Leader of New Orleans United Way Seeks to Rebuild His Hometown

For G. Gary Ostroske, president of the United Way for the Greater New Orleans Area, Hurricane Katrina and

its aftermath have been a harrowing experience.

The deadly storm displaced his staff members to cities as distant as Flint, Mich., and forced him to flee his home and hitchhike — by both car and boat — to safety.

Today, several weeks after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, he continues to rely on the goodwill of others to house him and his family, but his primary concern is for the United Way to start helping the neediest people of New Orleans again.

“Our plan is simple,” he says. “Get back to work.”

But Mr. Ostroske, 57, faces extraordinary challenges. Not only must he raise millions of dollars for rebuilding and coordinate the United Way’s efforts with government and nonprofit officials, he needs to find places for his employees to live, repair the damage to the charity’s headquarters, and, of course, take care of his wife, two children, and two pets.

Last week, Mr. Ostroske visited the Crescent City and its surrounding parishes for the first time since Katrina hit. During his trip through blockades set up by the U.S. military, he witnessed a grisly scene.

“Crypts have been opened and the coffins are no longer in them,” he says. “What was once land where cows had grazed is now literally lakes or part of the Gulf.”

Remarkably, the building that houses the United Way’s main office on Canal Street in New Orleans survived relatively unscathed. While the first floor — where the conference rooms, kitchen, and reception area are located — will have to be “gutted” due to water damage, Mr. Ostroske is optimistic about a quick return.

“We’ve already had the elevator shaft pumped out. The moment the electricity comes on, we’re heading back,” he says. “I’m hoping to be back in the building by the first week in October.”

Yet while the United Way may reopen its headquarters, Mr. Ostroske is unsure how many of his staff members will return. “There’s a couple who are still questioning things,” he says.

So far about 34 of his 44 employees have returned to Louisiana.

Many are still homeless, like Mr. Ostroske, who is staying temporarily with the president of the United Way in Baton Rouge. Mr. Ostroske has rented a house outside New Orleans where he and at least six other United Way personnel will move next month, possibly turning the dining room and living room into temporary bedrooms. He also is asking local hotels to make rooms available for his employees.

Looking Ahead

With those plans in place, Mr. Ostroske has turned to the future. “Thinking ahead, we’ve got to figure out how we are going to deal with funding required services in 2006,” such as child care and aid for homeless people, he says.

While the United Way’s fund-raising materials have been destroyed and many New Orleans corporations no longer reside in the city, Mr. Ostroske says the charity will start its annual campaign in January.

“We will find those citizens that have been temporarily relocated to other spots to help us rebuild,” he says. The charity may even solicit funds from New Orleans companies that have moved to Baton Rouge, for example.

So far the New Orleans United Way has raised about $2-million for its disaster-recovery efforts.

But Mr. Ostroske says much more is needed. He is concerned that not enough money has been going to support long-term needs, and instead the donations mostly benefit the American Red Cross, the Salvation Army, and other relief groups that will leave the area eventually.

“When they’re gone, the question becomes: Who is going to help these people rebuild?” he asks. “I’ve been here before, I’m here now, and I’ll be here forever. I’m the United Way.”

Mr. Ostroske also has been tending to his family during the crisis.

Like many people in New Orleans, Mr. Ostroske decided to ride out the hurricane in his home, believing his electrical generator, extra water, and other supplies would prepare him for the worst. However, once the levees were breached, sending Lake Pontchartrain flooding into the city, he says, he knew he had to escape.

Four days after Katrina made landfall, Mr. Ostroske got his family and their dog and pet canary, named Artie — who was still in his bird cage — onto a boat that he had waved down.

The boat took them to Interstate 10. After wading through the brackish water to the road, Mr. Ostroske devised a plan to get out of town drawing upon skills he learned while in college.

“In graduate school, I hitchhiked nearly 8,000 miles,” he says.

His son, Peter, scoffed at the idea. “My kid says, ‘Dad, no one’s going to pick us up. We’re dripping wet, we’ve got a bird, we’ve got a dog.’”

But Mr. Ostroske picked up a real-estate sign and wrote on the back using his wife’s lipstick: “United Way staff, La Place or B.R.,” as in Baton Rouge.

The sign worked, and the Ostroskes escaped the city unharmed. However, their house and property, in New Orleans’s Uptown neighborhood, was severely damaged. “The water had killed every form of vegetation. Everything was an awful color brown,” says Mr. Ostroske, who visited his neighborhood last week.

The damage to his home and the pressure of responding to the crisis have taken a toll on Mr. Ostroske. “Every once in a while you get down in the dumps,” he says.

But when he feels depressed, he remembers advice he received as a child from his grandmother. “She said, ‘You know, Gary, you complain about your shoes until you see the person with no feet,’” he says. “I just feel at this particular time I don’t need to complain about my shoes.”