Pics from the week

The two Kevins. This was Saturday night a Madigan's. Little Kevin (that's what they call him) is on the left. My brother is the good looking one on the right. Little Kevin was all pumped up (and drunk) because LSU made it in the final four. Geaux Tigers!

Parrots at my brother's house. They came back right after the storm - Kevin said they were a little shell-shocked, but they were still around. Beautiful birds - and quite funny, especially when the squirrels are around.



A thank you picture from the daughter of the woman who owns the house we did on Tuesday.

Day Four, House Three

So, I really am smiling in this pic - and that really is me behind all of that PPE (that's military speak for Personal protective equipment). I'm standing in front of about 1.25 days worth of "trash" - also known as probably 95% of someone's personal belongings, and all the guts of their house.

It was another long day, this one harder than the first three. I think we've all just reached a point of exhaustion. This was our second day at this house; we made a lot of progress the first day and we finished up today. It's pretty amazing to know that we were able to accomplish that much within two days. At times the task seemed impossible to accomplish - staring at mounds and mounds of unidentifiable personal belongings, sheetrock, insulation and wall to wall carpet (ick!). Today insulation was the bain of my existence. It was like gremlins when they are exposed to light or water - it seemed to mulitpy inexplicably.

Tonight I went to "dinner" with some of my tent mates. They are on a different team than I and their house owner suggested they go to one of the bars up the street from our camp for crawfish. So, I tagged along - always one to sample a little of the local flavor. Their house owner was at the bar (Lehrman's in Chalmette). Very sweet, older gentleman. We couldn't buy a beer in this bar. Mr. Louis had never heard of Abita, but he was more than happy to buy me all the Purple Haze I wanted - even though I'm not even working on his house. Good crawfish, good beer, very nice people. The girls from Idaho even seemed to enjoy themselves ;-)

Not sure what tomorrow has in store - maybe another "fresh" house.

Will try to post more pics today. Mike, our team leader, christened our pile of trash with a bottle of bourbon today - partially for fun, partially to mask the smell of rancid food - I got a fabulous shot!

Day 3, House 3

I haven't really described much about what we've been doing since we reported to work at our first house on Monday. As I mentioned in my previous post, my team (Go, Gold 12!) has had it relatively easy (emotionally, not physically) in that we have not had a "fresh" house until today.

The first house we were assigned was pretty close to finished. All of the contents had been removed, all appliances (including the dreaded refrigerator), kitchen cabinets, carpet, etc. Our job was to take the house down to the studs. All sheetrock - walls & ceilings, light fixtures, everything was to be removed so the house was just a shell. Mission accomplished! We were finished and ready to move on by 2:30 or so. Of course, we didn't get a new house that day (our day finishes around 3:45).

Tuesday we arrived at a new house - and the owner greeted us outside apologizing because she didn't think there was anything left for us to do. Her husband had signed them up for this program (houses are chosen by a lottery system to be cleaned out). Being the resourceful, hard-working, independent woman that so many of us Southern women are, and being out of work since the storm, she got in that house and did it herself. She and her sister cleaned out everything from the house and when we got there yesterday the only thing left was the ceiling in the bathroom and the floors. We had to tear out all the floors (oak), and in some cases, the sub-floor. We were amazed at how much she had accomplished. An amazing woman. I think she had trouble letting us help yesterday - to thank us she and her sister brought us boiled crawfish at our new house. That's what most of the people here are like. That's what people need to know about New Orleans and the surrounding areas.

Today we got our "fresh" house. The family had come back and managed to make a small stack of things they wanted to save in the garage. The site of a home ravaged by 12 feet of water is really not something you can describe. Every single item in the house has been swept up by water, mixed around and then finally settles wherever once the water recedes.

We had not one, not two, but three refrigerators to deal with. Some of the girls on the team are from Boston and they just couldn't understand why anyone would need that many refrigerators. I told them that my brother had three - two of them hold the beer. One has beer for guests and the other has the really good stuff :-) OK, so it's really for all the surplus fish he catches - but the beer story just sounds more authentic New Orleans.

