A part of my personal Hurricane Katrina story is in these two photographs. One was taken in the winter 2005 - 2006, a few months after Katrina when I was in exile in Chatham, Virginia, 900 miles from home, living with my sister and brother-in-law and their two cats. (In that photo, Tom is wearing the cowboy boots; and I'm sitting on the sofa wearing khaki pants.) I met Tom Piazza at the local bookstore (there was only one in town) when he was discussing his book Why New Orleans Matters. It was a very moving experience to hear Tom argue the case for the almost totally destroyed city of New Orleans. (And believe me, there were people vile enough to take the opposite side and argue against saving New Orleans.) Why New Orleans Matters became one of my favorite books about New Orleans, and I had seen many books on NOLA having been born here and having endured hurricanes and tropical storms here from Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to Katrina itself... and later Hurricane Gustav.
But I could not imagine then in Chatham the circumstances under which I would meet Tom again. Three years later I am a teacher with Literacy*AmeriCorps and teaching literacy skills to my students at St. Vincent de Paul -- ALC with his latest book, also about Katrina, called City of Refuge.
One thing led to another, and today Tom visited our school and my small group class. (I'm wearing my grey AmeriCorps shirt in that photo. From the left are yours truly, Sr. Lory, Allen, Tom, Dwana, and Jennie.) It was an incredible event.
Strange coincidences have happened since "the storm" for me; but as Tom pointed out before, New Orleans people seem to find each other even when far from home.
My special thanks to my sister Marci and Chris, my brother-in-law, for enabling me to be in Chatham to actually meet Tom and to see this incredible day when he visited our school. (Chris also salvaged the old photo from Chatham and edited it so it could appear here.) And thanks to my other friends in Chatham, Virginia including Marty, Henry and Tricia, and Mary Hicks.
It has been quite a ride.
-- Adrian
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