Reflecting on a Trip to New Orleans
30 March 2006 11:24:49
Well, it’s been almost two weeks since my trip down to New Orleans with Campus Crusade. What a busy two weeks it has been. My parents are preparing to move back into their home after becoming refugees from a house fire that took their home last July. Hence two weekend trips up to the Cities to help with the moving efforts. That coupled with a busy schedule at work, other responsibilities and plenty of quality time with that special someone and my weeks have been packed. But sometimes that’s just life in our culture.
In any case, the Katrina relief trip was amazing. To see the devastation in pictures or on TV just doesn’t compare to seeing it first hand. The majority of the city is still living in third-world conditions—no running water, no electricity, no gas. Thousands of people are living in FEMA provided trailers right in their won front yard while the wait, and wait, and wait for help, for money and for direction.
Upon arrival, our group was split up into smaller teams of 7-14 people and sent off to homes around the city that needed to be gutted before they could be assessed for flood damage. What was so fascinating about this was that many of the homes still haven’t been touched since the home owners had fled for their lives leaving everything exactly the way it was that terrible day. There was still trash in the kitchen garbage can, grooming products on the bathroom counter, and in one home, food in a pan on the stovetop.
As we began the difficult process of emptying the contents of each home out onto the front yard along the curb, we realized that after three months under water and another six months spent drying out EVERTHING was still soaking wet in many parts of the homes! This made the job even more difficult and sometimes the stench became so overwhelming we had to leave the home for fresh air.
It took our team of 7 a little more than 2 eight-hour days to empty just the contents of a small to medium size home. Then we began the process of gutting the walls, ceiling, appliances, counters, and everything else down to the bare wood framing. This process took another two days along with the help of another team.
In the end, we spent a total of about five days on one home with a team of seven people. Begin to multiply that by the number of homes in a city the size of New Orleans and you may begin to understand the magnitude of the work that still remains. The city NEEDS our help. Please consider sacrificing some time to go down and help!
