Austin College Disaster Relief JanTerm

The Long Road to Recovery

2006-01-25T12:23:00.000-08:00

The long road to Recovery.
(long post but worth it)

I’m back in Sherman
I haven’t been posting as often as the others, I guess I’ve been saving my comments to try to get the big picture.

This entire trip I wondered if the character, the culture of the city would be about the same as it was before the storm. I got part of my answer when I went to Molly’s at the Market on Decatur with some of my New Orleans friends. Molly’s got some national attention from the major news outlets as one of the bars in the French Quarter that stayed open after the storm and protested the post storm dawn to dusk curfew in typical New Orleans style – they had a party after curfew hours.

I met up with my best friend from Jesuit, Mike O’Sullivan and his friend Nash, I had a couple AC friends with me to hang out. Nash told his “storm story” everyone who resided in the area has one, and by now most people are tired of telling their tale. Nash rode out the storm and recounted how he got digital video footage of the storm and how help out his neighbors, and how surreal the place became after the storm. Nash stayed in the city when it was evacuated (again) for Hurricane Rita. He said that the place was like “28 Days Later” or another Zombie movie, except it was real.
As we were talking and sipping our Guinness, a drunken Irish guy is buying Flogging Molly songs from the jukebox, and we start talking with him. I forget this Irish guy’s name but he was a flamboyant French Quarter bohemian kind of guy that the ‘Quarter is famous for. He was a lively tattoo artist that lived uptown and he was in the process of building a tattoo studio down the street from the bar which we sat. We bought more Flogging Molly songs from the jukebox and sang along and had a great time. At a certain point in the conversation I realized that the spirit of what makes New Orleans a great cultural center is still alive and kicking so long as there are eccentric ‘Quarter rats, musicians, street performers, gutter punks, hippies etc. We just need more business and better schools to keep the good times rolling, and therein lies the challenge.
The residents of the area are at the mercy of the Federal Government to rebuild the city and from the looks of things, the Bush administration is not stepping up to the plate. A lynchpin of the Recovery Plan involves the “Baker Bill” that would allow the federal government to form a corporation to assist in buying flooded homes and help pay off mortgages of homes that are now unlivable. The language of the bill is available here http://baker.house.gov/files/LRC2.pdf Bush’s economic advisors stated they would not support the bill, basically dooming it. T-P report: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1138202723122050.xml
The State essentially became bankrupt from the storm, and many LA politicos stated that Gov. Blanco was an inept leader before the storm; her miscommunication with the feds following the storm will be her political downfall.
Mayor Nagin who for the most part had a good vision for the city pre-K committed a gaff of epic proportions calling New Orleans a “chocolate city” referring to the racial makeup of the city. The press took it way out of context, but not without reason- NOLA is a great city because of its mixture of races and cultures, NOLA is a “gumbo city” more then a “chocolate city”. T-P Archive: http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_nolaview/archives/2006_01.html#106156 The speech did more harm to racial harmony then it’s intended good.
Since the national government not entirely focused on recovery, and the Mayor’s office now second guessing every comment and action and the State’s coffers emptied from the storm, it’s truly up to the individual residents and those outside the government to help themselves and others as best as they can. That is what we as a Janterm group accomplished, and I’m eternally grateful to professors and classmates and others for helping out, and I know that all the residents we helped are greatful for our service.

This Janterm actually changed my life, I’m voting with my feet and moving back to the area after I graduate AC to aid the resortation and recovery full time.
Thank all ya'll
G

Some final words

2006-01-22T21:17:00.000-08:00

So today is our last full day here in Luling and I’m actually really sad to leave. Being here has probably been one of the best experiences of my life. I’m leaving here with a new appreciation for the simpler things in life, more knowledge of what actually happened in New Orleans, and new friendships. I’ll miss being part of a good cause such as this. I wish that I could stay longer, because although New Orleans is getting a lot of, assistance they still need a lot more.

What has made this experience more worthwhile has been the warm reception of the New Orleans locals. Every person from the area has been very open and appreciative of the help that we’ve given. They have also been very open in sharing their stories of how Katrina affected them and how they feel about post Katrina assistance. Although opinions have differed from person to person, it’s still better getting it first hand rather then second hand.

