Hop’s Blog

New location today. We drove 14 miles east of where we’re staying to a neighborhood near Lake Pontchartrain that had about 4 feet of water during Katrina. Again, I’m completely floored by the vastness of the area affected by the flood. You can’t tell the magnitude by photos or video…it’s just not the same as the 360-degree view.

The house we worked on was within about a half block of the levee. It’s owned by a 57-year-old woman named Willa Mae. She wasn’t home at the time the water came over the levee. She was taking care of some older neighbors and had evacuated them to Kentucky. She came to see us work on her house, and today was her first time home in 17 months (she’s living in Baton Rouge with some family). She handled it all well. A seamstress by trade, she hopped out of the car as we began clearing out her house and rescued a few dozen bolts of cloth and other supplies. Outside of a few other mementoes, she quickly indicated that most of it be thrown on the curb. Then it was all business, as she matter-of-factly directed us to put certain items in her car.

As the morning went on and each of us took breaks, we stopped to chat with her one by one. Her defenses came down after a while, and she told us much about her life. I asked her about her neighborhood, and pointed at the levee nearby. “What’s on the other side of that?” I asked. She stared at me straightfaced and answered, “Water,” then broke out in a laugh. “And it better stay where it belongs so I can come back home,” she said in my ear as she started gathering up belongings again. “I am coming back. And soon.”

I’d expected her to be more distraught, but it wasn’t until she was leaving that I saw the first tear in her eye. “You’re all wonderful people,” she said. “And I want to thank you for what you’re doing.” Then she proceeded to hug each and every one of us.

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Part of our group stopped by a Home Depot today and said that it’s a contrast to what we don’t easily see happening around us. It was crowded with those looking for building supplies. So there is rebuilding happening. But the city is huge…it’ll take a long time to gain even some semblance of normalcy. We did see some actual rebuilding happening first-hand today, too. A group from Indianapolis was working down the block doing tile work on an older man’s home…it was just about complete, and a welcome sight to see rather than the demolition work we’re doing.

Even so, building supplies are short around here. Catholic Charities is constantly seeking all kinds of supplies from outside the area that they can’t get here (building materials, cleaning supplies and household goods). And once the homeowner is back in their house, they really don’t have anything to put in it, so furniture, towels, dishes, etc., are always welcome.

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Random thought: You know how they say that when you’re nervous during public speaking, you should just imagine the audience in their underwear? Hope I never have to speak in church, because I’m not going to need a whole lot of imagination. With a couple hundred people living in the same gym, only 9 showers, and no real private areas, it’s amazing how quickly inhibitions disappear…and especially among the college students. It sure wasn’t like that when I was in school. I’m going to have to talk to Father Tim about remodeling the church to have all the pews face forward, rather than facing each other.

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P.S. I’m definitely cleaning my basement when I get home. And my closet. And my dresser. And the garage. Compared to these people, we have WAY too much stuff we don’t need. And I don’t ever want to have someone do this kind of work for me and see how much junk we have. Kids, get ready for a clean room…Out with it!!!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 10th, 2007 at 6:59 pm and is filed under New Orleans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.