Louisiana
What an amazing week...I don't even know if I can put it into words. The trip down was long but fun cause I was in the Vanatomic Banshee! The only negative was having to sleep on a tile floor in Kentucky! We got to Slidell, Louisiana about 9:30ish and it was still hot!! I changed into shorts and we chilled for awhile and went to bed on MATTRESSES on BUNK BEDS INDOORS, when we thought we were going to be in a circus tent on cots!
We woke up and since it was Operation Blessing's (the organization we worked with) day off we went into New Orleans! On the way in we saw a lot of blue tarps on roofs and a lot of destruction, but once we got down town the only major signs that the city had been flooded were the lack of people and the water lines on the buildings. We checked out the Riverwalk and Jess, Jill and I bought sweet Mardi Grais masks! Then we headed to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. We were amazed at how good it all looked.
That night we had orientation...that scared us all a bit. They showed us film on St. Bernard Parish one of the Parishes(Louisiana's name for counties)we would be working in. Then they showed us one on the hazards we could in counter...snakes jumping out of drawers...ah...I don't think so! Then they talked to us about the continuous problems they're facing...people dying because they can't get their prescriptions filled! They also showed us our ET like suits, our respirators, goggles, and hard hats we were to be wearing so the mold wouldn't get to us...they looked fun...but in actuality they were hot as what and uncomfortable!
Monday we started working...the first we went to all we did was dismantled a mangled shed. We were then sent to another house where we were to finish gutting the house. There was only a few rooms and the ceilings left. All the personal belongings were already gone. The worst part of this day was the EVIL gnats...Most of our group ended up looking like they had the plague...for some lucky reason I was spared! I really like tearing out the kitchen and the tile wall in the bathroom! Hitting a hammer through the tiles was such a great stress reliever!;) Lunch was another great experience. They gave us MRE's or Meals Ready to Eat...army food. It took as a couple mistakes, but we finally figured out how to get the bag to cook our food. I loved the crackers and spicy cheese! Then it started to rain which made eating a bit difficult...and made the bugs worse!
Tuesday we went back to the house. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and the bugs had gone! We worked the entire day cleaning out the house of insulation and drywall. Part of our group helped the home owner clean out his garage. His comments were quite amusing. He also told us that this was his third flood and some of the stuff in his garage was from when he last had to re-do the house.
Wednesday we went to a house in St. Bernard Parish that hadn't been touched since the flood. As we drove through St. Bernard it was as if we were in a ghost town. There were houses off their foundations and all had X's on them from being checked we dreaded seeing a number other than zero in the bottom which would mean there had been dead bodies found. One house in the neighborhood we were working in stated on its boarded up windows..."Looters will be Shot." Our house looked fine on the outside, but as we stepped in it we began to realize the damage. Furniture was strewn all over the place. Dressers, beds, TV's, buffet tables, dining room tables...flipped and moved as if they weighed nothing. We didn't recognize that there was carpet on the floor, because it was caked in mud. The walls were growing mold in multiple colors...red, purple, brown, black, green...Jess, Jill and I worked on the kitchen the entire day. We emptied out the cupboards...there were glasses full of muddy water and the pans which were full of the muddy water were also rusting. Jess emptied the freezer and the smell made us all gag. The pantry was stocked. Cardboard boxes were disintegrating, the Pringles' can was squishy, the tin cans were rusting, and other stuff was unrecognizable. Jill started on the fridge, but we couldn't stand it so we ended up just duct taping the door shut. George and Alice the owners came for awhile and asked us to find a liquor that he had had since 1954 and her diamond earrings. We found the liquor, but were unable to find the earings.
Thursday we continued work...as we had emptied the kitchen we began to gut it. We soon found out that the walls were layered in paneling. Up to four layers in some areas! We all grew to hate it. When we started to take the carpet out we finally began to see an end to the mess. It was hard to throw away all of this couples belongings. It made me think a lot about what is important to me. It's not all my "things" its my memories. This trip really made me think about how I would handle this situation...these people were just taking it in stride and moving on. I would like to think I would do the same...
Friday we were suppose to not work and leave at noon. Our group decided to go back to George and Alice's house, because there was still soooo much to do. I have never worked so hard in my entire life. We did a days worth of work in THREE hours. The guys were amazing. Pete knocked down ceilings like it was nothing, John kept us going at the end by yelling at the top of his lungs that it was the last quarter and that we needed to do it for George, Corey and Nate went from room to room doing last minute things (taking out sinks, toilets, lights). The rest of us continued to knock down walls, take out carpet and then clean up. After a week of working together we had a rhythm. We knew the best way to pack the trash cans, the best way to sweep up all the stuff and the best way to get the carpet up...we were a well oiled machine.
The trip back was long and hard...as we were leaving the warm weather and there is still sooo much to be done down there. We barely made a dent in the work that needs to be done. Though it was a hard week emotionally as well as physically...I do not regret for a minute going on this trip. There is soo much more I could write about, but this is already a really long post...and no one seems to read these any way...but I need to share and let people know that even though its not in the news anymore, people are still suffering from the affects of the hurricanes...
