Program Details: Gulf Coast Recovery

Country: United States

Topic: Hurricane Katrina

The Reverend Gilbert Scie leads a cleaning effort in his flooded neighborhood of Holy Cross, New Orleans. Photo: Dan Sadowsky/Mercy Corps

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita caused the largest disaster in U.S. history, scattering more than 750,000 Gulf Coast residents around the country, killing at least 1,800 people, destroying 275,000 homes and causing more than $100 billion in economic and physical losses.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Mercy Corps was there with essential emergencies supplies for survivors. Since then, our Gulf Coast program has evolved, focusing on grassroots recovery efforts and promoting the expertise of residents and local organizations.

Now, more than two years after the storm, approximately half of the pre-Katrina population has returned to New Orleans. Many more would like to return, but the challenges are daunting: lack of affordable housing, deficient public infrastructure and skyrocketing insurance costs. Due to the slow governmental response, residents are redefining the role of their communities - and leading the largest surge of local civic engagement since the 1960s.

Neighborhood Revitalization and Economic Development
Mercy Corps' Neighborhood Revitalization Program has formed strategic partnerships with five New Orleans Neighborhood Associations. We help foster collaboration between these groups, encouraging information sharing and teamwork. Mercy Corps also supports the Neighborhoods Partnership Network, helping to formalize a system of communication between related organizations. We bring together interested academic institutions, national foundations and local non-profit agencies to foster durable approaches to revitalization.

In the private sector, hundreds of small business owners in New Orleans not only lost their homes because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, but also lost their businesses. Many of these entrepreneurs were forced to use savings, retirement accounts and overextended lines of credit to begin rebuilding.

Mercy Corps recognized the need and desire for these small business owners to come back to their communities and provide vital services in their neighborhoods. We work with local economic development agencies, such as HOPE Community Credit Union, to fund small business rebuilding loans, and we also provide asset replacement grants ourselves.

Mercy Corps is also supporting a "business incubator" in the Upper Ninth Ward. This office will house retailers and provide space for small business assistance providers to coach, mentor and help new and returning businesses.

Deconstruction and Neighborhood Rebuilding Advocacy
Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged nearly 80 percent of the housing stock in New Orleans. Many of these homes are slated for demolition - a process that will destroy much of the city's world-renowned architectural heritage.

Mercy Corps promotes deconstruction - the systematic process of taking a home apart piece by piece to salvage reusable materials, recover items of historic value, and reclaim personal belongings - as an alternative to demolition. Deconstruction keeps reusable building materials out of landfills, adds living-wage jobs to the local economy, and creates a supply of affordable building materials for thousands of homeowners working to rebuild their homes and lives.

Mercy Corps helped form a coalition of preservation and environmental groups to support deconstruction. We have assisted local contractors to gain the skills they need to complete the jobs. And we provided a local partner organization, the Green Project, with funds to run a deconstruction crew and operate its retail salvaged materials store.

Mercy Corps also supported an additional salvaged building materials depot in New Orleans to warehouse deconstructed house parts. This storage of usable salvage fuels a home building materials market that helps low-income residents rebuild. We also fund a low-income home weatherization project that will ultimately help lower energy costs for homeowners.

Youth Well-Being and Cultural Heritage
Mercy Corps' Comfort for Kids program gave teachers and caregivers the opportunity to learn the most effective emotional coping strategies to pass on to storm-affected youth under their collective care. Participants who attended Comfort for Kids trainings reported an increased awareness of the grieving process they themselves were experiencing - even months after the storm - and were able to better help those children still struggling to cope with disaster and loss.

Mercy Corps also committed to helping preserve the Gulf Coast's distinct cultural heritage, which was threatened by the displacement of resident musicians and artists following Hurricane Katrina. We sponsored events in schools and public spaces around New Orleans that incorporated traditional brass bands, drumming circles and the city's colorful Mardi Gras Indians. Mercy Corps' local partners will now organize and fund these widely popular events, continuing to celebrate the musical heritage unique to New Orleans.