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Why New Orleans Now?
[click photo for a gallery of New Orleans snapshots]
[See the update on the October 2007 volunteer effort]
A group of 13 of us, mostly from the First Unitarian Society of Schenectady, spent the last week of November, 2006 gutting houses in New Orleans East. It is a neighborhood that was flooded and devastated by last year’s Hurricane Katrina. Our team worked on five houses during our weeklong stay. We carried household furnishings out into the street where the homeowner could determine whether they would be kept or thrown into an ever-growing discard pile on the street in front of each house we  were working on. We tore down sheet rock using crowbars and hammers, and loaded endless piles of the stuff into wheelbarrows that were pushed all day long from room to street and back again. Housesaren’t built to be ‘wheelbarrow accessible’ so getting around corners was tricky and required strength and patience. We dismantled bathrooms, removing tiles and shower stalls. At first we were astonished and then blasé about the number of very large cockroaches that were living off the glue in the walls. We duct-taped refrigerators closed and dragged them to the street, praying the doors would stay shut and not release its sealed contents and indescribable odors. We spent most of one day removing nails from a house where the mold and rust was so severe that the head of each nail disintegrated when we tried to grab it. Gutting is hard, backbreaking work but our crew was respectful, sensitive, good humored and totally committed to doing the job right. We dubbed ourselves the “do-gutters”.
Once we took a moment to look around the neighborhoods we were working in, we realized that the houses next door and across the street and around the corner needed gutting too. It was overwhelming, but we learned to focus on the project at hand and to be grateful that we could help that one homeowner. Maybe he will rebuild. Maybe he’ll sell. Maybe he’ll bulldoze. Who knows? But now he can think about that next step. Each of us were amazed at how resilient the people of Louisiana are. Yes, the streets are now clear, the dead trees removed, each neighborhood has electricity and potable water (the 9th ward finally got water last month!) but most of those displaced have not returned; still living in temporary FEMA trailers or relocated out of the City. Only five public schools have reopened. Politicians have used the opportunity to demolish all public housing units (including those not destroyed by the floods!). Corruption has been exposed, and promises of Federal assistance have been largely unfulfilled. There is still so much to do 15 months after the storm. It’s hard to comprehend how this is happening in a major American city.
All of us appreciated our opportunity to assist the people of New Orleans. We are grateful to FUSS members who made financial contributions, as well as the Social Action Council, which helped subsidize our efforts.
Ellie von Wellsheim and Kevin O'Connor
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