Sunday, January 8, 2006: Day 1: Travel Down

This morning I got up quite early in the morning and was out the door by 5am for a flight out of Manchester. Some snow had started falling between when I entered the airport and when I got on the plane, and they had a good job of de-icing the aircraft. It was snowy and dark out when we left, everything so still and quiet and peaceful. As we rose up, we rose above the first set of clouds into a narrow window of clear air between two sets of clouds, like an airplane sandwich, and rode that for a little while. Then we rose up and got to see the bright vibrant sunrise advancing across the cloud tops like a knife, lighting up especially the little tufts of clouds that rose up as in a plastered ceiling or cream cheese spread. The aircraft was pretty small, not a jet like I had thought it would be, but it was a nice flight in a window seat.

I arrived in Newark and walked around the airport for a while, then sat and read more of my PHP/SQL self-taught course book, and did the same after a longer flight to Houston. Both places were sunny, with different temperatures (seasonal). When I got into New Orleans it was dark again, though the lights of the city that I did see stretched for miles.

We landed and got a bit of a tour around the area from a local scholar (Kevin Reckert) who was with us for most of the week. The devastation was incredible. We asked him if the media had played it up to more than it was, and he said there was no way to ever imagine the reality, which was much more extreme than even the media could make it. 4-way stops were everywhere that traffic lights used to be, or were and just weren’t working. Huge sections of the city had no electricity at all, though the storm was 5 months ago. We passed by large suburban areas, areas our guide told us would have all been lit up before the storm. It was complete darkness, except for the many stars above, and one really had to look to notice the houses standing dark and empty. We passed an area with rows on rows of dark condominiums, emptied by the storm for death or escape. Numbers spray painted on homes counted the dead. Unless marked otherwise, it could be safely assumed that any business we passed was closed.

The economy down there was clearly a reconstructionist economy. The majority of open businesses, and the ones that seemed to be finding any success, were mostly home improvement warehouses, mold removal services, tree services, self storage, and hotels. Many people were living in FEMA trailers in their front yards. On the Mississippi gulf coast, slabs of concrete were all that remained of former houses.

Many trees were down, some broken off halfway up and some fallen over with the roots and ground still attached, and many others were just missing. Those that were still there were diseased by the salt water. The overall scene seemed like something out of a bad horror movie.

Day 2 (Monday): New Post-Katrina Construction

We went off to the work site this morning at eight, though it was a while until they had something for us to do. The volunteer site was not exceptionally well-managed, because that chapter of Habitat had expanded so rapidly (from 2-3 houses/year average before the storm to 100+ houses/year after the storm) and considering that, they were handling the challenge pretty well. I found some work with other Habitat volunteers putting up siding and doing similar work on new home construction. A large part of the group went off to another site to do some demolition work on a woman’s house that had flooded out and was growing mold.

Perhaps this week affected most of us the way it did because we could relate to the situation. The other Habitat volunteers were everyday good people, and the neighborhood we were working in was just a regular suburban neighborhood without most of the devastation from the storm (it had 3’ of water in the flood). The work was a powerful reminder that we are not far from a similar disaster ourselves, and it was very easy to start considering things from the perspective of the flooded-out people.

In the afternoon, the demolition crew returned from Helen Hicks’s house and a press crew arrived from the local paper to interview some people and take photos. Habitat sent us off after the press visit, and a few of us guys had a very relaxing time at the church. The others went to a health club that has graciously donated use of their (rather nice!) facilities for showering after the work site. We also have plenty of provisions and accommodations here at the church and are ourselves very well provided for.

Day 2 Really (Tuesday): New Construction post-Katrina

Today we continued the same work as yesterday. I put up more siding and got to know some of the other Habitat volunteers working there a bit better, though I didn’t work as much with other Coke scholars- more of that will come tomorrow and these were interesting people too!

At one point during the day, one of the volunteers told me about the Habitat house next door to one of the ones being built and advised walking through it, so I did (with a few other Scholars). It was eerily quiet in there, and the house’s story was clearly present. It was obvious that a family had been living there- just yesterday, by some signs- and then disappeared. The table was set, though the chairs had been knocked over by the floodwaters and mold was growing on the now-lower parts. Black mold was growing throughout the entire house in the bottom 2-3 feet on all walls and on everything low and consumable. The refrigerator had fallen over and the dishes on top were there, laying just as they had broken. In the front room, a table near the window where water presumably came in had had its legs taken out by the flood currents, and it was destroyed by the storm. “Interrupted lives” was the key image here. There were phone messages on the counter, clothes were out on the bed, there were papers and forms on the bathroom counter, and dishes in the sink, as if the people had just disappeared and the house was frozen in time. It was obvious that nothing had been touched since August.

Afterward, at the church, the president of Habitat in the area (Kathy Bass) came and talked to our group, sharing stories of the families, the volunteers, and the destruction and construction. She told about the conditions people were living with, how things had changed post-Katrina, the tremendous and permanent change to the culture, and the difference made by volunteers to give a hand up to those in need. It was a great presentation, aided by the story presented by 8th grader Mary, from one of the aided families, who read a bit of her story.