One aspect of this Jan Term that I really liked was how every few nights we would gather to reflect on the day. I at first thought the reflection period to be somewhat corny (sorry professors). But as time went on the reflection period become imperative for me. A lot of the times throughout the day I would become frustrated because I’m not like a lot of the people here which can cause a lot of conflict. But gathering together at nights to hear how people’s outlooks on life were changing because of this Jan Term always helped to keep my goals in check. After every reflection period I always left feeling better about the day and less stressed about the little things that had irritated me throughout the day.

Well we’re leaving bright and early tomorrow morning. So we’ll be back at school tomorrow evening and I’m excited. One thing I really missed were nice warm showers. I can’t wait to get back to my normal routine, but I’m going to miss everyone here. Well I hope all is well with others. I’m out.

A round of applause...

2006-01-21T14:10:00.000-08:00

Quick sidenote: More pictures will probably be uploaded when we get back, so if you'd like to see some of what we've been doing, check back AFTER the 23rd. We'll either have picture posts, or a link to where a collection of pictures are.

Whew! Last day of work is done! Everyone is super excited about that. My group especially, since we've been working on the same house for the past FIVE days. (See Geoffrey's post below for more info) Catholic Charities says it usually takes two days to complete a house, with a group of 15 people. The first day this house was started, there were 15, but it was the day that it rained, so we were only there a few hours. The next day we had only 7, the next day 9, the next 10, and finally 15 again today. The days we were short people were long, dirty, and frustrating.

Not that I'm an expert on houses, but this one was built pretty well. Wooden slats nailed between the studs were covered in plaster, and sometimes on top of that was sheetrock, so we had a LOT of hammering to do. Not only that, but on one side of the duplex, the ceilings were 12 ft, and we only had 6 ft tall ladders. Eventually, some brave guys went up in the attic to smash down the ceilings in the rooms that needed it.

The man who lives there, Warren Payne, shared the other side with his sister Rose. They've lived there for 20+ years, and the house has survived a fire. He wasn't able to do much physical work because of health issues, but he sat on the porch and made conversation with us on our water breaks, offered us hand sanitizer and paper towels. Very sweet man.

Since we had so many people at our site today, we actually finished early! And that meant that we actually got warm showers! Yay! (A spot at the front of the line for showers is extremely coveted around here - six showers total for 60+ people, and the past few days, we've been unable to use the inside showers (which are, incidentally, warmer)).

Tomorrow is an off day. We'll be cooking lunch for the church members who've so graciously housed us the past couple of weeks. Then we leave bright and early Monday morning to come home.

Its been an exciting, exhausting, and emotional trip (the three E's totally unintended). We've all seen things that have touched us deeply. Many of us feel like we should stay longer, that we haven't even yet begun to leave a mark. In a way this is true, but at the same time, everything has to be done one house, one family, one day at a time. There is no possible way to rush this rebuilding process. I'm personally content with all the work I've put into this trip. I know that I've helped people. And I know I will come back again to do more.

Coming to the end

2006-01-21T13:43:00.000-08:00

Hey there guys..It's been quite some time since I've updated but I've been really busy and really tired..and really sick. But we have only two more days here and then we return to good ol' Sherman, and I can't wait.

Note to all those not camera savy: never format your camera! I didn't know what that was and I accidentally deleted all 200+ pictures I've taken on this trip. So I'm not too happy. But I do have a few pictures saved up that I will post in another entry. I just wanted to write about all that has occurred up until this point.

Last week we had a thunderstorm that pretty much flooded a lot of our tents. By flood I mean about 2 inches or so of rain in our tents, but that was still enough water to soak down a lot of our clothes and backpacks that we had on or near the floor. So last week was pretty frustrating. And we had another storm a couple of days ago that did the same thing, and there were a lot of very unhappy people. But we're trying to learn to cope with "roughing" it out here.