We woke up and since it was Operation Blessing's (the organization we worked with) day off we went into New Orleans! On the way in we saw a lot of blue tarps on roofs and a lot of destruction, but once we got down town the only major signs that the city had been flooded were the lack of people and the water lines on the buildings. We checked out the Riverwalk and Jess, Jill and I bought sweet Mardi Grais masks! Then we headed to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. We were amazed at how good it all looked.
That night we had orientation...that scared us all a bit. They showed us film on St. Bernard Parish one of the Parishes(Louisiana's name for counties)we would be working in. Then they showed us one on the hazards we could in counter...snakes jumping out of drawers...ah...I don't think so! Then they talked to us about the continuous problems they're facing...people dying because they can't get their prescriptions filled! They also showed us our ET like suits, our respirators, goggles, and hard hats we were to be wearing so the mold wouldn't get to us...they looked fun...but in actuality they were hot as what and uncomfortable!
Monday we started working...the first we went to all we did was dismantled a mangled shed. We were then sent to another house where we were to finish gutting the house. There was only a few rooms and the ceilings left. All the personal belongings were already gone. The worst part of this day was the EVIL gnats...Most of our group ended up looking like they had the plague...for some lucky reason I was spared! I really like tearing out the kitchen and the tile wall in the bathroom! Hitting a hammer through the tiles was such a great stress reliever!;) Lunch was another great experience. They gave us MRE's or Meals Ready to Eat...army food. It took as a couple mistakes, but we finally figured out how to get the bag to cook our food. I loved the crackers and spicy cheese! Then it started to rain which made eating a bit difficult...and made the bugs worse!
Tuesday we went back to the house. Thankfully, the weather was beautiful and the bugs had gone! We worked the entire day cleaning out the house of insulation and drywall. Part of our group helped the home owner clean out his garage. His comments were quite amusing. He also told us that this was his third flood and some of the stuff in his garage was from when he last had to re-do the house.
Wednesday we went to a house in St. Bernard Parish that hadn't been touched since the flood. As we drove through St. Bernard it was as if we were in a ghost town. There were houses off their foundations and all had X's on them from being checked we dreaded seeing a number other than zero in the bottom which would mean there had been dead bodies found. One house in the neighborhood we were working in stated on its boarded up windows..."Looters will be Shot." Our house looked fine on the outside, but as we stepped in it we began to realize the damage. Furniture was strewn all over the place. Dressers, beds, TV's, buffet tables, dining room tables...flipped and moved as if they weighed nothing. We didn't recognize that there was carpet on the floor, because it was caked in mud. The walls were growing mold in multiple colors...red, purple, brown, black, green...Jess, Jill and I worked on the kitchen the entire day. We emptied out the cupboards...there were glasses full of muddy water and the pans which were full of the muddy water were also rusting. Jess emptied the freezer and the smell made us all gag. The pantry was stocked. Cardboard boxes were disintegrating, the Pringles' can was squishy, the tin cans were rusting, and other stuff was unrecognizable. Jill started on the fridge, but we couldn't stand it so we ended up just duct taping the door shut. George and Alice the owners came for awhile and asked us to find a liquor that he had had since 1954 and her diamond earrings. We found the liquor, but were unable to find the earings.
Thursday we continued work...as we had emptied the kitchen we began to gut it. We soon found out that the walls were layered in paneling. Up to four layers in some areas! We all grew to hate it. When we started to take the carpet out we finally began to see an end to the mess. It was hard to throw away all of this couples belongings. It made me think a lot about what is important to me. It's not all my "things" its my memories. This trip really made me think about how I would handle this situation...these people were just taking it in stride and moving on. I would like to think I would do the same...
Friday we were suppose to not work and leave at noon. Our group decided to go back to George and Alice's house, because there was still soooo much to do. I have never worked so hard in my entire life. We did a days worth of work in THREE hours. The guys were amazing. Pete knocked down ceilings like it was nothing, John kept us going at the end by yelling at the top of his lungs that it was the last quarter and that we needed to do it for George, Corey and Nate went from room to room doing last minute things (taking out sinks, toilets, lights). The rest of us continued to knock down walls, take out carpet and then clean up. After a week of working together we had a rhythm. We knew the best way to pack the trash cans, the best way to sweep up all the stuff and the best way to get the carpet up...we were a well oiled machine.
The trip back was long and hard...as we were leaving the warm weather and there is still sooo much to be done down there. We barely made a dent in the work that needs to be done. Though it was a hard week emotionally as well as physically...I do not regret for a minute going on this trip. There is soo much more I could write about, but this is already a really long post...and no one seems to read these any way...but I need to share and let people know that even though its not in the news anymore, people are still suffering from the affects of the hurricanes...