Mark then made some presentations about the CCSF, including some exciting announcements about the current and future movements of the organization. The CCSF family is a valuable connection for us all. It is certainly shaping up to be a great trip and looks like it will continue to be one!

Wednesday: Picking Up The Pieces, Cleanup

Today we went to Rat’s nest (named that way before the hurricane after a restaurant down that road) and cleaned up the remains of somebody’s house. That whole street was just a series of concrete slabs where houses used to be- rather nice houses!

Driving down, we could see cars twisted up and piled on top of one another, one or two houses on the wrong side of the street, buildings that seemed to have gone through a blender (like those we were picking up), and plenty of destroyed or missing homes.

This event was clearly an “equal opportunity disaster” as a Coke rep put it later in the week. The poorer homes like those in Chalmette (see Friday) were hit just as badly as the really nice ones near Rat’s Nest.

The way everything landed seemed at first to be completely random and without an immediate rhyme or reason, but some interesting reminders came out of it. For example, the demolished Habitat warehouse had a particular pink toolbox land on top of it which served as a reminder of a particular (and late) builder with a sense of humor reminding them “from beyond” to keep a light heart. This house had a running trophy sitting on top of one of its piles of rubbish, a reminder to keep pressing on, with some hidden reference in there to Philippians 3:13-14. There were some wrecked cars there, from who knows where, landing on top of other large items and far from drivable. Mark (Coke Scholars director) and others enjoyed jumping on the cars.

The site was on the water, and the homes had a dock behind them. With all the debris (including a house, whose roof was floating a bit of the way off) in the water, the scene had a significant “shipwreck” feeling to it. Immediately behind the house in the water there was what looked like the mast of a ship with a crosspiece, or a cross of a grave at sea, along with what could have been a refrigerator but on closer inspection was a door. Farther off on the left at the neighbor’s dock was a board underwater and gold beads sitting on it and hanging over, very still, glistening in the sun, like something out of the Titantic. Among the rubbish, we found adoption certificates, marriage licenses, baptism certificates, etc. from 1897, 1920, 1932, and 1945. One member of our group called the phone number spray-painted on the driveway to contact the homeowner and tell about the find, to return the valuable items. They were documents of the homeowner’s mother, grandmother, and even great-grandmother. What an important find for historical and intangibles preservation! We left valuables on the concrete slab for the homeowners to return to and look through.

After our work today, we went to the health club for showers, and then out into New Orleans city proper for dinner at Jacques-Imo’s, a fairly famous small New Orleans restaurant with really good food. We were in our own room on the first night the restaurant had opened it, just coming back after the flood. It was a pretty unique restaurant, and one had to go through the kitchen to get to the eating area- we had a “tour” of the place. I would recommend returning if I was in New Orleans again. Jacques came out, a very unique guy, and very friendly, generous, energetic spirit who is fun to be around.

After an excellent dinner, we drove around the Garden District, the French Quarter, and walked around on Bourbon Street. This part of the city was not damaged too badly. Bourbon Street, full of bars, strip clubs, and some jazz music, seemed not as crowded as it might have been pre-Katrina but otherwise back to “normal.”

Thursday: Reconstruction

Today we got up (some still with a bit of a hangover from the night before) and headed off to the Habitat site. We split up again into different groups. One small group went to do some roofing and similar stuff, with Noelle. A fairly large group went to do insulation. I was part of a group of eight that went to hang some drywall (reconstruction). It was interesting to see the initial reaction of each Coke Scholar to the soft nails we were using, and the reaction was the same: offense and frustration. The nails bent very easily. I think we would have had no frustration with a difficult-to-get-in nail bending as the result of too strong effort, but we took offense at the soft nails bending before we’d had a proper chance to try and nail them in- showing something about the character of Coke scholars!

We were doing some reconstruction and rebuilding in a Habitat home where the limited demolition process had already taken place. A couple Care-a-vanners were leading the site and taught us about how to hang sheetrock and a bit about the construction. They were great people, as Habitat seems to be full of, and had gotten to learn quite a bit about construction over the years as well as getting to see the country and meet great people- it seems like a great retirement!

While we were working there, the homeowner Sebrina came in. We got to talk with her informally throughout the day, and she got to see and learn a bit about what we were doing and who the people were that were helping her, while we got to learn a bit about who we were helping. I talked with her on the front porch at one point about how she was affected by the storm. She had insurance for the house, but lost everything except the couple days of clothes she and her three (?) sons had packed. She talked about neighbors and co-workers and how much others had lost, in human terms, and was very glad that she and her sons had survived- that was all that mattered. She pointed out that the storm was a reminder of what’s really important, and in a time where we take so much for granted, a reminder we desperately need.