For the past week I've cleaned out (or "mucked" out as we say) a couple of houses, volunteered at an animal shelter, and volunteered a food drive. All of the experiences have been wonderful because the people of New Orleans have been so appreciative of all the help we are giving. Coming out here I was a bit fearful because I had heard stories of the locals being angry with those who tried to help them, but I have yet to experience any type of negative attitude from anyone.

I have really learned a lot while being here. I'm very appreciative to have had the opportunity to come out here and help the people of New Orleans. It's a beautiful city, with a lot of history and character, and it is worth the efforts to rebuild. And I'm glad to have come out here with the group that I came out here with. Although it was hard for our whole group to agree on things, when it came time to do work we did it. And I'm proud of what we've done. Well that's all for now. I'll try to write one last entry tomorrow evening. And I'll post an entry with pics. I hope all is well with others and I can't wait to see everyone when I get back.

The Last Day

2006-01-21T13:17:00.000-08:00

Finishing a house is an amazing feeling. Most days, the car ride home from gutting a house is quiet. People nap, or talk quietly on the phone, or just stare out the window. But whenever you finish a house, there's talk and laughter all the way home. We know that we've just finished something important. We've just helped to put one more person's life back together. All of the sweat from the past few days is finally worth it. Because of us, one more person is a step closer to getting their life back.

The house that we finished today was particularly important to us because today is the last day that we'll be working. The house was a duplex shotgun house with twelve foot ceilings on one side. It was a hassle, and it was dangerous, but we got it done before we left for home. It was the best possible way we could have ended this trip, because, to me, it made the work feel finished. I know that there are thousands more houses that have to be gutted, but because we finished that one house before we left, because we didn't leave it for someone else to finish, it seems like we've done all that we could have. It seems as if we've finished everything that was there for us to do.

This trip has been even better than I had thought it would be. We've gutted around ten houses, helped an animal shelter keep up with all of their work, put nails into what will eventually be someone's new home, and did work in one of the only gardens left in the city. Through all of our exhaustion and complaints, we've helped to put people's lives back on track. Even people we don't help directly are affected. Every person that discovers why we're here is always so thankful that you'd think we were helping them, too. But what I've discovered about New Orleans is that the people here are all connected. The sense of community that only extends to immediate neighbors in the suburbs stretches across rivers here. Every house that we clean out fills the city with hope. Our presence here helps people to see that their city is coming back, and that fills them with more hope and courage than any donation ever could.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

2006-01-17T12:48:00.000-08:00

Well, we've had our first test of the tent/pod/house thingies that we're living in (and actually a second test, too. More on that at the end). Last week, a big thunderstorm came through the area, and sorry to say, many of tents leaked. Well. My tent actually flooded; many of our clothes got a nice bath. But I think everyone's stuff made it through that time . . .

Thursday I went to Best Friends, which is an animal rescue group who have set up a temporary site to take care of animals displaced by the storm. Their main goal is to get animals adopted or shipped off to other shelters around the US as soon as possible, because more and more animals are brought in daily.

There is always work to be done there. They want the animals to interact with people, but there are so many chores to be done, that the time is hard to come by. Dogs' food and water has to be changed daily, and the cats' food, water, and litter has to be changed also. Plus, the crates that the animals are delivered in must be washed so that they can be ready to hold animals to be shipped off. It was hard not to stop and play with every dog and cat you saw.

Friday a group of us got up super early and went to an organic citrus farm. The man who owns it, Lester, has found himself out of workers and with a major surplus, because demand has gone down due to the storm. A lot of his fruit is rotting on the trees. So we picked grapefruits, oranges, satsumas, kumquats, and lemons for him. I'd never been to any sort of orchard, so for me it was very interesting just to see the process. Lester encouraged us to eat the fruit right off the trees, and gave us each an 8 lb. bag to fill with whatever fruit we liked. Needless to say, we've had plenty of fresh fruit for the past several days.

Saturday I was sick :( so I didn't go out to muck. Sunday and Monday were free days, with an option to work Monday. Everyone mostly relaxed and caught up on rest.

Last night, sometime around 3 or 4 am, it started raining again. Very hard. And I believe it stopped around 1 pm or so. Tents we had mopped up, squeegeed, and cleaned up from the last rain are now sitting in puddles again.

