New Orleans marks 5 year Katrina anniversary with calls for government action

Five years after the levees broke in New Orleans, speeches, commemorations and even celebrations took place throughout the region. President Obama visited the area on Sunday and pledged that the federal government would stick with New Orleans through its recovery "until the job is done."

In the Lower Ninth Ward – one of the areas hardest hit by Katrina – residents gathered to commemorate. They also called for federal accountability and community renewal. Zoe Sullivan was there for FSRN.

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Down a muddy road in the Lower Ninth Ward, about 100 people gathered for the fifth annual Second Line parade to remember the destruction caused by floods. They assembled at the point where the levee broke and a spoken word group read the names of those who died from the disaster

Many of those gathered lost their homes during the flood, including Marinthia Lagarde. After the Ninth Ward levee breach, a barge broke through the wall and ended up where her home had once been. She and her husband have rebuilt and moved into their home last June.

MARINTHIA LAGARDE: I was three years old when we moved here. I was 58 years old when the hurricane came. It broke our heart, but we survived. We lost everything, but we didn't lose our life, and that was the best thing. And we thank God for that every day.

The crowd embarked on a parade out of the neighborhood to Hunter's Field in the Seventh Ward. Organizers carry out the march annually to support the community’s ability to rebuild itself through activism focused on housing, the environment, and criminal and educational justice.

Phyllis Montana-Leblanc, author of "Not Only the Levees Broke," said five years after Katrina, she’s still frustrated at the rate of rebuilding.

PHYLLIS MONTANA-LEBLANC: In my area of New Orleans East, we still don't have a hospital. We have nine-to-five clinics, so if something happens to you after five or on a weekend, you're a goner. The nearest hospital with emergency services is over ten miles away. The schools, the public schools in the Black neighborhoods are closing, either closed, set to be demolished, or completely just forgotten about. The city just got $1.8 billion from FEMA for the New Orleans public schools. A lot of money coming in, a lot of money disappearing, and if you're in the Lower Ninth Ward, you can see that there's a lot to be done.

Montana-Leblanc's feelings were echoed by others at the ceremony. Deborah Volcker lives in the Mid-City area of New Orleans, which was also flooded by eight feet of water. She says her family has been in the city since the 1850s, and she was heartbroken about the devastation and loss of life. Volcker called for a tough line.

DEBORAH VOLCKER: I think it's pretty clear that it's not over and that we're not better, and the federal government needs to do the right thing now. There needs to be accountability.

The assembly left the wall and paraded “New Orleans style” with music through the Lower Ninth Ward and over the St. Claude Bridge into the Upper Ninth Ward. In addition to other parades, residents throughout the city organized prayer services, concerts, and art exhibits. Some gathered on Canal Street at the Katrina Memorial where nearly 100 unclaimed or unidentified victims of Hurricane Katrina are interred in tombs.

Zoe Sullivan, FSRN