“We are all ordinary. We are all boring. We are all spectacular. We are all shy. We are all bold. We are all heroes. We are all helpless. It just depends on the day.” – Brad Meltzer
Throughout this week, Brad Meltzer’s words have been orbiting my consciousness as we approach the ten year anniversary of the devastation reeked by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Within roughly a month, these two storms unleashed untold havoc both to the east and to the west of our Southwest Louisiana community. We were spared the physical trauma, but not the heartache.
I remember sitting at home watching the news in the hours following Katrina’s landfall with tears further clouding what was visually incomprehensible. Low-lying places like St. Bernard Parish and the Ninth Ward were under so much water that people had to scramble to attics and rooftops for safety. Eventually, nearly 80 percent of our beloved city of New Orleans was under some quantity of water.
The day before Katrina hit on August 29th, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had issued the city’s first-ever mandatory evacuation order. By nightfall, almost 80 percent of the city’s 500,000 population had evacuated. Some 10,000 had sought shelter in the Superdome, while tens of thousands of others chose to wait out the storm at home. Now, as the storm passed, the tragedy was unfolding on multiple levels. Clearly the thousands trapped within the city on rooftops and interstate overpasses were the central headline, but just as heart wrenching were the hundreds of thousands who had evacuated and, after the levees broke, had no homes to return to. Baton Rouge was the first “jumping off” point for evacuees. The capitol city was inundated by some 250,000 desperate people fleeing greater New Orleans. Lafayette, my hometown, was the next place to go if you were heading eastward. Tens of thousands chose to do so.
I remember as I witnessed the chaos feeling a blanket of helplessness spread throughout my being. I wanted to do something, but what could be done amid such massive misery and devastation? Even the federal, state and local governments seemed unprepared and ill-equipped to mount any effective assistance.
Then I received a telephone call from a friend who owned a real estate firm in nearby New Iberia. He asked if I was watching what was going on. I acknowledged that, just like him, I hadn’t been able to pry my eyes off the television news reports. He replied, “We have to do something!” I responded, “What do you have in mind?” He said that he was going on the local T.V. news program the next morning and was going to offer the resources of his company to help people find shelter. “I’ll give out my office number and just tell people to call us.” He wanted to know if I would be willing to accompany him. I didn’t hesitate in agreeing. We had to do something!
I remember early the next morning sitting in the lobby of the local television station waiting to go on the air. I was frantically trying to think about how logistically we were going to manage what we were getting ready to commit to. I had no answer.
We went on the air and both of us gave out our office numbers offering anyone who called needing shelter all the assistance we could give in trying to find persons or organizations that would help them. As I departed for my office, I had an uneasy feeling because there was no central data base of those willing to help. I thought, “How is this going to work?”
That day, our receptionist fielded hundreds of calls from desperate people seeking a place to rent, buy or just stay. By that evening, she was sobbing that she just couldn’t handle listening to the misery being experienced by so many and not really having the ability to provide them with any concrete solutions. I realized that what I feared that morning might be, was now a reality. We had to find a better way.
My IT vendor and close friend was visiting the next morning. I called him into my office and relayed to him what we had offered, encountered and been frustrated by. I told him I had an idea and wanted to bounce it off of him.
Some ten years before, a now phenomenally successful internet company had been formed called ebay.com wherein buyers and sellers could come together in one place and engage in mutual commerce. What if we used that platform for those needing shelter to link up with those who were willing to provide it? As we talked it through, his eyes lit up as he realized that this just might work. Like so many people who were struggling to find a way to help, he wanted to get involved in this endeavor. I challenged him, “Can you build a website of this magnitude in 24 hours?” “No,” he answered, “but I have friends in Silicon Valley that I can get on board and perhaps we can do it in in a week.” I told him to get started, but to set the goal for completion in three days.
Amazingly, it took about 48 hours to complete the initial prototype. We named it HurricaneHousing.net. Now we had to get it launched and known.
I called the CEO of Louisiana Realtors, our state professional association. He was working with FEMA, the Department of Homeland Security and the National Association of Realtors strategizing as to various ways to deal with the chronic homeless situation that had developed as a result of the storm. I explained to him what we’d created and asked if he could help us connect to the right channels to get the word out to both those in need of and those who wanted to provide shelter. He arranged a conference call with officials in Washington the next day.
The technology personnel from FEMA, Homeland Security and Disaster Housing Resources all embraced HurricaneHousing.net as did the National Association of Realtors as the online resource for the designated four-state Katrina–affected areas including Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida as well as surrounding states of Texas, Arkansas and Georgia.
On September 5, 2005 (six days after Katrina’s landfall) the site was officially launched and promoted both regionally and nationally. Over the next several months it allowed property owners with rental units available to post information on those units and, likewise, allowed displaced victims to search for both temporary and longer-term housing within that seven state area. Potential renters were able to search for properties by various factors, including by state, county/parish, city and zip code. Property owners willing to list available housing were able to log onto the site and post basic information about their rental property, along with terms and conditions and their contact information.
I share this story with you, not to glorify myself, or to portray myself as doing anything close to the heroic work performed by the scores of people who volunteered their services at various shelters throughout our country and on the ground in New Orleans, but rather, I offer it as a testimony to the power of possibility that occurs whenever hearts and minds join together in any righteous effort. Remember, seemingly heroic acts are commonly achieved because of the paths ordinary people choose to journey down, not by the powers that they are graced with.
Have an AWE-full Weekend!
William J. “Bill” Bacqué