I should stress that our camp is the guinea pig camp for PDA. They plan on setting up more camps based on the successes (and failures) of ours. So something will hopefully be learned from all this. Our camp is a big mudhole right now, and the gullies already in place to catch rain water are overflowing (irony?). Slip n' slide and mud-wrestling matches have been suggested to pass the time, but no takers as of yet.

Jobs for today were postponed until around 1.30ish this afternoon. But now the camp is out working again with Catholic Charities and Best Friends.

Only one more week left! (Good because of the mud and rain, bad because many of us feel that we'd like to do more.) Thanks for keeping up with us.

Ripples in a Pond

2006-01-17T09:17:00.000-08:00

I went to dinner with a friend of mine the other night. She lives in New Orleans, and her house got a few feet of water. She said that almost all of her things were destroyed, and that sometimes, she got really frustrated whenever she wanted something that was lost in the flood. But she said that most of the time, she felt lucky. And then she said to me that she appreciated what I was doing here. And for some reason, that resonated deeply with me.

Oftentimes when I tell someone that I meet around here what I'm doing in New Orleans, they always say that they appreciate it. Now, when I hear that coming out of the mouths of the people whose houses we're working on, I can feel that appreciation. I can feel real warmth in their words. I never really thought about it when others said it to me. But when this nineteen year old girl, when this friend of mine told me that she genuinely appreciated what I'm doing here, something changed. I realized that just by being here, we're changing things. We may not be touching the lives of every man, woman, and child in New Orleans, but our presence is. Volunteers are still coming. We're here, doing what we can, and the entire city appreciates it. To me, that has made my trip worthwhile. I know that I've made an impact in the lives of people who are hard pressed for hope right now. And that is all the payment that I need.

Headlines

2006-01-14T18:15:00.000-08:00

Erin Myers, a senior at Austin College who is attending this trip (and contributing to this site), works for the Herald-Democrat, a newspaper for the Grayson County area. Check out the articles she's written so far:

AC Students Take Trip for Disaster Relief

Signs of Destruction Everywhere in Louisiana

New Orleans is City of Destruction

Technical Difficulties

2006-01-12T17:13:00.000-08:00

I'm working to get a picture post up, but we're having some problems getting it to work on some computers. As our computer access is limited (to say the least), it's taking some time. Keep checking. You have to see these pictures. There's no other way to understand what the Lower Ninth Ward looks like.

Work with Catholic Charities

2006-01-12T16:46:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

Hopefully, I can get some pictures up soon of some of the things we've been doing the past couple of days. Our days are packed here.

Just in case anyone was wondering, this is what our general daily schedule is like:

xxx-7.30a: Breakfast and get ready time.
7.30a-7.45a: Morning chores. We've just implemented this, and the kinks are still being worked out. We're all divided into groups and the chores change daily. The morning chores have to be done before we leave to go places.
8.00a-8.30a: This time period is a little more vague in actually. Because the groups are so varied, and the places are in different parts of New Orleans, the times we leave are different everyday, for every group.
9.00a(ish)-4.00p(ish): Scattered about in different groups, with lunch stuck in there somewhere.
6.00p(ish): Dinner and/or showers.
7.30p-8.30p: Big group time. Sometimes we have speakers, or we'll meet to talk about our discussion questions, or at the very least, we'll try to get some general housekeeping stuff done, try to plan for tomorrow.
8.30p-xxx: Freetime/Bedtime.

So. On to the last couple of days.

I worked with a group that was working on houses picked by Catholic Charities to muck out and strip.

I believe (and anyone correct me if I'm wrong) that people contact them if they want to have their house gutted and rebuilt. Catholic Charities then sends someone out to evaluate the house. If the house is worth 50% or more of its original value, then its deemed okay to be gutted. But Catholic Charities is focusing firstly on people who did not have flood insurance. Those who had flood insurance are further down on their list. Then they send in a crew (us!) to gut the house and spray it down. Then another group that they're working with, and I'm terribly sorry, I can't remember the name, they come in and rebuild on what's left.

