Ladies and gentlemen, this is not a test.
This is the real deal.
And I don't want to panic you, but I want to make sure
that you understand that there is a major hurricane
that is in the Gulf of Mexico.
I can still feel it, like it was yesterday,
even though it happened so many years ago.
This is the scenario that people in New Orleans
have been fearing for a long time.
My mom's just like me.
She's daring. She's not afraid of nothing.
But I heard fear in her voice.
That's what made me go.
I've never heard my mom sound like this.
Well, this may weaken below a category five
before it hits land, but that's still extreme damage.
Of course, we've been optimistic because we thought
it was coming right back.
It's going to be going basically.
Okay. Okay, it's time to go.
But who's wrong?
Oh, Lord, I've done the best I can.
Please, Jesus, remember me.
Remember me.
Remember me.
Remember me.
Remember me.
Remember me.
Remember me.
Remember me.
Oh, Lord, remember me.
Thank you, y'all. I'm going to go now.
Thank you very much.
All right. All right.
Feeling good.
I feel great.
Watch out for the little car.
This one.
Katrina is still alive.
Because there's no Bourbon Street back here.
There's no French quarters back in the Lord Night Ward.
It's just us.
Before Katrina, I had 42 neighbors.
Today, I have three.
And I can understand why the big box stores are not coming back,
because there's not enough people to sustain it.
And I can understand why some of the people don't want to come back,
because there's no businesses.
Somebody has to do something,
and it turned out that somebody was me.
He's bold.
He don't mind diving off into something
that most people think it doesn't make sense,
but for some reason, he sees it different from other people.
If you give someone your word,
your word is your bond.
That's something my mom should tell me and my brothers.
And I told everybody I was going to open up a grocery store.
In this one building, we have a barbershop.
I have a hair salon, I have a sweet shop, a grocery store,
and now we have a laundry room.
I spent my entire life savings,
opening up this business.
295.
I had people to laugh at me.
I had people tell me that it was going to be a failure.
I had people to tell me another Katrina's going to come
and wipe it out.
I tried, and they didn't try anything at all.
And I'm still trying.
And that's why I can't stop.
It's been too many years to have emptied a lot like this,
where this was somebody's house.
Every day, someone's knocking at my door,
asking me to build something.
I say, just give me some time.
I'm going to open up, you know, more businesses.
What's going on, sir?
Man, I don't know. I'm glad you're here to come to me.
You know I never let you down.
If your home is hurting, you're supposed to take care of your home.
And I'm going to keep working until I can get
the Lord Night Ward to catch up with the rest of the city.
There's a new day around here, you know.
Good community, things are going to burn out, you know.
You're bringing life back to the neighborhood.
I'm trying to get a hold of you for the longest.
I don't care what happens.
There's nothing like your own home time.
But you're born and raised there.
It could happen again.
I'm going there and coming back.
I'm coming right back to it.
And my ambition is to live long enough to see not it come back as it was,
but better than what it was.
You know, I had to say,
I don't think one person can make a difference.
One person can make a difference.
You have to really, really want it.
And don't let nobody tell you can't be done.
