There were two types of Hurricane Katrina evacuees, says Business Report Editor Stephanie Riegel: Those who couldn’t wait to get back to their city to rebuild, and those who wanted nothing more to do with it.
She fell into the latter camp, she writes in her latest column.
“I am neither proud nor ashamed of that fact,” Riegel writes. “At the time, 10 years ago this month, I had to do what I thought was in the best interest of my then-small children, and that meant getting away from flood-ravaged New Orleans. Truth is, part of me had been ready to leave New Orleans before Katrina anyway. After more than a dozen years as a TV reporter, I was burned out on overexposure to the city’s seamy underbelly. Crime, political corruption, and public meetings that were a parody of the democratic process all made for great TV but left me cynical about my hometown. After a while, all I saw was blight, income inequality, and the folly of the city’s self-absorbed moneyed class.”
When the floodwaters rose, claiming whole neighborhoods and leaving thousands stranded and homeless, Riegel admits she thought New Orleans was done. “I was wrong, thankfully,” she notes. “But at the time, I didn’t see how the city would recover better and stronger, as it has. I thought it would be weaker and worse.”
Her family remained in Baton Rouge, a city she knew from her years at LSU and, later, covering the Louisiana Legislature. But LSU and the State Capitol are worlds unto themselves, she contends—integral yet disconnected parts of the Baton Rouge fabric. She quickly realized she didn’t know Baton Rouge like she thought she did.
“I quickly got to know it, however, during a few years of discovery and exploration that were, for me, a gift,” Riegel writes. “Emboldened by the opportunity to start fresh and free from the ball and chain that had been life in the city where I grew up, I was able to embrace everything Baton Rouge had to offer.”
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