[Alabama] Memorandum: Let's ensure we finish recovery

The memorandum was written by Bill Horton, north Alabama president of Regions Bank

Published: Thursday, June 09, 2011

....Nearly six years after Hurricane Ka­trina, the work of rebuilding commu­nities, businesses, homes and lives continues, which is important to note because we are beginning a similar, long and difficult journey. One impor­tant lesson we and others learned from that disaster is that the needs persist much longer than the head­lines. Compassion fatigue makes it difficult to maintain the same atten­tion and concern expressed immedi­ately after a traumatic event. For rea­sons understandable and predictable, our attention wanes. Our energies are redirected to the next crisis. What is eventually out of sight is out of mind.

But for our friends and neighbors in need in Tuscaloosa, Hackleburg, Phil Campbell, Cullman, Concord, Pleas­ant Grove, Pratt City, and elsewhere, after the shipments of water, money and donations of clothes - all desper­ately needed - stop, what next? Do we have the will to travel the long journey from aftermath to afterward? We must, with unflagging perseverance, continue not for a day or a week or a month, but until the job is complete.

It's easy to commit to making this community better -- but the true test is whether that commitment is borne out on the proving ground of this un­precedented disaster. The proof will be new pictures of rebuilt lives, reborn communities and renewal...
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