Natalie Yemenidjian
When Louisiana was devastated with one of the worst natural disasters in American history, volunteers from the world community created a force stronger than any hurricane to rebuild what hurricanes Rita and Katrina had destroyed in September 2005.
During the winter break, Diane Levine, Pierce College anthropology teacher was inspired to help hurricane victims in western Louisiana through an organization she found on the Internet called Southern Mutual Help Association (SMHA).
“I originally intended, when I got out of college, to go into the Peace Corps, but instead I got married and had a family,” said Levine, who is also secretary of the Pierce Academic Senate.
According to www.southernmutualhelp.org, one-third of Louisiana’s economy was destroyed, along with 200,000 homes.
The livelihood of many fishermen, family farmers and small business owners were lost.
The devastation to the land would be enough to drive anyone away, but what Levine saw was different.
Her experiences in Louisiana were a testament to the rich culture and communal bonds within the rural city of New Iberia.
“They have a different sense of place than those of us living here in California who moved here because of job opportunities, better weather or even political unrest.
Someone there told me that they never worry about losing touch with a friend, because their friendship and neighborhoods are for life,” said Levine.
As a volunteer, Levine was writing articles for SMHA in order to help get them more funding.
She wrote the stories of people living in New Iberia at the time of Hurricane Rita.
The large majority of people living in New Iberia, which is 135 miles west of New Orleans, are mostly blue-collar workers.
New Iberia has had its share of troubles prior to the hurricanes: two bouts of yellow fever, occupation by Union forces in 1863 and a fire that burned half of Main Street in 1870, according to the city’s Web site.
The natural resources around New Iberia should be helping the economy.
The Port of Iberia, established almost 90 years ago, has 70 industries producing $200 million in retail sales for oil annually, according to the city’s Web site.
“That’s one of the ironies that Louisiana is fighting about – they have a lot of wealthy resources, but the resources don’t seem to come back to them,” said Levine.
According to Levine, the culture of Louisiana is greatly influenced by the Cajuns who were ousted from Canada in the 1750s.
Now it seems that the hurricanes will forever be ingrained in the rich history of Louisiana.
The houses they owned were not only built of wood, brick and cement, but of a long history stemming back into the days of slavery.
Most people’s houses were passed down to them from their ancestors and never had the houses put in their names; therefore they are not necessarily the landowners, so the amount of government funding they receive is limited.
They depend on organizations such as SMHA, religious organizations and the volunteers they provide in order to get their lives back together, since almost all of the people living in New Iberia had no flood insurance.
Even the Louisianans who can afford the resources to rebuild need help.
“Just because they have resources doesn’t mean they weren’t at the end of their rope,” said Levine, as she looked at photos of a house that had to be elevated.
The owners of that house had to go back to their lives.
Their sons had to go back to school, they had to go to work and they need help to reconstruct the place they called home.
Most houses had to be elevated 10 to 13 feet off the ground.
Federal assistance seems to be lost in the bureaucratic system. FEMA doesn’t reach the people who are not necessarily poor, but need help.
That’s where smaller organizations step in.
“[SMHA’s] flat rate deal is they give a $5,000 grant in the form of a $5,000 account at the local hardware place,” said Levine.
Since FEMA’s guidelines restrict them to giving financial assistance only to tenants and homeowners, the people whose homes were passed down to them, but don’t have the houses in their names, don’t get as much help.
According to the FEMA Web site, money or direct assistance will be given for critical expenses not covered by insurance or other means.
It also says that most assistance is in the form of loans allocated by the Small Business Administration.
“I thought FEMA trailers were like mobile homes, but they’re not; they’re like camping trailers and they’ve been living there for a year and a half,” said Levine.
In addition to giving financial assistance, SMHA recruited volunteers from all over North America to go to Louisiana.
One of the biggest influences is the joint force of religious organizations.
“SMHA got Mennonite kids from Canada and Kansas to volunteer,” said Levine.
“I’ve got pictures of Mennonite girls wearing dresses over their jeans scraping paint off walls.”
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist’s that are known for their missionary work and pacifism.
A lot of the volunteers were retired northerners who decided to help out with the relief efforts instead of vacationing.
Many non-profit organizations were spawned in order to help the people of Louisiana.
Levine is in the process of writing articles for SMHA’s Web site and will probably be speaking to other anthropologists about her experiences in western Louisiana.
“Government is [irrelevant] so people are putting together their own organizations, mostly religious-based, in order to get through this,” said Levine.
Mennonite girls volunteering painting houses in South Louisiana. (Diane Levine)
Diane Levine was delighted to show of her LSU baseball cap ad mardi grass beads, (Mary Meyer)