In early November, Bervera recalls, “came the shock of ‘Now what?’ At least for the first few months we could raise money and disburse it to members.” The organization became split geographically: with Lake Charles working on policy and a campaign on school discipline, it became a strong office.
In New Orleans, the staff talked about re-building. They realized that their context for organizing had shifted with the presence of the National Guard and the State Police. FFLIC continued monitoring juvenile detention, but also began looking more closely at police violence, working with the public defender’s office and monitoring the re-vamping of the indigent defenders system. “There needs to be a public safety system that serves to keep people safe, not control populations,” Bervera says.
The January after Katrina, Bervera and her staff felt hopeful. “We beat back demolishing public housing, and things were unformed,” she says. Since then, however, things have changed in her view. “Right now the window has closed,” Bervera says. “12 months after the storm, the city is in its 4th round of planning. It will take a serious opposition to make positive change.”
Life post-Katrina: The challenges one year later “I am having a deep crisis of faith,” Bervera says poignantly of her experiences one year later. “Some of us thought that Katrina would be like a light shining on what we’ve known for years – I thought that perhaps this was another ‘Birmingham ’63’. But it was only for a moment. In a painfully clear way, there was no national response. I guess the cavalry is not coming, whether it is the federal government or other progressive organizations.” In particular, Bervera finds that there is a lack of regional understanding. “The South and the North are so separate,” she says. “There needs to be a different way of dealing with the South.”
Bervera also observes that the biggest challenge post-Katrina is with infrastructure: “What does it mean to have most of your staff lose their homes?” she asks. “We’ve had to forgo all our plans. People are tired [and] there are many mental health issues.” She notes how many of her colleagues are suffering from depression and trauma and is astounded by what people outside of the Gulf don’t know about the reality of life after the hurricanes. “It’s worse than you think—and it keeps getting worse,” she says. “It is so demoralizing.”
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