Day 6 - 04.06.06

[heheheheh rats. so gross.]

8529 Victory Lane (the rats were next door, thank goodness!)

Our first *untouched* house. What a mess. The flood completely covered this house and everything was ruined. Here are a few pictures which I won't caption, b/c it's just what a house looked like before being touched. The first one is a rosary which stayed in place and survived. Powerful. The last one is the bedroom, kind of spooky and Titanic-like how the bed is still made, just lifted and displaced and ruined. The pink stuff everywhere is melted insulation, from when the attic just FELL onto the ground floor.



This house was overwhelming and I think we all felt that when the day began. We were going to dump all of this person's belongings in a heap and demolish their house. Incredible. Since it was Thursday, we didn't think we'd get through this house; however in one day, we got through the front two rooms, part of the kitchen, and most of the sunroom.

Of course, we had fun, too (necessarily!). The night before, Sarah had said to me that she thought Patrick was so cool and that she would marry him so he could stay in America (he's Korean). The Carson City ladies - Raelene, Susan, and Teri - thought that was hilarious so they suggested a lunchtime wedding cermony. We were all cracking up as Patrick and Sarah "exchanged vows".


[(L) Ring Bearer Raelene and Champagne Lady Susan. (R) Exchanging vows: "I will cook you meat every day! (reference to Patrick's comment earlier in the week about how much he loves meat.]

[(L) the happy couple, haha! (R) 'carrying her over the threshold']

This was probably the height of our hilarity all week...at which point we came crashing down to reality as the owners of the house showed up. We all shut up and gave each other 'holy crap' looks.

They were a retired, sophisticated couple. They pulled up in a nice red pickup and got out of the car. It wasn't a minute before both of them broke down. "No more tears" the woman said, "but they keep coming". They had only come back for pictures. "48 years of marriage, 34 years in this house. We only want pictures." The man couldn't take it anymore and took a walk around the block. They're now living in an apt in Baton Rouge, about 1 hr away, and she said she hasn't yet found 2 of her aunts. She has 3 kids, all of whom are married, all of whose houses were destroyed, too. Everyone in the family is displaced all over the country. Still. Still. 8 months later.

Day 5, continued

Jorgensen residence at 3908 Evangeline Dr.

The St. Bernard Recovery Project is partially coordinated by Americorps, and our Americorps team lead was Amata. She was wonderful and did a fabulous job managing 10 people older than her (she’s 21!). Since we had about 1.5 hours left in the day, she asked us if we’d like to check out another finish-up house; we said okay. It was just across the street. On our way over, she said “now, the last team refused this house…you have that option as well”. We all gave each other worried looks.


[Here’s why: the homeowner must have had tubs of grease in his garage/storage area that all exploded. Haz Mat situation!]

We decided we would clean every room in the house except the one with the grease. And, we decided to make it fun. We made a two-part ramp so we could run the wheelbarrow up to the top of the pile of debris. However, it was easier said than done…


[(L) best pic of the week: Sarah loses momentum after ramp #1. Notice the wheelbarrow on the far left, also falling over. (R) My aim sucks – (the wheelbarrow was lopsided!)]


[(L) Patrick eases onto ramp #2. (R) Sarah’s triumph!]

We didn’t get too far in that house before it was time to leave. During dinner, Sarah and I volunteered at a soup kitchen operated by a Baptist church which was just down the road from camp. The camp had been providing meals for residents for 7 months. It was incredible to talk with and meet some of the locals, most were homeless and/or living in FEMA trailers until they’re told what’s next. 7 months later. 7 months.

The nighttime consisted of a girls slumber party in the tent, lots of girls talk, deep conversation, and junk food. We were all POOPED and needed a night off from the action!


[will explain this pic if you’d like, just let me know].

Day 5 - 04.05.06

3917 Evangeline St., continued.

The action continued in the two-story house. We still had a lot of floorboard left to go. One interesting thing about this family is that they wanted the kitchen to stay. Although it was on the 2nd floor, it was pretty damaged. We didn’t get to know much more about this family, although when we called to verify about the floor, he just said over and over ‘God Bless You all, thank you. Thank you’.


