Thursday, October 13, 2005
Week 4 Experience - Gary Robbins from Centerville, Ohio
My personal experiences there tell me that normal will never be the same in New Orleans. The poor have been replaced and their twice-flooded homes and neighborhoods will be bulldozed and replaced by commercial development a city insider told me. While the mayor and others say the city is up and running, don't believe it. In the French Quarter they were somehow able to reopen bars with in a few days, but even though some areas do have water and electricity back on, I was told by this same city insider who lives next to the church we gutted, not to eat or drink anything in the city. While we did have running water in the minister's home next to the church, we didn't see any food establishments open.
Basically what you see each day is a stream of contractors, some hired by the city or FEMA others there trying to make a quick buck, insurance adjusters, people with signs "We Buy Houses" and very few clean up volunteers like our group that stream into the city after dawn from the outlying regions that have some services. They work in the city until almost dusk and then stream back out. Everything you need to work and survive that day you have to bring with you since everything is ruined or looted. Very few stay in the city at night at this point.
While you are there you will see huge piles of trash and debris at the locations of the few lucky owners that could get back in their neighborhood and salvage what little was left and try to start the massive undertaking of removing every part of their home or business that was damaged. Where we worked the water was 5 feet 8 inches high, which you can see frwater marksrks on the buildings. Everything has a putrid odor from decaying garbage, rotting food, and dead animals in the trash or beneath the structures were they apparently went for shelter and died.
While we were in the city I never saw a police car, Red Cross, or FEMA organization member delivering any services and we were 1 block from the cities highest traffic intersection at Carrollton Avenue and Canal just 6 blocks from the French Quarter. We saw no living dogs or cats and on my last day in the city I met 2 ladies from Chicago SPCA who were leaving food and water in strategic locations so the animals terrorized by the storm and hiding under homes and buildings during the day could eat at night. They told me that a looted Winn Dixie down the street has been turned into an emergency Vet Clinic. They estimated that 90% of the animals they are able to catch are so emaciated they have to be put to sleep and the others are being held until October 18 trying to match them with their owners on a website www.petfinders.com. After the 18th they will be shipped all over the US to try and find shelters that will hold them for adoption, but they assume that most will eventually have to be euthanized.
As you can probably tell by my rambling this was a very emotional and eye opening experience being there. While you can watch CNN or some other network and get a general understanding of what is happening, it's just not the same as experiencing it yourself. Now that it is 6 weeks old news and being replace by the Pakistan earthquake and other "new' news items it could easily be forgotten by most Americans, except for those whose lives were turned upside down by this disaster.
I hope to go back to help numerous times in the next year. The work a 150 volunteers did the one week I was there is like a grain of sand on a beach as to what still needs to be done. If you can make the time to go and help I urge you to do it as soon as possible. There are many tasks to be done, from hard manual labor to just being willing to let one of the storms victims talk to you about their experience to help them get closure. If you can't go personally send money to people who can go and you know it will be used for the right purposes. I need to thank those individuals who provided us with financial support and supplies and encouragement for are trip. If you have any questions or want to know more about how to volunteer and what is involved, please call me at 937-885-9494 or email me. We should have a DVD available early next week and I would be happy to show it to you or a group of people who are interested.
Gary
Basically what you see each day is a stream of contractors, some hired by the city or FEMA others there trying to make a quick buck, insurance adjusters, people with signs "We Buy Houses" and very few clean up volunteers like our group that stream into the city after dawn from the outlying regions that have some services. They work in the city until almost dusk and then stream back out. Everything you need to work and survive that day you have to bring with you since everything is ruined or looted. Very few stay in the city at night at this point.
While you are there you will see huge piles of trash and debris at the locations of the few lucky owners that could get back in their neighborhood and salvage what little was left and try to start the massive undertaking of removing every part of their home or business that was damaged. Where we worked the water was 5 feet 8 inches high, which you can see frwater marksrks on the buildings. Everything has a putrid odor from decaying garbage, rotting food, and dead animals in the trash or beneath the structures were they apparently went for shelter and died.
While we were in the city I never saw a police car, Red Cross, or FEMA organization member delivering any services and we were 1 block from the cities highest traffic intersection at Carrollton Avenue and Canal just 6 blocks from the French Quarter. We saw no living dogs or cats and on my last day in the city I met 2 ladies from Chicago SPCA who were leaving food and water in strategic locations so the animals terrorized by the storm and hiding under homes and buildings during the day could eat at night. They told me that a looted Winn Dixie down the street has been turned into an emergency Vet Clinic. They estimated that 90% of the animals they are able to catch are so emaciated they have to be put to sleep and the others are being held until October 18 trying to match them with their owners on a website www.petfinders.com. After the 18th they will be shipped all over the US to try and find shelters that will hold them for adoption, but they assume that most will eventually have to be euthanized.
As you can probably tell by my rambling this was a very emotional and eye opening experience being there. While you can watch CNN or some other network and get a general understanding of what is happening, it's just not the same as experiencing it yourself. Now that it is 6 weeks old news and being replace by the Pakistan earthquake and other "new' news items it could easily be forgotten by most Americans, except for those whose lives were turned upside down by this disaster.
I hope to go back to help numerous times in the next year. The work a 150 volunteers did the one week I was there is like a grain of sand on a beach as to what still needs to be done. If you can make the time to go and help I urge you to do it as soon as possible. There are many tasks to be done, from hard manual labor to just being willing to let one of the storms victims talk to you about their experience to help them get closure. If you can't go personally send money to people who can go and you know it will be used for the right purposes. I need to thank those individuals who provided us with financial support and supplies and encouragement for are trip. If you have any questions or want to know more about how to volunteer and what is involved, please call me at 937-885-9494 or email me. We should have a DVD available early next week and I would be happy to show it to you or a group of people who are interested.
Gary
# posted by John McGuire @ 4:54 PM 