Aside from the mess and the smell (mold, rancid food (7 months rancid), mold, must, mold) - mostly it's just emotionally and physically draining. We are scooping up everything these people owned with shovels and pitch-forks. Every now and then you'll come across a memento worth saving - a baby picture, a photo album from a wedding, a crystal glass that weathered the storm, and sometimes - if you're paying attention - porn. Yes, and not just any porn - a photo album of homemade porn. I have to tell you - my fear on this trip has been encountering a snake, but I had no idea it would be the one eyed variety staring up at me from a flood-stained photo album. Here's the lesson, people - when you are evacuating... take your PETs, take your important papers, and for God's sake - take your porn! The question we had was whether or not to put it in the personal effects pile.

Quotes for the day:
(actually from Monday) - I feel like a need a toothbrush for my nose (thanks, Sue)
Quote 1 from Wednesday:
I really don't like sucking the head.
Quote 2 from Wednesday:
I actually kinda like sucking the head.

A few words for Red Wing:
Puncture resistant soles, my ass!
Yes, Heather has a new piercing - thank god I had my tetanus shot.

Greetings from Camp Premier

This was my 2nd day of work in Chalmette. I got to New Orleans on Saturday and checked in to Camp Premier on Sunday. There's quite a lot about this experience worth noting - and I'll try to do that later when I'm not so exhausted, but I have a few things I wanted to go ahead and say.

First, driving into New Orleans - even having been forwarned - I was shocked and saddened by the state of East New Orleans. I swear it looks like most things have not been touched since Katrina hit. Apartment complexes, shopping malls, neighborhoods completely abandoned. On Sunday my brother and I drove down to the Quarter for lunch. The route we drove took us by the Superdome and down Canal Street. I think Kevin was trying to expose me to small doses of what I would be seeing once I got to St. Bernard. The most upsetting thing for me was the Saenger Theatre. Like the rest of the city, it looks like a victim of war - and nobody is stepping in to rebuild after the battles are done.

Sunday afternoon I picked up a fellow Habitat volunteer from the airport. She's from New Jersey and has never been to New Orleans before. So, I tried to give her the overview of what things "should" look like as opposed to what she was seeing. I was not too surprised that she came here to help - she volunteers for her local Habitat chapter. I was, however, surprised after I met a lot of other people here who have never been to New Orleans - or anywhere on the Gulf Coast (most never to the South). They have no connection to this city and yet they wanted to come here and give their time and their energy (lots of energy) to help people they have never met, and in some cases never will.

I tried really hard to prepare myself for Chalmette. I watched a lot of CNN - a lot of Anderson Cooper. My fear was that I would not be able to handle this emotionally. I couldn't sit through any of the stories on Anderson Cooper without crying. Somehow, I made it all the way to Camp Premier with dry eyes. Things didn't really hit me until we made our way into the neighborhood that we would be working in on Monday morning. To see an entire neighborhood destroyed - and, with the exception of a FEMA trailer here and there, uninhabited is quite a sobering experience. Knowing that this is just one of many neighborhoods is just depressing.

After two days in the neighborhood I realized that it didn't take very long to become numb to what you are really seeing. Of course, my team hasn't had the full experience yet. We have gone into two houses so far - and both were cleaned out, we were just finishing them out - taking them down to the studs. Standing in these empty homes - it's easy to forget how they got in this condition - and then it hits me and I take a deep breath, wait for my eyes to dry and I go back to prying up floorboards or punching down ceilings, anything to channel the frustration and the sadness - and the anger - at what these people have gone through and are still going through 7 months later.

St. Bernard CleanUp

March 26th I report in to Camp Premiere in Chalmette (St. Bernard Parish) to assist in the hurricane clean-up there. Our job will be to clean out people's homes so taht they can begin to rebuild their community.

I've been very anxious to lend a hand in the rebuilding effort on the coast since Hurricane Katrina hit. Except for my trip home to Mobile at Christmas, this will be my first time on the coast since the storm.
A week isn't much to contribute to this effort, but at least I'll know I've done what I can.

My hope is to update this blog throughout the week I am there.

We shall see - hopefully it's not FEMA's responsibility to provide the internet connection.