NOLA to New York

In a moving project, journalist Andy Kopsa is curating a Tumblr site for messages of encouragement from Katrina survivors to New Yorkers:

I am a freelance journalist and New York is my home. But New Orleans was once. I am in NOLA now, waiting to get home in the wake of Sandy. So while I am pacing, worried about my husband, friends and my city, I thought up this project. Who better than the people of New Orleans to talk to the people of NYC right now. They know, they lived through Katrina. They are still living with it seven years later.

If you are a current or former resident of New Orleans that lived through the nightmare of Katrina and want to participate in NOLA to New York please write on a piece of paper what it is you would say to the people of New York if you could. Anything: that you care, that you know what they are going through, don’t drink the water, make sure to be kind to your neighbors when times get worse before they get better – anything. Then take a picture like the ones seen here.

Send them to andy@andykopsa.com – or through www.andykopsa.com.

Please include who you are, where you live/d in New Orleans during Katrina and a brief note about how you lived through the storm.

If you would like to share this site with friends, please do. Also, if you want to post on Twitter, please use #NOLAtoNYC. Thanks.

When I started this project, I didn’t see this coming but am glad Bethany shared it with me. She writes: ”I am a New Orleans native that went through Katrina, but I now live in NYC. Everything about this week has reminded me of what happened in Nola. My fiancé, from New Jersey, turned to me and said, “Everything I know is gone. My entire childhood is gone.” All I could say in response was “If anyone can understand, I can. I’ve been here before.”