Our Week in the Gulf: “Gutting New Orleans”

During the first week of August, we worked in New Orleans with Habitat for Humanity’s St. Bernard Recovery Project. Hurricane Katrina wrought heavy structural damage on 100 percent of the residential and commercial units of St. Bernard Parish, located southeast of New Orleans.

Before we left Chicago, we were unsure what to expect. Miles before passing through New Orleans, we realized that the effects of Katrina reached far outside the city limits. When we arrived, Habitat assigned us to a team. Jason, the safety officer, explained what we would be doing throughout the week. Jason is a 22-year-old volunteer and inexperienced in demolition. Jason’s position illustrates a larger problem. The St. Bernard Recovery Project is run entirely by volunteers without any supervision from federal or local government agencies. Throughout the week, we realized that inexperienced, though dedicated, volunteers had led and still continue to lead the entire rebuilding effort.

As we entered the first house we were assigned to gut, we were overwhelmed by the  damage. It’s hard to fathom a house filled with 16 feet of water, but when you walk inside and see a refrigerator on top of an upside-down couch in the living room, it’s easier to imagine.

Gutting houses couldn’t compare to meeting the people who survived the disaster.  Antipoverty advocates often talk about those who survived the storm, but few have the opportunity to meet them. We met a woman who survived the storm, and when we asked how she was doing, she answered, “My home survived.” After speaking to her for a few minutes, we learned that four of her friends committed suicide after the storm, her son went missing for two months, and she was living in her gutted home without electricity. Other residents who had expected to salvage a truckload of valuables spoke about coming home after the evacuation with a moving truck but ended up leaving with a shoebox.

During the week, we had three encounters with FEMA. Our first encounter was drinking expired water that FEMA donated to the camp. Our second encounter was seeing a woman, instead of opening her front door, walk up to her home and, nearly a year after Katrina, enter the FEMA trailer parked in her driveway. Our final encounter was experiencing communication problems after FEMA removed the repeater device that allowed the radios to function.

We worked hard every day to clean one home. The number and the diversity of volunteers tell how Americans are willing to take time from their lives to help rebuild New Orleans. If only our national government shared their commitment.