant dumped into the Gulf of Mexico by BP.

Crossposted from The Louisiana Justice Institute's blog.  Image from the Times-Picayune.

By Roberta Avila
Originally published in the Sun Herald, August 24th, 2010

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina I became the director for the Mississippi Coast Interfaith Disaster Task Force and was thrown headlong into disaster recovery work.

Despite the media frenzy that Hurricane Katrina brought to the Gulf Coast, many communities in the region felt that they were either misunderstood or overlooked. That invisibility translated into a failed recovery in many communities where citizens are still without basic needs, including permanent, affordable housing. We are determined that the communities most effected by the BP disaster will be heard and that we will not repeat the mistakes of the past. Bridge the Gulf is an important tool that we intend to use wisely and creatively in this movement for self-determination.

I visited coastal Mississippi for the first time ten years ago. A friend I knew in Boston, Derrick Evans, had invited me to visit Turkey Creek, where his ancestors had settled after the Civil War. Soon he was drawn into a new life in Mississippi, and I was drawn into making a film about the struggle to protect Turkey Creek against urban sprawl, industrial contamination and disaster.