So after getting a bit lost, our group arrives at the house to be gutted. All their furniture was still inside, but we'd been told that the owners had gone through and removed all the valuables. EVERYTHING was covered in mold. The water in this house was at the 8-10 foot mark. It had covered the ceiling. In a couple rooms, the sheetrock in the ceiling had already started to give way and collapse.

Where I had been energized the other day about cleaning out the Dalmus's house, this time it seemed more depressing. To realize that I was carrying out onto the curve, a family's entire home. And that so many more houses would have to have the same thing done.

Once the furniture was removed, that feeling sort of lifted, and we got to do some fun smashing. While its not really exciting to realize that the reason you can actually punch and kick through the sheetrock on the walls is because its still so damp, it was a fun process. That went out on the curve as well. We stopped there for the day.

The next day we took down the ceilings and all of the insulation. Itchy. That took a good portion of the day, just to get it all out of the house. All the tile in the bathrooms had to be removed as well. We had also saved the refrigerator for today. Think about this: A full fridge, also full of water, sitting without electricity, for four months. Yum. Duct tape is amazing.

A big claw/crane thing came by while we were working and started filling about 2.5 semis-worth of all the furniture, insulation, and sheetrock we'd removed. We started spraying the house right before we left. A mixture of water and bleach over every porous surface, or as much as possible. A group came back today and finished it up.

This process is not glamorous, obviously. And its not pleasant. Its very smelly, and as I've said, a little disheartening at times. But its amazing, when everything is removed, to be able to know that this is a fresh start for a family. The house is down to its bones, but its much, much healthier than it was. And we've worked as a team to get it that way. And now this family can start over.

that's all for today, but I'll try to post some pictures tomorrow. Bye!

hey

2006-01-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

Hey guys..This entry will be without pictures. I just wanted to write more about what we've been doing here and how it's been affecting me.

On Tuesday a group of us began cleaning out some of the damaged homes. It's a very long and tiring process known as mucking, which with a group of 15 people can take up to 3 days to complete. We first had to clear everything out of the house and salvage anything that was not ruined by the rain or mold. This job was by far the dirtiest thing I have ever done in my life. By the time we were done yesterday we were all covered in dirt and mold. It was pretty disgusting. We were, however, lucky to meet the homeowner of the house that we were tearing down. It was a great experience to be able to talk to her and get her perspective on the events of the hurricane and its aftermath. I'm not one to watch the news so a lot of the things I've heard about the hurricane were heresay, so talking to her allowed me to see things in a better light.

We continued to clean out her house today and me and another student were able to really talk to the lady and ask her questions about her feelings on the hurricane and the relief (or lack their of) that the victims of the natural disaster are recieving. Through our questioning session I discoveverd that the lady had flood insurance, but the insurance would not cover the complete costs of damage to her house. I also discovered that she was still having to pay utility bills even though her house had not electricity or gas. And she's not the only one that that is happening to. It was really disturbing to hear how companies can cheat their customers and get away with it. Today was actually the first time I actually found myself getting emotional over the hurricane. I really want to talk to more victims of the hurricane to get a feel for what others are experiencing.

But it's kind of late now and my though process is all over the place..I hope to be able to write a better entry when I get everything in order. And so sorry for the disorganization of my last post. I'm not very good w/ this whole website thing.

Hey Grandma..I love you!!!

A Taste of Why

2006-01-11T20:18:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday, we began doing serious relief work. We split into several teams: one team traveled to an animal shelter, one team went to a botanical garden, and three teams went to three houses in order to gut them. I was on a gutting team. In the past two days, my group and I have torn apart a man’s house. We have emptied it of all of the belongings that he has accrued in the past eighty eight years; we have torn out all of his drywall; and we have begun to pull down his ceilings. We haven’t even tried to remove his refrigerator yet, nor have we started tearing up his decimated (but beautiful) wood floors.

We have done all of this with him in the house. He has watched every bit of damage that we have done to his home, and he has done it without so much as a whimper of a complaint. Which became all the more meaningful after he told us that he built this house himself.

