HURRICANE KATRINA VICTIMS MEET GAZA EVACUEES. The victims of a natural disaster meet the victims of a man-made one. From The Jerusalem Post (via email).

Hurricane Katrina victims meet Gaza Strip evacuees
Ahinoam Pollack

A group of victims of the New Orleans hurricane that killed over 1,900 people in August 2005 met in Nitzan with evacuees from the former Gaza Strip settlement of Neveh Dekalim on Sunday to learn about each other’s experiences.

"If anyone understands what we’ve been through, it’s you," said Debbie Rosen, a Neveh Dekalim evacuee resettled in Nitzan. The depression, reluctance to go out into the world and find work, and post-traumatic stress disorder are troubles that New Orleans and Gush Katif residents feel can finally be understood by people other than their own.

When Rosen discussed the psychological trauma facing teens with middle-aged New Orleans evacuees, they nodded their heads. She mentioned the fact that they are living in caravans, shattered communities, unemployment and loss of parental authority, and the New Orleans residents voiced agreement. "It was the same in New Orleans," Chanie Nemes, rebbetzin of the New Orleans Chabad House which organized this trip to Israel, kept thinking.

...Although some, like Rabbi Yossi Nemes of New Orleans Chabad, said they were humbled by what had happened to the Gush Katif evacuees, others looked at the red roofs and flowers of the temporary housing and said the Gush Katif evacuees’ situation was pretty good.

If a temporary solution--where the future is still unclear--is pretty good, then imagine the extent of the situation that still exists for the victims of Katrina, whose story does not make front page headlines anymore.

Technorati Tag: Israel and Gaza and Gush Katif and Hurricane Katrina.