Alvin Numa Cahall, Jr. (photo dated June 1, 2014)
It started when Al approached me on the evening that Ray Nagin was re-elected Mayor of New Orleans. Al told me his story, that he had lost everything when hurricane storm surge obliterated the levees along the MR-GO and inundated his home to the rooftop. “There were dead crabs on my roof,” he told me. Like many, even though he had flood insurance, the claims payouts plus the little bit of relief he got from the Small Business Administration disaster loans and the Road Home Program went little distance in making him–and his family–whole.
I told Al that I started Levees.org because of people just like him. And how I was driven to lead a team to show that the flood fiasco called ‘Katrina’ was in fact the worst civil engineering disaster in our nation’s history. I had not seen Al since 1994 when Al had handled all of the AV needs for my then-employer. But that night in 2006, I told Al that if Levees.org ever needed an AV professional, that we would call on him. And we did just that for the next eight years.
Until this past June 4.
Al’s wife Dawn called me to give me incredibly sad news, that Al had decided to leave this world. Immediately, memories rushed back to me, the memories of Al talking about and missing his home in St. Bernard Parish, his well-kept St. Augustine lawn. Al had been furious at the Army Corps of Engineers, not just for their negligence in maintaining the MR-GO–which caused the deadly flood in his region–but for the way the Corps lied about their role in the disaster. Al believed in what Levees.org was doing and told anyone who would listen about its mission and goals.
Other memories rushed back to me as well. How Al was much more than a perfectionist in his audiovisual services. Al always gave unsolicited but excellent suggestions on how to make our events and press conferences better and more professional looking. We welcomed this advice, which he gave apparently through a desire to help us, as a friend would help a friend. That was Al…
While my relationship with Al was strictly a professional one, it wasn’t difficult for me to see that he was hurting badly after the Flood. But I didn’t know the depth of his pain until his wife called me.
Al’s best friend, Roger Kennedy gave a moving eulogy at the funeral which included this passage:
“…Those who knew Al best witnessed how the events of August 29, 2005 would change his views about life forever. The flood took the family home, the photos, the precious mementos and much of the evidence of his life before that tragic event. It also took out the warehouse full of equipment that was a cornerstone of Al’s career. He’d never allow himself to get past the shock and sorrow of that disaster. It’s as if that water had never drained away.
While others begged him to view it as a sign, as a cleansing, as an opportunity to embrace a new path and a new direction in his life, he could never quite break off that rear view mirror, he could never break free from his own grief. In a very real sense, that catastrophe nine years ago has claimed yet another victim that we mourn and also celebrate today….”
Dawn explained to me a few days after the funeral that her husband believed the Corps of Engineers had robbed him of his future. “The Corps took everything he had worked for away from him,” she said. “And he couldn’t see that there was hope.”
Levees.org could not help Al enough, but by telling Al’s story, his wife and I believe others may be helped, others who can find solace when the story of the 2005 Flood becomes conventional wisdom.
Could someone explain the world to me
In words I can understand
This isn’t the way things had to be
For such a kind hearted man…Excerpt from “Explain the World” by Roger Kennedy spoken at the funeral of Alvin Numa Cahall, Jr. on June 13, 2014.
See the obituary here.
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