Thursday night: Transition to Fourth Stage

Thursday night marked our group’s transition into the ever-desired but often elusive fourth stage of a group, the stage of community. We had a community meeting called for organizational and logistical purposes, but as a group extended it well into the evening, long after the business portion of the meeting had been completed. The transition was created when, at the end of the business section, Carolyn introduced Noelle to sing/play a few of her songs (she’s an excellent singer, working mostly in the folk style and incorporating humor and great perspective work on life). We all enjoyed her music and convinced her to play some more. Then, we viewed photos from the weekend (with Noelle’s CD playing in the background). I played the video “When September Ends” and showed the photos of the storm. Then, we watched a DVD that Mark had gotten and that had been used on CNN of somebody who had stayed at home during the storm. He filmed his home before the storm (for insurance purposes) and then filmed as the storm was coming, as it hit, and later the aftermath. He filmed as the lake crossed the road and came up his front steps into his house, trees fell down all over the place, possessions (including vehicles and most of his neighbors’ homes) floated away, and waves came through the yard. Throughout, his commentary added a certain degree of color and flavor which greatly increased the entertainment value and enhanced audiences’ ability to relate to the film. It was certainly amateur footage but, filmed in almost real-time, gave a very tangible idea of what it was like to be in the hurricane.

Friday: Demolition

Today we headed off to the Coca-Cola bottling plant in New Orleans. They gave us a tour of the plant, which was very interesting and highly automated. The fully automated 12-story warehouse, trains that operate it, and the robots that bring things to and from around on the factory floor area reminded me of Monsters, Inc. I got the impression that it was a very well-maintained, livable, good place to work and they really cared about the employees, working hard to make sure they didn’t have to lay off in consolidations or things like that. Many employees were living in trailers in the parking lot that Coke had purchased or arranged for, and we went to see those trailers. We had intended to come and talk with the bottlers (as Scholars) and get to meet them a bit more than we did, but that’s alright. We did talk a fair amount with the woman who gave us the tour, Natalie Toppins (who had also arranged for the Coke product and pizza donation) who was a local woman and heard her story of how she was affected by the storm, as well as how Coke and the customers in the area were all affected.

When we were deciding on an order of plans, we were planning how to do lunch and a drive through Chalmette. She advised us to have lunch first, because “after driving through Chalmette, you may not want to eat anything.”

We [had lunch and then] drove through Chalmette to see what was about the hardest-hit part of New Orleans city. The devastation there was near-complete. The homes were completely trashed, even if most of the exterior frame was still around. Trees were down everywhere, piles of trash were all around, just spilling out of houses, sitting on roofs (settled there from the flood), and X’s on every door recorded the results of the search for survivors or dead. It was clear that nothing would stay. This community was especially hard hit because a nearby oil refinery gave way and all the chemical spilled out all over the homes.

In the afternoon, we went to the habitat site, and most of us went and gutted another home. We took down drywall, paneling, everything, all the way up to the ceiling. Black mold was all over and drywall dust filled the air and the eyes. For future reference, a pipe wrench is definitely the weapon of choice when destroying or demolishing anything through use of brute force (drywall for example).

The weather at the church in the morning was pouring torrential rain at some points, but by the time we were leaving the Coke plant the weather was beautiful.

We returned to the church for showers, and I did some photo developing before dinner.

Helen, who owned the home our group gutted the first two days, came to join us for dinner, and so did Jim, past president of the Habitat affiliate we’d been working with. He spoke to the group about the immense impact Habitat was having in the community and what a difference volunteers are making and have made. He also shared a bit about how “there are no such things as coincidences.” Spending time around Habitat, one notices all sorts of little things that fall into place when they really seem like they won’t, people who show up at just the right time with skills so badly needed, prayers being answered in unexpected times, places, and ways, and little godsends that happen every day to further the mission of Habitat.

Also joining us was Amber Wallin, a Coke scholar who lost her recently-purchased home in the storm and was working on a rocky road to recovery and still really struggling with the loss. Helen was a very glad and grateful kind woman who kept looking for ways to pay us back in some way for our gift to her. I told her to pay it forward, and though I’m not sure if she could believe that, she accepted the invitation to come and work with us on Saturday at the cleanup site. The evening was a very relaxed and positive one in community. We had a great time talking and continuing to get to know one another better, and this group has reached the fourth stage. Helen joined us for Noelle’s “encore” mini-concert, Two Truths and a Lie, and other fun times just talking as a group in one of the smaller side rooms where people had gathered and the gathering grown. Nobody really wanted to end the night, but we had five days of work behind us and another to go, forcing a final turn-in.

Saturday: Community Cleanup; Design For the Future

This morning we headed off to Rat’s Nest, to the lot right next to where we were working on Wednesday. There were a great number of people there from various groups and organizations, all working with Habitat. We cleaned up the wood tiles left on the concrete slab of the foundation, and lots of hay and rubbish where the house used to be. The destruction down near Rat’s Nest was really quite incredible. There were posts and 2x4s sticking up, or just concrete slabs where structures used to be. There were boats washed far up on land, and cars as well, without regard to size. PBS’s Postcards From Buster and possibly some other media was there for event publicity.