[(L) Raelene tosses some debris out the window. (R) Floorboard, Insulation, and Sheet Rock, Oh My!]


[(L) Sarah pulls down the sheet rock. (C) Sarah chucks the sheet rock. (R) The aftermath.]

Just after lunch, we finished the house. It’s such a great feeling to know that because of our hard work, they’ll be able to visualize rebuilding their houses and lives.


[(L) Oops, we forgot the pool…filled with Katrina leftovers. (R) Me with one foot on the 2ND FLOOR balcony and the other on the story-high pile of debris!!]

I must interlude here with some hilarious things that happened/ were said. Because truthfully, we’ve been keeping our spirits really high. We had to – being surrounded by this devastation all day can really get to you.

1. I made up a cheer for our team, which was Gold #1. We renamed it ‘The Solid Gold Muckers’ and here is our cheer:

We’re Solid Gold (clap clap)
We don’t like mold (clap clap)
Or leaving people (clap clap)
Out in the cold! (clap clap)

We don’t like FEMA (clap clap)
We can't stand Bush (clap clap)
We’re here to give (clap clap)
That extra push!! (cheer)

2. Donal, who grew up on a farm and is a macho kind of guy, is weirdly a vegetarian. He unknowingly grabbed the wrong lunch out of the cooler, and thought he got gypped and angrily threw the turkey from his turkey sandwich on a pile of debris. The lunch ended up being his girlfriend’s (also in our group, also weird)! Dan, our team leader, offered her his sandwich, and she didn’t even thank him. Everyone else felt awkward.

3. Teri cannot get people’s names right. So she kept calling Patrick, our ‘tool guy’, “Peter”. Eventually, we all ended up calling him Peter.

4. Extending on our ‘musical’, we made up dance moves for the choreographed dance. They were all inspired by our tools and our movements while mucking…we had the wheelbarrow, the chisel, the hammer, and the shovel.

Day 4 - 04.04.06

On to 3917 Evangeline Dr.

Sarah and I are really awful at waking up. Today we woke up late, at 6:30, and had to rushrushrush to get to our bus on time. Not enough time for coffee, and it was a rough time there for a couple of hours after a late night in the Quarter. Advil was necessary.

We finished up our first house, 8404 Benjamin St. This is our entire team, in our first triumph:



And a couple of ironies we found near the end. On the left, a Hurricane Tracker Chart...which survived the hurricane. On the right, self-explanatory (it was actually a divorce book, but it landed just like that on the pile of crap).


I should pause for a moment since most of the people reading this don't know Sarah. She is my accidental-now-good-friend I met on Saturday at the airport. She is a teacher through Teach for America and lives on a Navajo Reservation 35 miles from Gallup, NM. i.e., BFE. She's originally from NY, went to Cornell, and we get along great - best part being that we have the EXACT same sense of humor and have been feeding off of each other all week. 2t, you'd love her.

On to our next house, a HUGE 2-story which had already been gutted, but not that well. To give you an idea of how high the water got in St. Bernard Parish, see pic on right. Where the mold stops is how high it got...on the 2nd floor!



Our main task with this house was originally to 'finish up'. However, while uprooting baseboards on the second floor (how COOL am I, I was pulling up baseboards while y'all suckers were at work/school) I noticed the oak flooring was really damaged, and in parts, still wet! We were told the owner did not want the flooring removed, but we asked the Americorps team leader to call him back to let him know it seemed dangerous to keep. He agreed; we were excited. Then the following conversation ensued:

Donal (sharp, unfunny dud in our group): Do y'all know how hard it is to pull up wood floors?!
Sarah: Well, I didn't come here to lift pillows.
Donal: And we don't have enough tools. This is going to take us all week.
Sarah (at this point we're both sick of him): Well, I didn't cut my nails, so I'm just going to go at it with my hands {insert hand-digging motion}
Me: Yeah, you know, I did cut mine...but I can just use my teeth {insert growling noise}

At which point, Sarah and mine's imagination ran wild. I would use my teeth while she held my legs wheelbarrow-style. Then we'd wheelbarrow it over to the window and I'd spit out the boards...but not the nails. No, I'd keep those in my mouth so I could spit them out rapidfire like in a cartoon, and spell out "KATRINA IS A WHORE" in the sky. Think arched, Broadway style. Then, all of the volunteers on the street would come together on the street in a choreographed routine, singing and dancing. The finale would entail me being thrown into the pool filled w/flood water and doing a synchronized swim with the fishes, jumping out, and with jazz hands, shouting "I'll be here all week".


