Lately, it seems as if a wave of destruction and death has been sweeping throughout New Orleans, but the people that this wave generally affects are teenagers.
Jenna Milani lost her grandly furnished Uptown house to a fire.
Katie Rice Owens lost her life, along with that of her parents (only her brother survived) to another fire.
Maddie Prevost died over the weekend due to a lethal mix of heroin and cocaine.
Generally people living in the Uptown New Orleans area and teenagers who go to high school in the Uptown area know these three and many others who have fallen prey to tragedy. What is it that is causing all this calamity? Has Katrina left the seeds of destruction and pain in this majestic city?
I don't know Katie Owens or Maddie Prevost personally (although I know and adore her father, a counselor at one of New Orlean's celebrated private schools) so I can only imagine what their friends and family went through/are going through and how the number of others who have had loved ones lost in tragedy are suffering. My deepest sympathies go out to the Milanis, who lost both their dog and their house.
RIP Katie Rice Owens
RIP Maddie Prevost