Katrina's effects, selfishly

We sat around the other night, some girls and I, feeling the humidity soak our skin and talking about the endless list of the effects of Hurricane Katrina. That storm moved and shook people, turned people upside down, emptied their pockets and disoriented them when once placed back on their own two feet. But that storm shook and moved people who weren't even in the vicinity of it. We started thinking about the effects Katrina had on us--the selfish list. But with New Orleans becoming one of the top spots for young urban professionals, there is validity to the idea.
I absolutely positively know God put me here. In fact, I have never been so sure of anything. That storm hit, and I watched the news, and something in my body shifted and pulled, and I was on a relief trip three weeks later. Two years later. Almost three years later. Each time I came, I swear, strong-but-wary magnets were installed into my body, their counterparts at the church that hosted us, on the streets of the French Quarter, in the people we talked to. And then I found myself coming again, almost four years after the storm, with unsteady feet and a pile of luggage and a 70115 address.
Others I meet here have similar stories: he came for a relief trip and never left, she is here to rebuild, they have ideas for a better education system so knew this was the place to come, she has relatives here whose stories were too much to simply ignore. So they came, following a trail from home to heart, comfortable to un-, inspired to on fire.
We are storm transplants. Some head back into time, solving crimes and questions that have been left with nothing short of ellipses from the storm (high five, legal friends). Others are moving forward, building and creating what seemed to be devastated and turning it into a physical display of future. Either way, I admire these people. The "transplants" most likely would not have moved to this city if it weren't for a hurricane. I wonder if I even would have visited or ever blocked out instant generalizations of booze and Bourbon. Sure, I felt my insides when I watched the water on TV five years ago, but I didn't know I should start house hunting or looking for a new favorite coffee shop to recoil in.
New Orleans is a lab city; people with ideas have moved here and people who love the city stayed. Together, passion and brilliance, cultural understanding and innovation, things are happening here that other cities do not have the necessity for.
It's selfish to think about, we decided. But it is interesting to see what the hurricane put in our lives: a profession I probably never would have considered without New Orleans and the idea of rebuilding an education system; inspiring, life-long friends with similar interests and a desire to be in the GNO; a crazy new perspective on poverty, government, community; and, most importantly, a colorful city to serve. And I pray to take all of those things seriously.