[Me 'biting' the floor, and the actual floorboards I tore up, with a flat bar and hammer]

Today was great, all of us were in synch, and the house was big enough where we weren’t on top of each other. There was a point in the day when I noticed no one talking and everyone just trucking away and thought to myself how much of a well-oiled machine we had become in one day. Here are some action shots.


[(L) Susan knocks down some sheet rock. (R) Teri gets rid of the moldy stairwell wall]

[(L) Dan pulling up some baseboards. (R) The main room upstairs after we took out all of the oak flooring!]

The day breezed by, which we decided was largely due to the enlarged working space, cooler weather, and the great refreshing breeze. We decided to celebrate the accomplished day by going out into the city to cause some trouble. First we squeezed onto a balcony overlooking Bourbon St. and had a few drinks, then wandered in and out of bars until we ended up at Fat Catz, which had a live band playing hip-hop covers…


[(L) Left to Right: Raeleen, Susan, Patrick, Sarah, Dan, Me, Teri. (R) Raeleen dancing with her dude as Patrick looks on, at Fat Catz]

Day 3, continued

First night in the city.

Wandered around French Q. again Monday night, got 3 for 1 beers (!) which we could drink on the street (!!) and ended up in a hole-in-the-wall live music joint (!!!) which, among the multitude of paraphenalia on the walls, there hung an old, framed poster of the Michigan Football team (!!!!)! (forgot to take a pic of that though) :(


[(L) The 'Swampwater Stompers'...from Indiana! (R) Lisa Lynn, sultry jazz singer]

[(L) $1 beers on the street, gotta love it (R) a guy who definitely doesn't need another one]

Day 3 - 04.03.06

8404 Benjamin St.

OMG, everyone in our tent was up at 5:57am. I think all of you know how much I LOVE getting up early. Before I forget, here is a *forbidden* picture of our tent. (no photography allowed on campsite. I don't know.)



We met in our teams (GOLD #1!) at 7am (!) and boarded the busses for our worksite. Our team leader, Dan, informed us that we were going to be finishing up a house that was started last week. Typically teams get through 3-ish houses a week. Dan did a quick assessment of how long it would take us to finish the house: "about an hour". Yeah, RIGHT!


[everything is water damaged. All of the houses on this street were covered w/flood water. (L) Dan starting in on a bedroom; behind the archway was the bedroom which was untouched! (R) the closet in the bedroom; the clothes were still wet. You can imagine the smell.]

Around 10am, when we thought we were finishing up, someone looked up: "Is that an ATTIC?! full of STUFF?!" Goodness.

[(L) Sarah, myself, Susan in full PPE - Personal Protective Equipment. (R) Sarah in the attic.]

Around 2pm, I reminded everyone that it's GW's fault that we were breaking our backs down there. (he cut the funding for N.O.'s levees, so...). Pretty much everyone down here is Anti-W, so shouts of agreement echoed in the house. It was pretty ridiculous that things looked like this 7 months after the disaster...especially with hurricane season looming nearer and nearer...



A few hours later, drenched, drenched in sweat, we had stripped the entire place down to studs and nails. The project is to strip the houses so that the homeowners can rebuild. However, many of the houses have for sale signs (we're hoping they decide to stay after they see it was cleaned and rebuilding is possible), and no place in the Parish has yet been declared 'liveable'. And, as you can see above, the trash hasn't been removed yet. This is because...drumroll...FEMA cut the funding for the waste removal. Great. The Parish government is working on getting money flowing again. The Feds suck.


[(L) the 'after' shot of the closet!! (R) the 'after' shot of the bedroom!!!]

[(L) some valuables survived the flood! (R) Sarah and I in triumph at the workday's end.]

Tonight, we are going into the city for a couple of cocktails...I definitely need one, as I heard some not-so-good news re: something I will not post on *THIS* blog...