QuoteBirds' Mikell cannot forget
The New Orleans native is still trying to help his family cope with Katrina.
By Shannon Ryan
Inquirer Staff Writer
The floodwaters have receded in New Orleans and the disturbing media images after Hurricane Katrina have subsided, but Eagles reserve safety Quintin Mikell and his New Orleans family are still dealing with a deluge of problems.
More than a month has passed and the nation's attention has begun to turn toward other issues. Mikell feels lucky that his family escaped, but he can't forget.
Relatives are still deciding where to put down new roots. It is unclear whether the part of the city he was from will be rebuilt. Then there is the sensitive issue of figuring out which family members really need his help and which might be taking advantage of his big NFL paychecks.
"I get frustrated because there's so much wrong," Mikell said. "I'm one guy. I can't fix it all, and I want to."
Mikell grew up in one of the poorest and hardest-hit neighborhoods in New Orleans, the Ninth Ward, where he said he was "the kid always with holes in his shoes, nappy hair and big bifocal glasses."
While rookies and free agents worked to make the team in the preseason, Mikell was trying to track down his family as Katrina approached the coast.
His mother had moved to Philadelphia a few months ago, but his great-grandmother, grandmother, two aunts, eight cousins and an uncle left New Orleans and headed for Mississippi, only to learn that the hurricane was headed there. They found a hotel farther north and huddled there for days without much food or possessions.
They finally found shelter with a relative in Louisville, Ky., where some are considering staying for good.
While many of Mikell's NFL colleagues donated money to hurricane relief funds, he sent portions of his check and gift cards to his family.
Mikell did his best to shut out the 24-hour coverage of the storm.
"I've always been blessed with the ability when I'm on the field I don't really let stuff bother me," said the third-year Eagle, who joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 2003 and plays mainly on special teams. "Off the field it was stressful. I felt like I had all these means to help, but I didn't know how to put it into use. That was the roughest."
The Eagles acted like family, too.
One coach who Mikell said wanted to remain anonymous wrote him a "nice-sized check." Snapper Mike Bartrum and cornerback Matt Ware gave him money. Running back Reno Mahe's mother-in-law invited one of Mikell's displaced cousins to stay with her in Houston.
The ordeal made Mikell remember the importance of family. He also realized that traumas don't always bring out the best in people.
"I never mind helping my family," Mikell said. "Never. There comes a time when you stop helping and you're being relied upon. I'd never cut them off, but I can't be naïve at the same time."
Mikell said his family is adjusting to a new life. His great-grandmother suffered health problems after the hurricane and is probably too weak to start over in New Orleans. His Aunt Wanda and her daughter, Rhonda, will also stay in Louisville, where she was relocated for her job and she found a new school for her teenager.
Others, Mikell said, lost their homes but plan to return and stay with a relative whose house suffered relatively minor damage.
Mikell lived in New Orleans until he was about 12, when he moved with his father to Indiana and later Oregon, before a college career at Boise State. He returned only occasionally in the following years. The move changed his future, he said.
In the Ninth Ward, Mikell lived with his single mother and other relatives in a small house. Many mornings he walked next door to his grandmother's with two jugs to collect water for the day when theirs was shut off. Without electricity at times, they ran an extension cord between the homes.
He remembers hearing the nine shots that killed his uncle's friend just around the corner. Another time, sitting in his mother's car outside church, he saw a man gunned down on the street.
Many of his childhood friends are dead or in jail. He suspects that had he not left, he would be, too. The disparity tears at him.
"I see the situation my family and friends have been placed in," he said. "[My life] is wonderful. It really is. Sometimes I almost feel bad about it. Why do I get chosen? What's so special about me? There's something in me that God has planned. I just don't know what that is yet."
When he hears officials question rebuilding the Ninth Ward or thinks about the length of time it took to evacuate people after Katrina, Mikell grows frustrated.
"Those are human beings," Mikell said. "That's where people live. It doesn't matter how much crime or how dirty. It's still people's home."
"That's where people live. It doesn't matter how much crime or how dirty. It's still people's home."
real talk
Quote from: ice grillin you on October 14, 2005, 09:30:04 AM
"That's where people live. It doesn't matter how much crime or how dirty. It's still people's home."
real talk
True. Po' folk always get farged.
By the way, IGY, you avatar is the shtein.