spring break in the big easy...

Ryan and I went to New Orleans over spring break to help with the Katrina cleanup. It was a powerful and interesting trip, and I would like to share some of our pictures - though to really begin to grasp the damage you need to see it for yourself.

Ryan went before to New Orleans over our quarter break and did some finishing work on an apartment in a church in the Garden District. That area didn't sustain as much damage, but the apartment was to be used for congregation members that lost their homes. This is a picture of Ryan (and Roger) pointing to the sub-floor that they put down during their stay.

During both visits Ryan toured some of the more devastated areas. We didn't take pictures the second time, because Ryan had some from the first time and I could see that they didn't do it justice.

This is a picture of a house next to the 17th street Canal. We worked on a house about 5 blocks away from this one bleaching the studs of the gutted house, and 'mucking out' (translation, taking everything out down to the studs) the 2-story garage. This area was under at least 12 feet of water and you could see water lines left as the water was receding from the roofs to the ground. The house that we worked at also had a lot of sand around it which someone said washed up from under the levees, causing their failure.

These two pictures were taken in the 9th ward of New Orleans. This is probably the worst area because it was right by where the levee broke (we saw them rebuilding the wall) and the houses were older. This area is currently being discussed as green-space in the rebuilding process. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/05/katrina/3410782.html

This is Chalmette, a suburb of New Orleans, that also sustained significant damage. These are nice, subdivision houses, which illustrate that it happened to everyone in this area. On the left, (it's kind of hard to see) there are steps with empty house foundations, and a mailbox. On the right are the houses that belong on those foundations. They floated across the drainage ditch and landed on other people's property on the other side of the ditch.

This is me in my mucking suit: latex gloves, rubber boots (pants duct taped over the boots so nothing got in), coveralls, respirator mask, hat, goggles, and work gloves over the latex gloves. It was sweaty in there.

This is our work crew: Ryan and I (on the left) and Roger (far right) with our crew-mates from Albany, NY. We are outside the mess hall tent at the camp we stayed at courtesy of Atonement Lutheran Church. They provided us with gear, 2 meals a day, and a place to sleep for the entire week we were there.