What Katrina Revealed

by WILLIAM P. QUIQLEY

When Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005, I was inside a New Orleans hospital with my wife, who is a nurse, and about 2000 other people. Windows in our hospital started exploding and water poured down the elevator shafts. We were soon without electricity, phone service, computers, food, and running water. Bodies started to pile up in the hospital, and we could see more bodies in the water outside. We stayed there, surrounded by eight feet of water, for five days. My wife and I got out in a small fishing boat. After a few weeks living with various family members, we ended up in an apartment in Houston for several months until we could return to New Orleans. Ever since Katrina, my work has focused on advocacy with and for the most vulnerable of the displaced. Through these efforts, as well as living in New Orleans, and my regular work as a teacher, writer, and participant in Loyola University’s clinical program, I have been privileged to hear thousands of people’s stories. Two and a half years later, this Essay relates what Katrina has revealed about justice.

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