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What happens after a hurricane?
Power outages, suspension of emergency services, and outages of government relief programs often leave neighbors looking to each other.
Fresh back to town after an extended stay in Louisiana, Yellow Springs resident Khara Scott-Bey wants to challenge the community to extend their hospitality to Patrick Bowman Sr. and his family, who left New Orleans after the passage of hurricane Ida on Sunday August 10. 29.
Scott-Bey says that when she began her stay in New Orleans after her mother passed away in September 2020, she witnessed an extraordinary level of community engagement and resilience in the city.
“It was like nothing I have ever known,” she said. “These people had lived in this city for a long time, unlike Yellow Springs, which is a community made up of fragmented histories.”
After spending almost a year in New Orleans, Scott-Bey decided to stay during hurricane season.
“I lived in a place that we didn’t think would be as affected by the storm,” she said. “Most people were staying, except the non-New Orleans people who could afford to leave.” But that was before Ida picked up speed and water, turning into a Category 4 hurricane, with wind gusts reaching 150 mph.
“We knew on Wednesday that Hurricane Ida was coming on Sunday, and I couldn’t go fast enough,” Scott-Bey said. “About 48 hours ago, a friend of mine told me that the hurricane was gaining more energy because the water temperature was rising.”
Allen Hunt, a professor of physics at Wright State, says hurricanes like Ida form faster and are wetter than previous recorded hurricanes.
“The jet stream is changing, so hurricanes may not last that long, but the increasing heat of the oceans allows them to strengthen more quickly,” Hunt said.
Drawing on the knowledge of those around him, Scott-Bey decided to leave about 10 hours before the storm made landfall. Her friend, Patrick Bowman Sr., told her she could move faster because most people would be off the freeway.
“We kind of traded favors,” Bowman said. “We helped her through the storm, and she helped us afterwards.”
Scott-Bey has traveled safely to Alabama, but she has lingering concerns about the government’s response.
“There wasn’t a good media coverage,” Scott-Bey said. “I’m overwhelmed with rage because it seems like black life doesn’t matter unless a dead black body is trending.”
Instead of government services, Scott-Bey saw the community come together to meet their needs, using social media to coordinate support. According to Scott-Bey, people with generators have offered their homes as cooling stations, and financial support is being disseminated through online financial platforms like Cash App.
Bowman said family members, including his mother and the mother of his children, remained in New Orleans throughout the storm, but the lack of resources the next day caused them to reconsider the evacuation. .
“There wasn’t enough gas to run their generators,” Bowman said. “I wanted to get them out. “
“We received an official announcement before the storm that EMS and cellular services were on hold,” Scott-Bey said. “We didn’t expect the power to be back on for a month. This lack of services costs people – it costs them trust, it costs them security. “
This lack of trust and security being a reality for many families around him, Scott-Bey decided to offer mutual aid to a family displaced by the hurricane.
“I have a place and a community in Yellow Springs,” Scott-Bey said. “I told them to come with me and we’ll figure out how to help them. It doesn’t have to be a trauma. It can be an experience of people entering and building space. “
Bowman detailed his family’s trip, explaining that they initially evacuated to Alabama and then temporarily to Houston while they waited for their FEMA fund request to be processed.
“I was refused FEMA help, so we pooled our resources and went back to New Orleans to get what we could,” Bowman said. “We threw away the spoiled food, packed all the clothes we could and got back on the road. “
Due to concerns over COVID-19, the family drove late at night, stopping only when necessary, once in Little Rock, Ark., And once in Louisville, Ky.
“There were seven of us traveling, including our children aged 17, 13, 7, 6 and 1,” Bowman said. “We spent about four days on the road.
Upon his return to the village, Scott-Bey contacted members of the local chapter of Be Present, an organization that focuses on the mental health of its members. Before she could prepare a space for the family of seven, she needed to interview members of her local community in the Vale, an intentional community located on the outskirts of the village.
“At its best, Yellow Springs is an incredibly welcoming community,” Scott-Bey said. “But the anxieties related to COVID are a reality, and the family I am hosting is not vaccinated. “
The family is from Louisanna, a state with an overall vaccination rate of 42%. The vaccination rate is lower among black residents.
“We need to remember the generational damage the United States has done against blacks,” Scott-Bey said.
“This family doesn’t trust the system with their body, and I have to respect that.”
To honor the safety of the family and his neighbors in the valley, Scott-Bey decided to house the family in his house. This ensures the family stays together, but Scott-Bey said she still needs the support of the larger Yellow Springs community.
“Our personal security must not make other communities more vulnerable,” Scott-Bey said. “I thought about what I would do if it was reversed, then I realized it was reversed – this family took me in when they only had a house full of children.”
Reflecting on their time in Yellow Springs so far, Bowman said it has given them clarity and security as they prepare to return home and get their lives back on track.
“What Ohio stands for is getting back to what’s really important in life,” Bowman said. “We see individuals working together. I know this is happening in New Orleans, and if I didn’t have my own family, I would volunteer to help people clean up.
Bowman said he was stunned by the outpouring of support from the community.
“I am delighted that there are people at YS who are ready to help and show genuine human kindness. I appreciate all the love, help and energy that goes out there; it feels like home. “
Scott-Bey hopes this experience will galvanize the community to support not only this family, but others who are suffering natural disasters from climate change.
“We are immune from a lot in the Midwest, and it’s time to extend that security to others,” she said. “I want us to be proud that we were able to receive this family’s blessing and create honey from trauma. It is an opportunity to create love in action.
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