c16tk

In August 2005, there was a hurricane in New Orleans. It did so much damage that people are still recovering from it. Houses are still being rebuilt. If you drive a car around, more often than not you would see a house being built. Some people are helping rebuild houses, but not many. In fact, if just one person aged above eighteen and below sixty from each family went to New Orleans to help for a week, the whole city could be rebuilt in a very short time.
My third grade buddy (fourth graders at Dalton have third grade buddies) with the initials C.H. and I were trying to convince people to try to help. Here is a picture of C.H. and me:

This is a paragraph C.H. wrote about the hurricane:

New Orleans Paragraph
C.H.

I think it is really interesting that we are having NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana) buddies. I was also sort of nervous. Usually you learn about places from a “tour guide” point of view. But here you learn about in this case New Orleans from a personal point of view. New Orleans is in Louisiana, and the Lusher School is in NOLA and we have 3rd grade buddies there. New Orleans is continuing to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina, a Category 5 hurricane and a Category 4 when it hit New Orleans. Even though they are in a higher part of town, they are still rebuilding. Since the start of the school year we have been learning about them and they have been learning about us. The Lusher School (and other schools in the Coastal Roots program) is growing Southern Bald Cypress trees (the cornerstone of the wetlands) to help save it. The Nutria (beaver-like creatures) are eating some of them. They celebrate a special holiday on the day before Ash Wednesday, the beginning of lent. It is called Marti Gras (Fat Tuesday in English). They have a party and throw out necklaces. They have a food that is called King Cake. It tastes really good. The tradition behind it is if you get one of two objects put into the cake, you become the king or queen and you have to do something. This year someone in my class with the initials K.S. got both objects put in so he is extra special.

(c16tk typing again) New Orleans is under sea level. It is around the coast, so you would think water would pour right in. Wrong! There are walls called Levees that surrounded the entire city. But during the hurricane, the huge waves broke the Levees. Water poured into the city with nothing to stop it. The middle of the city got damaged the most. It was the lowest part. But with the Gulf of Mexico falling down on them, even the highest points were damaged. It looked like the streets of Venice, except that there were cars underwater. And there were a lot fewer boats. Many people died and many more were homeless.

So will you take pity on New Orleans? It won’t take that much work if everyone works together. If only one person from each family helped for a week, New Orleans could soon become the city it once was. But if it keeps going on like this, it may take years before NO is repaired. So imagine living in New Orleans. Which one would you prefer?