Counting Our Blessings is a journey through the lives of forty-one New Orleanians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Their experiences and reflections offer a clarifying view of the assistance, promises, faith, relief, opportunities, compassion, and empathy that helped to catapult them through the distress to better times. The collection reveals the power of a bitter night in the deepest darkness—and our collective ability to rise to the occasion of doing for others what we would like them to do for us.
These are real stories starring our fellow Americans as heroes and New Orleanians as brave, determined, and resilient victims of one of the United States’ most catastrophic disasters. From an international business community that, in one week, organized to reset the lives of colleagues in distress; to a family preparing to evacuate who make the decision to take with them two friends and their dog; to individuals and communities that provided shelter, temporary homes, and friendship; to love stories that were born and families that were made. Counting Our Blessings is a testament of humanity coming to the rescue, and what happens when empathy and compassion are on full display.