Took a week's vacation, went to New Orleans

gggGary

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Drove down with three other Wisconsinites. Did a little sightseeing downtown Sunday,
Then went to work.
It's hard to wrap my mind around how many homes, businesses were damaged. Many areas with mile after mile in every direction, nearly every building with damage, some beyond repair, most unlivable for a month or more. There were four forms of damage;
Flooding, the communities around New Orleans do not have dikes, so the storm surge quickly roared in and flooded, up to 3' of filthy water into the first floor. sewers back up so everything covered in stinking goo.
Wind; shingles, roofs torn off, siding stripped, windows broken, trees down everywhere, including into houses.
That let heavy rain INTO the houses.
Then everything in the houses wet with no power and high heat, no one allowed back into the neighborhoods for days, weeks. Mold takes over.
Samaritan's Purse organizes the work, provides high quality equipment and supplies and houses hoards of volunteers, they move into churches that agree to let them take over the facility for weeks to months, they will be at the church we were in until December 19th. Two other churches in New Orleans area are also SP sites. They house, feed, provide showers, etc. for up to 80 volunteers each week. Each day team leaders have jobs lined up and out we go to help homeowners start to recover and rebuild.
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We spent a day in this house stripping the bottom two feet of drywall, moldings, insulation to open and dry out the framing. 20211012_161600.jpg
Removed drywall ,tile, bath tubs, toilets etc. to prepare for rebuilding.20211012_113818.jpg
My "bedroom" for the week, with 60 others we occupied the church.
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dining hall 20211013_065945.jpg We were served hot breakfast and dinner provided with sack lunches to take to the job sites.
Samaritan's purse brings in kitchen and shower trailers provides a diesel generator to run the entire church and all their trailers running 24 7 until they leave in December
The job site truck fleet20211012_174652.jpg
Construction tools and maintenance semi. 20211012_174826.jpg

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Another group comes to the site for the duration, equipped with their own donated skid steers, excavators, bucket lifts, saws and trained crews. 20211012_174815.jpg
Our site had six trucks like this IMG-3865.jpg
each team followed a truck to job sites and got to work. Dragging out belongings, removing wet drywall insulation and anything else water damaged spraying and scrubbing to kill mold. cleaning yards of debris. We would take everything to the curb, the city comes around with trucks equipped with clamshell cranes and hauls it way to giant dump sites, honestly I don't know where it goes from there.
There were 1100 work orders over 700 had been completed by SP and others. more were being added daily. When someone requests help SP sends out assessors to check need, establish scope of work to be done, and assign a priority level.
FEMA had done much of the (badly needed) roof tarping. SP also comes in quickly to start tarping and other work to get homes at least able to be occupied where possible.
Well that's how I spent my fall vacation. I have no religion but SP provides a great framework and does all the infrastructure to let groups and individuals come down and pitch in to help. Doing this is (oddly?) satisfying but I have to warn you it can be addictive. Yes SP is religious based and chaplains visit the homeowners, praying, bibles presented etc. but religion is not a requirement for homeowners or volunteers. They present but are not pushy or insistent. At least as important as the work done is allowing to those affected to TALK about what this has done to them and vent a bit about how completely upside down their lives are.
It's kind of amazing; wearing an orange SP shirt, you're constantly getting thumbs up and thanks from every corner of the community. People stop in the street to encourage and even hand us donations (we are not allowed to accept) but point them towards sites where they can contribute. This country is full of people that care and help others in need.
 

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I thoroughly enjoy knowing of people who are willing to put there own time and skill forward to help others. Thank you for making my day better @gggGary
Thnx Boogs
I wanted to counterbalance the "bad news feed" for at least a moment or two and maybe provide a peek into what this country is really about.

SP was diligent about Covid protocols. Negative test in the last 72 hours required to get out of the car when we arrived. One group showed up and was sent home, one in the car got a positive test result on the way there...
Priority for jobs took into consideration health family issues, those in law enforcement, health care, education, given higher ranking. Some of the LEOs had been working, going 24/7 for weeks after the storm and were still working every day "til they dropped". A large city with no power, very little; fuel, food, or even drinking water for long periods. Tempers were short, constantly flaring up. Glad I wasn't in a LEO uniform.
 
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That’s a great service this organization ( and folks like yourself) provides. I do have to wonder about how long , flood prone New Orleans can sustain this constant cycle of flooding and rebuilding. I would sure be thinking of moving somewhere else…..like Baraboo! ;)
 
...............how long , flood prone New Orleans can sustain this constant cycle of flooding and rebuilding. I would sure be thinking of moving somewhere else….. ;)
Ain't that the truth!
Some of the homeowners were done, ready to sell, move away. Others were deeply connected to community and staying put.
NOLA's dikes were repaired, pumps replaced after Katrina, the city really was not as hard hit this time, little flood damage. They didn't get the worst wind either.
Nearby, Laplace, where we did much of our work, is scheduled to get dikes in 2025 but I'm thinking government needs to get together with the insurance companies and create a set of building practices, codes that would provide decreased insurance rates, reduce preventable damage if adhered to. We saw the difference just a few inches in floor height, soundness of construction (and some luck) can make in a building surviving the onslaught.
At one LEO's house where we did yard, fence, shed clean up, he had been at work 4 days straight after the storm, dreading going home to see the damage, but it was about 18" above street height, seemed well built, and only had a small amount of wind driven rain get inside. House needed new shingles, a window pane or two, but little else. House right next to it was pretty much destroyed, family was living in it anyways cuz they had nowhere else to go. :(
 
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I've never heard of Samaritan's Purse but I certainly won't forget about them. I admire that it's a faith-based organization and I've often wondered how to hook up with a well organized, concerted effort to help folks through such a disaster. Hurricanes striking along the Gulf Coast are common and are just a chance you take for the lifestyle. Hurricanes like Michael in '08 taught folks to shelter as far off the coast as you can get. 50 miles north of Panama City, entire pine forests got laid down.
 
SP is one of the missions our very small congregation supports.
Good on ya G.
Re: the Big Easy.....
I've oft thought that it would be a great candidate for a Venice West. It would be quite an undertaking at this point, dredging for canals, using the dredge spoils to elevate for homes and streets, you get the idea.

I've got some great(?) stories of Mardi Gras '73.....MD 2020 diet with an occasional side of red beans and rice....a shout out to the Guardian Angels that had to have been there for our misspent youth......
 
Hey Gary---When I started to read this post I had no idea what I was going to find. What I did find was a guy that gave his time and energy to help strangers. I'm very impressed at your generosity. Thank you.....

tim
 
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