My rebuilding trip in New Orleans, in a very abbreviated form, but with a lot of pictures.
We arrived in New Orleans Friday night around 8pm. We checked in to Carrollton Methodist Church where we had arranged to stay through the Unitarian Universalist network down there (which had hired out the space in the church for volunteers).
Our wonderful staff leader arranged everything and then we hunkered down for the night. We slept on air mattresses in a huge room with at least 1 other group every night. It was actually rather comfortable. (This is what happens when no one else is in the large room we sleep in...)
Saturday
4 of us, the staff leader and I included, went to a house behind a church in Lakeview to insulate.
The water in Lakeview was 9 and a half feet tall in the street and 7 feet high inside the church. The church had purchased a small house behind it in the hopes of turning it into a temporary sanctuary and then later, an education center, as they waited for their church to be renovated (the damage inside of the church was extensive and most of it looked irrepairable.
So, we insulated. And insulated some more. And then we insulated some more. And then we were finished! Yay!
Sunday
We rested along with the Lord.
Monday
We gutted with an organization called Common Ground Relief. They are a.m.a.z.i.n.g.
To gut, we had to wear hats, gloves, work boots, respirators, tyvex suits.
Me, outfitted in all the hotness:
Here are all of the volunteers outside CG.
We went to gut a woman named Miss Morris' house in the lower ninth ward.
Miss Morris' 1 story house:
Her first full bathroom
Her living room
Her second full bathroom
Her bedroom
Her kitchen
Miss Morris is on the bottom-right.
Miss Morris' story
Her mother refused to evacuate from her Lower Ninth Ward apartment, so Miss Morris stayed with her. They were stuck on the roof of her mother's apartment complex for 4 days before being rescued by the Coast Guard. They were then moved to a bridge, which they spent the night on. Then, her mother died due to all of the stress. Miss Morris was then moved to 9 different FEMA locations including Pensacola, FL. She filled out the paperwork to get a FEMA trailer in her yard the Friday before the 4th of July in 2006. She got the trailer in her yard August 1st, but didn't get the actual key to her trailer until the 1st of November because of all of the red tape. Miss Morris was actually very lucky because she works for the Navy and never missed a paycheck.
We started gutting. Gutting entails tearing out everything except the very basic framework of the house. Gutting takes a long time. It also includes taking out the central heating unit, bathtub, toilet, sink, plumbing, all wires, etc.
After the first day, we were definitely not done yet.
Tuesday
We went to a children's park and spread sand to make a baseball diamond. It's an amazing feeling knowing that you're affecting the morale of some kids that have lost so much.
The deliberations.
The work.
The play.(yes, that's me.)
We're almost done!
The finished product.
Wednesday
We went back to Miss Morris' house and gutted some more.
This is the remnants of Miss Morris' kitchen floor. The wood was still so damp and so rotted that it was just crumbling whenever we walked on it. Imagine wood still being damp over a year and a half later.
We weren't done yet gutting by the end of the day so we decided to come back on Thursday.
Thursday
We spread sand for another kids' park.
It was hard to do it being that the clover had grown over so high, but it was fun too! I even found a 4 leaf clover!
All of us on the fence behind home base. (I'm in the middle in the gray wifebeater)
We drove home Thursday night around 7pm.
It was an amazing trip and I'm looking forward to going back in May.