We had a speaker last night, a pastor, who had counseled a woman after her husband had died. She said that the first year without him had been hard: he wasn’t there at Christmas, or Easter, or Thanksgiving. But she later told him that the second year was even harder because she realized that he wasn’t ever going to be there again. Today was like that for me. The first day was difficult, but when we started working today, I realized that there are so many houses exactly like this, and people will need to clean out those houses every day for at least another year. It’s incredibly difficult to contemplate, let alone grasp emotionally.

But last night, a group of us got a reminder of why this city is worth all the work. After dinner, a group of fifteen of us traveled to a club to listen to a brass band. We were only able to stay and listen for an hour, but in that hour, I had more fun than I had ever thought possible. There is no other music that makes you want to move, to shake, to dance, to be alive like the music a brass band emits. Within the walls of that cramped, smoke-filled club, we got a taste of what New Orleans is known for: jazz.

There’s no other place in the world that you can find music like that. The thumping, the noise, the sweat, everything in that building built up an atmosphere that you can’t find anywhere else. And that is why this city is worth saving. We’re not just rebuilding people’s homes; we’re not just helping to put people’s lives back together. We’re helping to pick up the pieces of a true American city. There’s so much history and life in this place, and it’s worth the effort to reconstruct. It’s worth our time. It’s worth my time. And I’m proud to have done my part in stitching up the wound on this wonderful city.

Another entry

2006-01-09T19:07:00.000-08:00

Hey there guys it's me again. I just wanted to make an update that had pictures so that everyone could see what we're doing here. This picture to the left is from the first night that we arrived here at the church. We had to set up the cots inside the church and that's where we slept our first night. As you can tell it was pretty crowded.

This picture to the left is a picture of the tents that we spent all day Friday and most of Saturday building. They're heated tents, which is a plus, but they are a little bit dirty inside.

On saturday we went into New Orleans and cleaned out the above couples house. It was definitely an eye-openening experience. Before going into the houses we had to put on masks and gloves to protect us from the mold inside.

As you can see below there was a lot of damage done to their house. We had to go through a process known as "mucking" and clean out everthing inside and outside of their house.

Well I'm out of time so I'll end here. I hope all is well w/ my friends back at AC. I'll update w/ a more in depth entry and more pictures. Until next time...

George's First Post

2006-01-09T16:30:00.000-08:00

Greetings. I'm late in adding my perspective to the blog but I think my insights could be enlightnening. First a little background on myself. I was born in New Orleans and grew up in Metairie, LA and I'm more then glad to be here to help out my hometown. I was spared the wrath of the storm; my family still owned a house in Old Metairie, but my immidiate family had had left the area about a year and half before the storm. Even if we lost our house, none of our possessions would be lost. Thankfully, our old house didn't flood and sustained little wind damage. We soon sold our home. We lucked out bigtime. The storied breach in the 17th street canal occurred on the opposite side from out home. Few were as fortunate as my family. In the chaos that ensued from 29 August 2005. I was in Sherman, TX for the whole ordeal watching helplessly on CNN. It was September 11 redux for me. I'll interject more 29 August to 30 September stories later on in the blog. It was all a twisted weave of emotions that I mostly care not to recall. For me it was not a question of if I could help it was when I could help.

A few days ago the group went to Gentilly (an area of New Orleans east of City Park) to clear out the house (see picture post) the area was just as I had expected, abandoned. People hesitated to exit our van when we got to the house. Jon (sp?) told the vanload of students "Lets get to work!" Josh and I pulled out a grandfather clock from the house like a casket. Piece by piece we excivated the house. One house gutted, one step to resoring the neighborhood, one step toward restoring the region.

Much more to post
~George

Picture Post: Cleaning out the Dalmus's

2006-01-09T09:03:00.000-08:00

Eve and Genie Dalmus

2006-01-08T12:06:00.000-08:00

Hello, everyone!

My name is Jackie, and I'll be posting on here sometimes. It's been pretty intense here so far, and we've only been here for a few days.

I think the events yesterday at the Dalmus's was the first time that I realized that this was all very real. Up until I stepped inside that house, I still felt like I was watching a TV. But its amazing how your senses all work together to contribute to your reality; where I had been seeing images and hearing people speak of the devastation in New Orleans on the TV for months, I'd never smelled it firsthand.

