Newspapers / The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, … / March 9, 2006, edition 1 / Page 7
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i MMIIIliitllllllllllilll 7A lO NEWS/(C|e CtMtUittc $at Tuesday, March 9, 2006 New Orleans puts neighborhoods together By Zenitha Prince NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION This is Ihe first of an 8-part series of stories about the Gulf Coast and the road to recovery after Hurricane Katrina. This project is a cooperative effort between the National Newspaper Publishers Association and the Baltimore Afro. NEW ORLEANS - The air was thick with an oppres sive silence and the smell of rot. The streets that once teemed with the play and laughter of children, the industry of mothers and fathers were empty now, reduced to mere dirt tracks. On the sidewalks, a lone boot, a mud-encrusted car, an overturned basketball ring, a red tricycle lay like ominous and mocking reminders of a life now lost. Battered, sometimes man gled houses stood aban doned, forlorn in the gather ing gloom like looming sen tinels of a ghost town. Pamela Everage’s home was 1229 Deslonde St., yet on first si^t, she could bare ly recognize it. “This is my first time back It’s just awful,” she said. “Just driving through the city, it looks like a Third World coxmtry” With a hand on her hip, Elverage surveyed her nei^- borhood fiom the remains of her fiont lawn. Dressed in white T-shirt, blue jeans, a white bandana and a pair of sneakers encrusted in black, pungent mud, Everage was the lone smidgen of life on an otherwise dead street. Then we began to walk A subtly rusted sign pro claimed “Beautiful Blocks,” an especially unseemly sen timent against the backdrop of decay. A nearby "Dead End” sign seemed much more appropriate. Everage’s face was a study of defeat and worry wreathed in frowns and dominated by a pair of tired- looking eyes She had not gotten much news about her extended family. She had seen one neighbor and her son at a shelter, who told her that the morning after the hurricane, people had already begun to walk their dogs and clean their yards before the floodwaters began to rise She wondered if] she would ever see them again. "That family down there, all three of them were in wheelchairs. 1 think they got out when my sons left,” said Everage, pointing out the houses as she spoke. "That guy over there, he works off shore. He was gone, too. Those two people in that house over there, they’re middle and high school teachers. “The lady here, an admin istrator at Charity Hospital—everybody knew each other. People went to high school together, they knew your family” Having no other idea of her neighbors’ fates, Everage read the hieroglyphic mark ings on the houses, left there by rescue workers to docu ment the dates of their visits and the fates of the inhabi tants. A "0” meant no bodies were found, and as Everage surveyed the houses, she breathed a sigh of relief at aU the zeros she saw. Then she came to a house where a single woman lived with her five small children. She looked at the abandoned car mired in the bog of the finnt yard, then hesitantly raised her eyes to the mark ings on the wall. The "6” con firmed what she alreaidy knew in her heart. “They didn’t make it,” she whispered with a shake of her head. “I tau^t her son how to ride his bike.” Everage also worried about her relatives and friends, who lived on the other side of North Claiborne Avenue between Florida and Cafifin Avenues, a place where, at the time, soldiers were bar ring people from entering and where, it was rumored, bodies were still being found "I know people on the other side and they are people 1 grew up with and they’re not letting you over there,” Everage said. °l know a lot of the old people didn't leave. And I’m afraid that a lot of Rease see NEWJ8A What’s your story? We’re listening. The Post is ytxir community newspaper, and we're interested in rept)riing about the people, events and issues that shape Charlotte. If you have iui idea or infinmaiion. comments or opinions, e-mail editorial («Mhecharlottepost.com or log on to www.thecharloitepost.com tlTlic Cljarlottc The only thing better than saving time and money is getting $50 for doing both. KJnw whpn urtn a O^rcnnal nr RncInACC f^horirlna Armiinf ar CiinTnier tA/a'II walz-nma w/\ii «*>lrH a (CO CunTnirr Now when you open a Free Personal or Free Business Checking Account at SunTrust, we'll welcome you with a $50 SunTrust Visa* Gift Card. Plus, you'll get free Online Bill Pay, so you can pay all your bills from your computer, quickly and easily - with no minimum balance requirements or monthly maintenance fees. 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The Charlotte Post (Charlotte, N.C.)
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March 9, 2006, edition 1
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