“Even though you’ve seen it on the news, you don’t really understand it until you’ve seen it and talked to the people.” – Jill Schaub, speaker

A presentation addressing the continuing effects of Hurricane Katrina, titled “Have We Forgotten New Orleans: The Aftermath Continues,” was held in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union Ballroom on Wed., April 30.

Speakers who had recently visited New Orleans, as well as a musical performance by The Free Agents Brass Band, were featured at the free event.

At about 7:30 p.m., the presentation began with speaker Larry Adams, who took an Anthropology 150 course in New Orleans during the UW Winterim session. He spoke on the displacement of families and rebuilding of the city, specifically its infamous Ninth Ward, where protective levees effectively broke.

“Economics and the housing situation go hand in hand,” said Adams. “If people don’t have a place to live, how can they rebuild?”

Victims of the 2005 hurricane are still scattered across the country, Adams said, and many of them are still living in Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers. Many others are just beginning to make the transition from FEMA trailers to rental homes.

Adams said the next most logical step is to rebuild the Ninth Ward levees. After that, building new homes in New Orleans would not only help the city physically rebuild itself, but it would provide job opportunities for returning residents.

Adams was followed by Jill Schaub, who added her perspective on the New Orleans hurricane damage. Schaub also visited the city during the UW Winterim as part of an anthropology course. She said that many Americans don’t understand the effects of the hurricane.

“Even though you’ve seen it on the news, you don’t really understand it until you’ve seen it and talked to the people,” Schaub said.

Schaub began by talking about the condition of the Orleans Parish School District before and after Hurricane Katrina. Prior to the natural disaster, 75 percent of New Orleans schools were on academic warning under the No Child Left Behind Act. Statistically, the city had some of the lowest teacher salaries in the country, along with poor graduation rates.

A few months after the hurricane, Schaub said the School District had reopened only five schools in the city of New Orleans. She also touched on the displacement of children from their parents, many of which are being reunited. However Schaub said that some of the missing children numbers don’t necessarily result from relocation.

“A lot of the children that were missing were dead,” said Schaub. “There are a lot of people, or bodies, in New Orleans that they haven’t been able to identify.”

Summarizing the wide reaching effects of Katrina, the costliest hurricane in terms of damage in United States history, Schaub explained how “no one was left untouched.” Adams seemed to agree with that sentiment throughout his lecture, but offered a more optimistic view on rebuilding New Orleans.

“The spirit of the people is still there,” he said.

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