Anyone who worked in the house had to wear a mask, because of the mold. And it certainly smelled. Many of the clothes, bedspreads and wooden furniture was still wet. Thick dressers splintered as we pulled them apart to get to the clothes inside that would have to be thrown away.

Eve and Genie had a beautiful house that was filled with personal items they'd collected over their lives. Many of the objects we removed that were - increadably - salvagable were statues, such as her several Virgin Marys. Eve was so thankful that they were saved.

Some other things that came out from the house in fairly good condition were some pieces of china, several pieces of jewlry, and I think one whole photo album. Photos, to me, are so increadably important to my memories, and I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a single album of photos left, but like Eve, I would be glad to have even that.

Eve and Genie were fortunate enough to own their property. Eventually they will probably tear down the structure and rebuild on that same space. Many in the area weren't as lucky. 'For sale' signs were in many yards.

Today is an off day. Most of the camp went to church here at First Union Presbetarian, or at other churches in the area. We were fed a wonderful lunch of fried chicken by the good people of this church. We are all so grateful to the people of this church, and of PDA, for accomodating us and helping us.

A couple people went back to the Dalmus's to do a bit more work, but the rest of the camp is relaxing around here for today. Four of the showers arrived the night before last, and were installed yesterday, so we're all very happy about that! Four more should be coming soon.

Thanks for everyone's support while we're here. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers for us and for the people of New Orleans.

No Words

2006-01-08T09:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, a group of maybe thirty of us went into New Orleans to clean up a house for some family of an Austin College staff member. Just getting there was an experience. Heading for the city, we passed a Motel 6 that's still missing an entire wall. There were five or six stories just covered in a huge plastic tarp.

The farther into the city we got, the more we got to see. Houses with only blue FEMA tarps for roofs. Hundreds of abandoned cars sitting beneath underpasses. And, worst of all, lots of houses with red X's on them. Right before we got to the house we worked on, we passed by a house with a sign out front: "So long, N'awlins! We'll miss you!"

No matter how much you see on the news, no matter what pictures we post here, there's just no way to grasp the concept of what's happened here without seeing it. When we parked in front of the house next door to where we worked, we opened our door to find a car that had been washed onto the front lawn.

Eighty percent of New Orleans was underwater at some point after Katrina. Because that water stood still, it left water marks on a lot of buildings. For those of us that weren't here before they cleared the water, that's the only way to comprehend how high the water got. But there weren't any water marks on the bricks of the house we worked on yesterday. It got too high. The only place that water marks were visible was on the drainpipe, or on high windows. The house had been completely underwater.

The damage was incredible. Beds, pianos, tables, dressers: all furniture had been thrown around as if they weighed nothing. Every ceiling fan was waterlogged and sagged towards the floor. Bank statements diseintigrated as we pulled them from drawers. Entire photo albums had become nothing more than melted colors. These people, who had built their lives in this house for years, lost almost everything.

There isn't a way that any of us can describe what this house was like. Even as I'm typing and re-reading this, it seems so small, so meaningless compared to what we saw. The pictures might help, but I don't know that I can make it any more clear: the damage was total.

The woman who lived there, Eve, spoke to us after we'd finished. Her attitude was incredible. Where I live, people complain about two tests in a week. This woman had come back from church to find her home gutted, her belongings lying in the street, and she told us that all it meant was that she'd have to start over. "God is good," she told us. She only lost her optimism once. She was telling us that they had lived, and that was most important, but then she looked back and said, "But when you lose your life savings..." It broke my heart. I've never heard anything that painful before.

As we were leaving, we all came to a realization: this was one house. There were at least thirty of us, and we had spent hours clearing it out. We hadn't even finished. And it was only one house. There are hundreds, thousands of houses just like the one we tore apart. This process is going to take years. It's going to take tens of thousands of work hours. And it's going to take money.

Please, if you've got anything to give, donate to a charity that's still working here. The PDA is still doing a lot of work. All religious organizations are still doing work, as well. You can easily find websites online that will tell you how a national church is helping out, and how to give money. It may not seem like much to you, but to the people who are here helping out, and even more to the people who want to live in their homes again, it will be nothing short of a miracle.

