On My Way Back Home

There's no way to leave without it feeling like a betrayal.

Last week in Algiers, we were planning to send supplies and medics to Texas or Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Rita. But Friday night, some folks in Algiers started to get pretty freaked out by the storm, even though to our knowledge the worst had passed New Orleans by. Still, teams of volunteers went out into the stinging rain to shovel our storm drains that had obviously not been serviced in months, if not longer. A lot of silt and detritus surely washed into the drains during Katrina, but not the thick, viney weeds that caused a lot of the backups. We pulled some covers off storm drains and shoveled out three or four feet of mud from the bottom, but could still not unclog them. I put an arm into one and still couldn't find the bottom of the muck.

Fortunately, the fear of the storm was unwarranted in Algiers. Strong wind and occasional bursts of rain were all we had to deal with, and by Saturday morning I was ready to roll out in my rental van to the west as part of a volunteer first response team. We had a boat, supplies, and medics, and I was ready to do some hands-on helping.

The work from the night before, however, slowed our timetable, and it soon became clear that there wasn't going to be any work to be done for at least 24 hours. I made a tough decision and prepared to leave Algiers for New York. I felt like if I didn't leave in that lull, I wouldn't find another good time to leave for weeks.

So we left Saturday around noon, traveling around Lake Ponchetrain and up towards Shreveport, driving through the tropical storm remnants of Rita. It wasn't the wisest thing I've ever done, but once we decided to leave, it seemed like we should just keep pressing forward until we got to some sort of civilization. Gas was scarce, but we made it to Austin in about 12 hours; up highway 49, then over on various small highways.

I was able to schedule a flight out of Austin. The rental van, which had been picked up originally in Houston, was dropped off at a Capp's rental office in Austin, even though you aren't supposed to be able to do that. (I told them, truthfully, that when I was to return the van before, the entire city of Houston was evacuated.) There was a tiny ding in the dual loading doors on the side of the van—so small that I couldn't see it when they first pointed it out to me. Considering how much Capp's worked with me I probably won't contest it if they try to send it to my insurance, despite the fact that it's nearly invisible and that I don't recall ever hitting anything with the door.

American took care of my ticket screw-up for me. Without getting into the details, I essentially found a customer care person who did what customer service should always do: take control of the situation and make it work. I thank her and American Airlines a lot. With as much money as I've blown on this trip, saving a few hundred dollars might make a big difference.

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I think we made a mistake going to New Orleans. My intention in heading to the Gulf Coast was to help wire up shelters and help evacuees get onto the FEMA website, as well as help them navigate the needlessly numerous 'lost family' websites. Instead, we ended up heading to an area that was mostly vacant, I think in part because it seemed more glamorous and in part because we were told there was a desperate need for communications.

But even though it was a misstep, I think it worked out. By leaving the Radio Response folks to their own devices, I found a community leader in Malik Rahim who was working hard to strengthen a community that is in dire, immediate danger of being strewn around the country. I didn't help many people in an immediate sense—although handing out food and water and supplies to those returning to Algiers was a great thing—but I did help support the medical clinic and help others get the word out (both indy activist media and mainstream media). I didn't get to help people in shelters and I think I'll always regret that, but I did get to help lay the ground work for a community to rebuild. I am trying to keep that in mind as something more than consolation, but instead as an opportunity to do something with longer-term results.

There is a lot of work to be done in Algiers and there will be many struggles over the next few months. Algiers is one of the least-affected areas of New Orleans from an infrastructure standpoint, and will be the first area to return to a semblance of normalcy. Many New Orleanians will move to Algiers from other wards and parishes, and much of the poor, predominantly black community will be forced out. Rather than making Algiers yet another community flipped by the cycle of gentrification, maybe there is a chance to both bring new money and resources into the community without driving out the citizens and culture that makes Algiers what it is.

I want to say that I have adopted a city, but it isn't true. What I've adopted are people like Malik Rahim, Scott Crow, and Suncere Ali Shakur who are people that I trust to do the right thing to help guide the poor and displaced community in Algiers in a positive direction. If they don't lose hope in the people of Algiers, I will try not to, either.

That may sound fruity, but it's important to me now to delineate my commitments. There is a very real chance that the poor community in Algiers will be forced out—or may not return after Katrina at all. I hope that I can do what I can to entice them to rebuild their community together into something better than it was before.

The next step seems to me to be setting up internet connectivity wide and far in Algiers. I'm going to start talking with folks from Radio Response as well as civic leaders about deploying a wi-fi network (possibly some meshing gear) to cover the entire area. It's sort of a big band aid, but there's a lot of money in Algiers, as well as a lot of need. If Algiers is going to be used as a staging point for the rebuilding of New Orleans as Mayor Nagin has said, we might as well do it right.

Anyway, big ideas for now and I've seen how rarely those work out. For now, I'm looking forward to spending a few days at home with Susie, drinking good beer, and playing with my dog. I've got a lot more to say about what I experienced and learned through all this, but that's for another time.