entrepreneurship

Lower 9th Ward survivors remember Hurricane Katrina 19 years later [Video]
►
Categories
Small Business Lifestyle

Lower 9th Ward survivors remember Hurricane Katrina 19 years later [Video]

On this day nearly two decades ago, people in our area were bracing for one of the biggest hurricanes in the history of our state.Thursday marks 19 years since Hurricane Katrina. Robert Green said, “If you look around, we have Dollar Tree. We have a new grocery store up the street. But the most important thing to me is in the morning I see kids getting on school buses.”Green is a lifelong Lower 9th Ward survivor. He has seen firsthand how his community looked before and after Hurricane Katrina. Nineteen years later, he said he is seeing new homes being built and more people living here. On Aug. 28, 2005, Green, his mom Joyce, and other family attempted to evacuate to Nashville Tennessee. But it was not easy. “We tried to leave. We tried to get out. We tried to get into the Superdome when we couldn’t continue forward because my mother was sick. When we got to the Superdome the lines were long. They weren’t prepared to take a sick person like she was.”Hours later, on Aug. 29, the family was here when there was a 25-foot surge of water. The levees broke.The water uprooted their home from up the street to this tree. Green’s mother Joyce and his granddaughter 3-year-old Shanai Green lost their lives. “Anyone who survived the storm, surviving their rooftops,” said Green.Years later, Green said he is still grieving.His home is currently seen with a picture of him and Brad Pitt. Directly in front, with the words “Make it Right Brad Pitt Fix My House.” Green’s home was one of several rebuilt through the “Make It Right” Foundation organized by the actor. But the home started to show issues shortly after. “We didn’t know we’d be victims of engineering shortcomings. We didn’t know we would be victims of product failure.”The foundation agreed to pay upward of $20 million to people impacted. To this day, residents like Green never got that money.Still Green is hopeful for himself and the residents of the Lower 9. “What is the important thing is that we can determine what our future is. We have the ability to be able to do that,” said Green. Thursday there will be several events across New Orleans to commemorate Hurricane Katrina.A press conference will be held at 10 a.m. at 1239 Baronne St. in recognition of Hurricane Katrina’s anniversary as a state and local holiday.Saturday at noon, there will be a healing ceremony at North Galvez and Jourdan Avenue followed by a rally at Hunter’s Field.

Shane Beamer previews South Carolina’s season opener [Video]
►
Categories
Small Business Lifestyle

Shane Beamer previews South Carolina’s season opener [Video]

Great respect for Old Dominion and their program obviously very familiar with them growing up in, in Virginia and, uh, recruiting up there for so long. They’re located in *** hotbed of recruiting in that part of the country. Uh, they’ve got good players. There’s no question about it. You look back at last year, they easily could have been ***, an 11 win team. They had five losses last year by six points or less. So they very easily could be *** team that we’re sitting here talking about, uh, an 11 win team that was in the mix for, um, uh, New Year’s Six bowl game or whatever it was called last year. We as coaches know that it’s still gonna be *** lot on Saturday, but absolutely, with Leno’s demeanor, he gives you ***, *** quiet confidence where the moment’s never too, uh, too big for him. That’s the way he handles himself and, and *** lot of the, you know, really good quarterbacks that I’ve been around. I’m not comparing them to Jalen Hurtz, but Jalen in Oklahoma, Jalen was that way. I mean, he was all the time and, uh, and he, and that’s the way that he, the way that he played Spencer, I mean, showed emotion, but Spencer never got too high, too low. So I think it’s *** great quarterback to have *** great quality to have not just in *** quarterback but any leader in my mind. There’s days, this is year 26 25 26 in coaching for me. And, uh, there have been preseason camps where you could say, ok, we maybe took *** step back today or we didn’t have *** great day today and, and whatnot. I don’t remember ever walking off the field this month and saying, you know what, we didn’t have the day that we needed to. Was it always perfect? No, was it? But the effort was always there, the intensity was there and just the way they, uh the way they handled their business just on and off the field, they’re really, really, really fun group to coach and just, um they don’t, best thing I can say is they just don’t waste days, you know, we had *** mock game week last week and I thought we went out last week and had 34 amazing days of practice. We do *** situational practice on the Friday before the first game or two Fridays before. So Friday afternoon, we went in the stadium about four o’clock and went through just ***, *** script of all the situations that can happen. And we did that at *** faster pace than we ever have in my four years as the head coach, which to me means they’re locked in, they’re focused, they’re paying attention, they’re getting their work done and we’re getting off the field just things like that. Uh.