Monica's First Post

2006-01-07T11:04:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone. Just stopping by to write a few words. Everything is going great so far. We arrived here in Luling on Thursday evening and have been busy ever since. Our first project that needed to be accomplished was the building of the tents that we're going to be living in. That was a lot of hard work but it's worth it to see the finished results. The people at the church have been very welcoming which has made this trip more enjoyable.

Today we went into New Orleans and cleaned out a house for a couple. It was a very eye-opening experience. To see the damage done to the homes was an incredible experience and made me appreciate my blessings more. I have pictures that I'll post later. Right now we're about to eat dinner. So I'll write more later.

Hi Mom and Dad! Love ya.

Putting Everything Together

2006-01-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

Sorry about the brief entry last night. I was exhausted and didn't have access to a computer, so I had to call up my brother and have him put up a couple of sentences so that you guys knew we'd made it all right.

As soon as we got in to the First Union Presbyterian Church (where we're staying), we had a fantastic meal. Afterwards, Debbie Corrao, who's coordinating everything while we're here, formally welcomed us and introduced us to Albert Laque, the President of the Parish that we're staying in (he's on the right).

After President Laque, Dan Grimes spoke to us about Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, which is a program that we're not only working with, but is also housing us (hooray for them!). The PDA was formed ten years ago, and Mr. Grimes, who has been doing disaster relief since 1981, described the organization's role as "innkeepers of volunteers for disasters." The organization assists in disaster relief by providing places for volunteers to stay. For us, that means tents.

Putting up the tents has taken up all of our time today. Since there are almost seventy of us, we've got quite a little village to put together. We started work on the village at about nine this morning, and we've been going non-stop since then, with only a short break for lunch. There's still plenty left to do--more tents to put together and nail down; setting up the heating system; caulking all the floors so that we don't get too chilly; and general clean-up of the site so that we're not always tramping mud and leaves into the tents. It's taking quite a bit of time, but when we're finally done, it will be more than worth it. Last night, we all had to stay in one big room together, and somebody near the door snored like a chainsaw. So long as that person isn't snoring in my tent, I'll be happy even if it's snowing outside.

We'll be putting together our camp for the next couple of days. On Monday, we'll be going into New Orleans to take a tour and see the damage that still exists. On Tuesday, we'll be getting to work. Personally, I'm hoping to work with Habitat for Humanity. I'd like to see a house go up while we're here.

I think that's about everything there is to tell right now. We should have new authors here in the next day or two, so you won't just have to listen to my inane ramblings. Until next time...

Still Here

2006-01-05T22:08:00.000-08:00

We made it into Luling after about 12 hours on the road. Our tents still aren't up yet, but hopefully we'll have them up by tomorrow night. We're all tired and are going to bed early. I'll have more tomorrow.

In the News

2006-01-04T09:43:00.000-08:00

Austin College put an article up about us. Check it out.

Beginnings

2006-01-03T13:50:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Austin College Disaster Relief JanTerm weblog. This site was created in order to record our experiences as we help to rebuild the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina. It is also here to allow for our friends, family, teachers, and anyone else that is interested to see our reactions to what has happened and how it shapes the way we view the world.

Now, for introductions. My name is Geoffrey Mecoy, and I am (technically) a junior at Austin College. I switched into this JanTerm from another one because I feel very strongly that this is important work. I have a close friend who was in New Orleans when Katrina hit, and I've seen pictures of the aftermath. I've heard firsthand how this storm has affected her and others, and because of this trip, I'm going to be able to help people whose lives have been taken apart. Work like this is more important to me than being able to skim through another class that might be easier.

Other students will likely be joining me in this blog in a few days, but for right now, I'm all you've got. So, here's what the next couple of days is for us:

Wednesday, January 4 -

Thursday, January 5 -

After that, we'll be getting to work. On what exactly, I'm not sure. There's houses that need mucking, animals that need saving, and any other work that we can find. As soon as I know, you'll know. Promise.