NEW ORLEANS — On the corner of Washington Avenue and S. White Street is a place people call home: Unity-1 Beauty Supply.
“It’s more than just a beauty salon, it’s more than just a barber shop,” Pastor Loretta Petit, a longtime customer, said. “It has been a lifeline to a lot of people around here who have lost their way.”
Open for decades, Elvera Ruffin says customers became family. Everybody was welcome and the owners helped whoever needed it.
“They give a lot,” she said. “They barbecue, they feed the people, they bring them clothes, they let them work. I mean homeless people, people on drugs, people nobody wants to be bothered with.”
The shop that meant so much to so many people caught fire Wednesday night when a car crashed through the front, killing two people and seriously injuring four more.
According to NOPD Superintendent Chief Shaun Ferguson, officers attempted to pull over what they believed was a stolen car at the corner of Toledano and Derbigny Street. The vehicle did not stop when police deployed their lights and instead sped up, eventually crashing into the beauty shop.
Owner Beverly Smith spent most of the day with her husband John, picking through 38 years of memories now gone.
“It’s hard for me to talk about this because it doesn’t feel real,” Smith said. “It’s like a nightmare. I’m still asleep. I don’t want to look at it … I just walked in and they had water all over the floor and the ceiling is coming down.”
Seeing the damage up close brings a sense of reality to the situation not just for the Smiths, but for neighbors who promise to help them rebuild.
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“Everybody will get it back together,” Petit said. “They have a heart for people and it shows not in what they say, only in what they do.”
Smith welcomes it. For her, it’s all about getting the shop back open and helping the community so close to her heart.
"I want this neighborhood to know that even though this happened, we are very resilient, we can still come together even if we have to do it outside until we build it back up,” she said. “I want to build it back up."