New Orleans - Days Four and FiveThe last working day in New Orleans, and by far the toughest one of the bunch. We all discussed the fact that had this been the first house we worked on, it might have been our last. :)
It took us a while to find this house. None of the houses were easy to find, but this was a little tougher than most because it was off the main roads. There are no street lights, very few street signs, and those that are there are frequently blown or washed a different direction so that you have no idea which of the directions is the correct one. Each morning we would get a packet of information about the homeowner and a map to the house. More often than not we relied on Mapquest's distance meters (go 0.6 miles) rather than signs because there was no guarantee you were going the right way.
The home belonged to an elderly woman named Rose, who we did not get to meet because she was too sick to come to the house. A lot of the elderly owners we worked with could not come into their homes because simply coming to visit may have made them sicker than they already were. In her place were her two children, a son and daughter in their 40's, who greeted us and pointed us towards the front door. As we passed through, it became instantly clear why her kids wanted nothing to do with the place.
We all have friends and family members who are, "collectors." They save every scrap of paper, bit of clothing and memento they have ever received. This woman was one of those people. She had more than 100 purses, and about as many pairs of shoes. Closets were packed with endless amounts of clothes. She was a craft person, so boxes and crates of supplies filled and entire room of her home. Every room was packed at least halfway to the ceiling and all of it was covered in a thick layer of water and mud. Like most people who were evacuated, she locked her doors and windows before leaving. The water came in quickly, but not much got out. Most was soaked into her belongings, and after 9 months and 90+ degree temperatures, the results were pretty horrendous. I would guess that there was about 6 inches of mud throughout the house, and another 4 inches of fetid stagnant water on top of that. The mold cultures on the walls were unreal.
Unlike the last two houses, where the people were charming, gracious and helped where they could, this woman's kids were uninterested in lending a hand. Several of us got a "hired help" kind of vibe from them. They didn't come in much beyond the front door while we slogged through the muck, lifting out waterlogged couches, and easy chairs and closets full of clothing. The son stayed in the front yard and talked on his cell phone all day, while her daughter worried about getting her white tennis shoes dirty. They bought us pizza for lunch, but did not eat it with us because one of our team members warned them that we all smelled pretty bad.
We shoveled and carted wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of muck into a pile in the front yard. Roaches the size of your thumb, maggots everywhere with a heat index somewhere in the upper 90's. Smells I can't begin to describe, but still taste in the back of my throat today. At one point Kathy Perkins and I pulled out two giant (3f t high, 3 ft long, 2 ft wide) Rubbermaid tubs full of clothing out of a closet. Both were filled with clothes, black water, and the vilest yellow gelatinous slime you have ever seen. The tubs were too heavy to lift, so we had to first empty as much as we could to allow Sheri Wright to cart them out with a wheelbarrow. We would take out one handful of clothing, then walk away for a few seconds to catch our breath and convince ourselves that we weren't going to vomit. We'd then go back, grab another piece of clothing and repeat the process again.
A van would bring us to the work site each day, and we were followed by a truck and small trailer that carried all of our gear. About 6 wheelbarrows, shovels, rakes, sledgehammers and crowbars. There were buckets of personal safety equipment in there too. Everyone had to wear masks some sort of eye protection and hardhats, as the weakened ceilings could drop items that had been stashed in the attic.
As nasty as this house was, it had the one thing that made us happier than any of the previous visits.. Two doors down was a real flushing toilet that the owner allowed us to use.. Yep. None of the houses we went to had any sort of useable plumbing, so we were told that the "facilities" were anywhere behind the house where we couldn't be seen. If a FEMA trailer was placed anywhere nearby where a resident was living, there would be an associated port-a-potty, so two of our team members would scope their locations as we drove in, noting how far away they were from the work-site. I thankfully did not need to take advantage of said facilities, but honestly, I'm not sure if peeing behind a house is any less appealing than a port-a-potty in Louisiana in 95+ degree weather.
At lunchtime, we went next door and sat under a tree to eat. There were very few people in any of the neighborhoods at all, let alone residents who would care that a group of smelly strangers had camped out on what was left of their lawns. Most of the areas we worked were complete ghost towns.
If I have learned one thing about this experience it is that none of us need 90% of the stuff we have. I urge everyone to think about their house, and think about a stranger having to go through and clean out all of your stuff. The closets, the garages, the back bedrooms that are repositories for all of the things we keep, but aren't sure where to put. Now soak all of it in swamp water and let it cook for 9 months. The result is far from pretty. Spring cleanings are very very important.
People have asked me if I saw evidence that blamed FEMA, the President, the Army Corps of Engineers. I think just about all of them can take a small piece, but I think that there was just no way to predict or prepare for a storm of that magnitude. All you can really do is be as prepared as you can, and always have an escape route of your own.
What I can credit are the volunteer groups who come from all over the country to work incredibly hard for people they don't even know. Most of the workers are college students, who have an enthusiasm and energy that is impressive. When I got off the plan in Louisiana on Sunday, I would guess that 30% of the passengers waiting for luggage were relief workers. I was talking to another girl who had taken a semester off of school to stay at the base camp and continue working. She is not unique, as many students I talked to had similar stories and no plans to leave. If the people want to come back to New Orleans, they will have a place waiting for them, and when they do they should thank those young people.
A short video (with sound) shows you an example of what they are working in, though I'm guessing this house was already half done when filming began. The debris pile out front of the house that they show you is what has been pulled out of the house by this team. This is from the Hilltop web site:
http://www.hilltoprescue.org/videos/muck/Hilltop Rescue is an amazing organization, and while I don't necessarily agree with all of their religious ideologies, they are doing wonderful work there. One of their organizers explained that when fully staffed, they complete 35 houses each day. There are tens of thousands of houses in Louisiana alone that have not been touched. But there are lots of charities doing similar good work. Yes, they need financial donations, but physical labor is needed just as badly. If you ever thought about wanting to make a difference, I would strongly urge you to consider volunteering.
We didn't finish Rose's house, but were able to clear everything out of the house before we left. The only thing left to do was knock out the drywall and insulation, which another team from our group would return to do later in the week. When we started, we didn't think there was any way we were going to get as far as we did, so we left our last job with a real feeling of accomplishment.
After washing up and getting a quick nap, we went out and had one last evening downtown that I can only describe as magical. We drove down to the French Quarter, and walked around Jackson Square to an outdoor courtyard cafe, complete with candle-light and a fountain.
We sat under the stars on a warm summer night, eating gumbo and jambalaya, while a musician played "La vie en rose" on a saxophone. I looked around at everyone talking and laughing after such a long hard week and realized what an amazing experience this was. We had all worked so hard, and knew that we had made a difference for people who didn't have a lot of other options, and that feeling alone was satisfying.
From dinner we walked down to Cafe Du Monde for coffee and some bengiets, then a stroll along the Mississippi to look at the riverboats and take one last look at the city at night. I could not have planned a more perfect evening.
I am *so* glad I did this. Would I do it again? Definitely, but I think my house mucking days are over. I would go down and help with the charities cooking and cleaning and logistics in a heart beat, and still may do that at some point later this year. It's going to take me a while to forget the muck, and I think I will leave that to more able-bodied individuals.
Thanks for reading, I now need a nap. :)
Labels: Katrina, New Orleans, travel