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.
We spent a day in this house stripping the bottom two feet of drywall, moldings, insulation to open and dry out the framing.
Removed drywall ,tile, bath tubs, toilets etc. to prepare for rebuilding.
My "bedroom" for the week, with 60 others we occupied the church.
dining hall 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 fleet
Construction tools and maintenance semi.
Another group comes to the site for the duration, equipped with their own donated skid steers, excavators, bucket lifts, saws and trained crews.
Our site had six trucks like this
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.
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.
We spent a day in this house stripping the bottom two feet of drywall, moldings, insulation to open and dry out the framing.
Removed drywall ,tile, bath tubs, toilets etc. to prepare for rebuilding.
My "bedroom" for the week, with 60 others we occupied the church.
dining hall 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 fleet
Construction tools and maintenance semi.
Another group comes to the site for the duration, equipped with their own donated skid steers, excavators, bucket lifts, saws and trained crews.
Our site had six trucks like this
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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