Almost five years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita left much of New Orleans uninhabitable, half of her residents have yet to return home. There are many and varied reasons as to why this has come to pass, and much of the country is not aware that the number of refugees from these storms is so great.

Randy will set out to recount the stories of those who have not yet returned home to New Orleans in a book entitled “To Bring Us Home”.  Most of us are not aware of how far some have traveled, not necessarily by choice, to make a new home elsewhere. The book will recount the oral histories of these wayward people that once called New Orleans their home, and it will share the emotional drama of their daily lives and experiences from the time the floodwaters began to quickly rise, until now. Only the people themselves can truly tell this story, and perhaps we will gain a better understanding of the trauma and heartache they have suffered as we took so very long to respond to their need.

The interviewing and writing of the book will continue for almost a year beyond this ride, and the intent is to publish the finished collection of stories by the end of 2010. The proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the St. Bernard Project to assist in their outstanding rebuild and rebirth efforts in the St. Bernard Parish, an area laid bare by the hurricanes of 2005.

In pursuit of this goal, we are asking anyone who was forced from their home by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and for whatever reason has not yet returned to New Orleans, to

Contact Randy MacCaughey

I will arrange for an interview so that I may hear your story of your post-Katrina experience for possible inclusion in the book  which we hope will serve to educate, sadden, inspire, and enrage the public. In the end, I hope the American people will become more motivated to guard against the threat of losing a great American city should a disaster like Hurricane Katrina  strike again.