Viewpoint: New Orleans nightmare has no end in sight

Mike Lohman, like most of us, watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina destroyed New Orleans, a place he visited often for work and pleasure. He knew intellectually that the aftermath was bad, very bad, but believed one day he would return to celebrate the city's restoration and well-being.

Lohman, who came to Marco Island to visit friends and to attend the Everglades City Seafood Festival, visited New Orleans five months after Katrina, and his hopes were dashed. He tells a tale so woeful that listeners are drawn back to the graphic film footage of New Orleans just after Aug. 29.

"A ride through the 9th Ward was incomprehensible," Lohman recalled. "The destruction goes on for miles and miles.

"There is a tremendous feeling of guilt seeing all the homes destroyed. You notice the water lines (the highest point for the floodwaters), the houses knocked off their foundations, the foundations where houses once stood, wooden homes collapsed like matchsticks.

"You see the red letters on houses noting the date and indicating what search and rescue found. One says the date and the number 0, nobody dead."

A number 1 or higher indicates dead bodies and come with instructions such as "dead body in the closet" or "dead dog."

Lohman was sent to New Orleans by his organization, the American Federation of Teachers. He arrived just as New Orleans announced a layoff of 8,500 school employees. To date only two public schools are open. Lohman went to check on their health and safety considering the area is susceptible to mold, particularly after water damage.

The schools were all right, but the sight of the city brought him to tears.

"There were people in their driveways or on stoops where homes had been completely demolished. What did they think could be done? There was nothing left," he said.

Before Lohman left New Orleans, he got angry.

"We didn't do everything we could to help. We could have done so much more," he said.

"Put yourself in those people's minds — what would you think sitting on your steps with everything gone? They have nothing but the clothes on their bodies. It's been five months, and for the 9th Ward, nothing has been touched. It looked like it happened yesterday."

Lohman did see some work being done in the Lakeview section where the more affluent live. Their brick homes were less damaged and cleanup was evident. The 17th Street canal breach affected the Lakeview area.

"The lower 9th Ward is poor and black. There's no hope there," Lohman said. "At night it is pitch-dark and desolate."

As for the teachers, Lohman's organization will start looking for new jobs for them.

It's difficult because New Orleans is their home and their life.

"I have traveled all over the world and have never seen the attachment that the people of New Orleans have for their city," he said. "They will not feel whole until they can be back in their homes once more."

While working with the school system, Lohman learned that New Orleans has the highest percentage of people in Louisiana who have never left their city to live or work elsewhere.

For Lohman the realities of New Orleans have taken away any illusions he had of visiting a recovered city soon: "Before I went, I thought it would come back — but once you see it, you're not sure."

Lohman's experience will not be unique as others venture to the ravaged city. It should teach us that a local disaster is a national disaster. We are all the poorer if we allow the destruction of New Orleans and the diaspora of its people to become the legacy of Hurricane Katrina.