9th Ward

This group picture was made at the site of the breach in the levee that flooded the 9th Ward. We were told that the water reached a depth of about three times our height. All the houses, in this area were totally destroyed, including Fats Domino's.

According to Google Earth, his house once stood almost directly behind where we were standing.

Go to Google Earth, and type in "Fats Domino, New Orleans, LA". The marker will be above what was left of his house.

Two intrepid members of the UUCA group (Bob and Sally) who found themselves in upper bunks. The 13 UUCA members shared one dorm. Students from Rhodes College in Memphis and Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania lived in the other 2 dorm rooms. We shared a communal kitchen and dining area. Amazingly enough, it all worked out quite nicely. I think everyone in our group even slept reasonably well. The college students were very respectful of the 10 pm quiet time - maybe because most of them left to go out on the town then and most of us were asleep.

One work crew with Mr. Smith. This crew was made up of 6 women of a certain age and Reed, who is 18 years old and an amazing young man from UUCA. Around 30 other college students stayed in the dorms at the Unitarian Church with us. They chose to spend their spring break working in New Orleans instead of partying on the beach. With examples like Reed and those other young people, there definitely is hope for the future.

One of the crews worked on the Smith house. Here's Mrs. Smith taking a break with Charlotte. The Smith's live in a duplex and both sides had to be gutted. They paid a contractor $45,000 to do all the work. He did some and then disappeared, taking with him at least $20,000 of the Smith's money. They've been able to finish the side of the duplex they live in. We worked hard priming and painting on the side they rent out but there still is a lot of work to be done and they have no idea when it will happen.

This was taken near one of the houses we worked on. There are varying degrees of damage to neighborhoods depending on how close they are to a levee or the canal. The lower 9th ward looks like a war zone. Originally there were approximately 5500 homes there and now there are around 50. The ward residents were primarily working-class African-Americans, many of whom owned their homes. The fear is that the original houses never will be rebuilt and the city will reclaim the land and sell it to developers.

This is only a small sample of how things look in many parts of New Orleans and it isn't the worst scene by far.

Back home again

We're back from New Orleans after an extraordinary week. Unfortunately, there was only one computer for the use of 47 people so we didn't do much blogging while we were there. Now that we are home, a couple of us have pictures that we are going to post and others might share their thoughts and feelings after reflecting on the experience. Don't give up on us. Try again in a day or two.

KATRINA RELIEF

Our dinner tonight was cooked by a New Orleans native who had volunteers work on her home last summer and was showing her appreciation by making a huge pot of gumbo for the forty five volunteers now living at First Unitarian Universalist Church for the week. Later on we went to the French Quarter for beignets and walked by the Mississippi River. This was another great evening after another day of hard work. My crew of seven worked for the third day at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Smith; we have now finished the scraping, priming and painting of five rooms plus bathroom and closets. This morning Mr. Smith was waiting for us as we drove up and quickly unlocked the door. He and his wife are both in their early seventies. He is retired but Mrs. Smith works from three to eleven PM at the New Orleans' casino. She leaves at one so she can get the bus and have lunch at a fast food restaurant before work. Our UUCA group of thirteen is living with thirty college students; sharing the kitchen and bathrooms is working out better than expected. We sleep in one room with seven bunk beds. Every day on our way to work we are reminded of the devastation; houses still not fit to live in , some being worked on and others waiting for their owners to receive money to begin the long job ahead. Ten thirty and time for lights out.

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go!

We split up into two groups and went to our respective projects. Each group will be working in the same house for the whole week. Seven people went to Mrs. Boyd's house and did carpentry work - things like installing baseboards, framing doors. Hal Hogstron said that the main problem was that the house is very old and the doors had to be accomodated to the size of the opening. In appreciation, Mrs. Boyd is making homemade soup for the crew's lunch.

The other group went to the Smith house. Mr. and Mrs. Smith live in a railroad or shotgun duplex. This is a house that has 5 rooms in row. They live in one half of the duplex and rent out the other half for their income. We're basically priming and painting there with a little dry wall work. To be continued later. Hal is making chili for all of us. It's smells delicious and it's ready! Hard work definitely creates an appetite.

We made it to New Orleans

We arrived safely on Friday, March 1. We had a wonderful church service this morning at First Unitarian Universalist of New Orleans. They are celebrating 175 years of UU worship. Ginny Courter, Moderator of the UUA, gave an irreverent and uplifting talk. After a celebratory lunch by the congregation, we went on a self-guided tour of several areas of the city that had suffered incredible devastation in Katrina and the after-math. Tomorrow we start work on our projects and we're rarin' to go.

Here's our blog

This is the blog that the March 1, 2008 group from the Unitarian Church of Asheville, NC will use for their trip to New Orleans. There will be 13 of us going and we're all very excited. We'll use this to record our thoughts about the adventure we are undertaking.