BonaResponds.org

To commemorate the second anniversary of Katrina, we have removed all bright colors from our website for the week. Please take a second and consider the giant impact that Katrina has had on the lives of millions of people. Our regular website is here.

On August 29th, 2005 Hurricane Katrina hit the American Gulf Coast. The result was a disaster of unbelievable proportions. The number of deaths has been estimated at over 1800 people although the exact count will never be known. But as bad as that is, it is far from the whole story. Millions of people lost their homes, their jobs, their sense of being. From Alabama to Louisiana a path of indescribeable destruction was left.

As the world watched, the relief infrastructure (both private and governmental) was every bit as overwhelmed as the levees. Civilization in some areas literally teetered on collapse with large sections of the once beautiful New Orleans ravaged by flooding, fires, and looting.

As troubling as that all was, the slowness and incompetence of response was as frustrating. Days went by without getting the needed food and water to the victims, bodies floated in the water, and thousands of pets were left to die. It was, in a word, chaos.

Along the Mississippi coast, things were better but far from good. Whole towns had largely been swept away. Stately homes reduced to concrete slabs and much of Biloxi and Gulfport ruined beyond recognition and it would be many days before adequate food and shelter.

While TV showed the world the disaster in real time, nothing, not TV, not newspapers, not magazines,nor even the Internet could show the nothingness of whole neighborhoods that were simply gone. And more than that, it was utterly impossible to show the pain the survivors were going through. The storm has left their lives turned upside down: homes and savings gone, jobs lost, and hope destroyed.

As the days turned to weeks and then to months, progress came but was annoyingly slow. Arguments of who was to blame and why the disaster occurred shifted the spot light, but did not help Prisoners of Katrina. As the news cycle turned and the national attention went to wars, scandals, and elections, the region went from abandoned to forgotten.

It is now two years later. There is still much to do. Too much for the people of the Gulf Coast to do by themselves.

Please help.

As the Katrina story played out, NOLA.com was on many computers non stop. They have archived much of it here.

And on what is like two years later

Local Service Day: Saturday September 8th. Open to all!
8:30 to 5:00 (Work is 9 to 4) Prework meeting Murphy Aud 8:30 AM.
Free BBQ at 4:00. (Come dressed to work!) Under 18 years old must be accompanied by an adult.
Can't make the whole day? Come for any part of the day. Sign up here!

Have a job for us on the 8th? Tell us! We'll definitely try to get it done.

General Meeting: 7:30 September 4th. Murphy Aud C

Leader meeting: 30 minute maximum: Friday August 31 (12:25 location Murphy 105)

Do you have unused tools laying around? Clean out the garage and donate them to BonaResponds! Rakes, Shovels, drills, hammers, paint rollers, brushes, brooms, chain saws, pry bars, sponges, shop vacuum etc. All needed! Now until September 8th. email BonaResponds to arrange a pick-up.

Press Release

On Sunday August 26th BonaResponds went to help the residents of Bradford Pennsylvania in the aftermath of a severe thunderstorm that downed hundreds of trees and caused much property damage. See pictures and read about it here.

Sean Lynch (a founder of BonaResponds) was recently profiled in Moody's AAA magazine. They gave us permission to share it! Here it is!

The Summer Local Service day was a big success! Read about it here and here!

The next scheduled local service day is Saturday September 8th! Come on out and help! Or if you have an organization that wants help, email us!

Trail update--Work on the BonaResponds Trail through Bob's Woods continues
We will work on this again in September and have a "grand opening" during Francis Week!