For the past two spring breaks, myself and several friends from the University of Chicago have traveled down to New Orleans to work with a non-profit organization called
Common Ground Relief. We chose to work with Common Ground because they were working in some of the hardest hit areas in the city and we were struck by their motto,
Solidarity not Charity.
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| A collapsed house in the 9th Ward |
Our first trip, in March 2006, came 7 months after Katrina had hit the city. While we knew the city still hadn't recovered from the storm and the floods, none of us could have imaged how little of the storm damage had been repaired. The Ninth Ward, where we were volunteering, was desolate. Houses were abandoned, flooded cars were rusting, and the streets were not filled with the sounds you'd expect in a city: no cars or bikes or buses, no children, no music, only the hum of electric generators from the few FEMA trailers in the neighborhood.
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Team Chicago sporting Tyvek suits
and the Common Ground logo |
Many of the houses in the the Ninth Ward still had structurally sound frameworks and foundations, but salvaging the framework required removing everything in the house that had sat under water for weeks after the flood and was now rotting and harboring toxic mold. To 'gut' these housed we went in groups of ten, dressed in full tyvek suits, respirators, and armed with shovels, hammers and wheels barrows. First, we removed disintegrating books, magazines, clothes, and other personal items; then furniture, lamps, rugs, paintings; finally, the walls. The walls were often so soft you could knock a hole with a hammer and then pull whole panels off the framework. The city would send a bump truck and back hoe team to remove the contents of the house. Later the framework would be treated for mold and new walls would be constructed on the framework.
In one house, a room had been converted into an a barber shop. In another, the family had converted an addition into a small chapel, complete with a pulpit, rows of chairs, and hymnals. We found paintings, stuffed animals, trophies, pet food. Each set of objects told the story of who the inhabitants were, but this was not like excavating a long lost society. We met the house owners, who were staying elsewhere in town or in nearby trailers. We talked with them about New Orleans before the storm, what they had done since then and their hopes for the future. The families whose houses we gutted all planned to move back to the neighborhood. While being one of the first ones back would have been difficult, improvements had been made between our visit in 2006 and 2007. Storm debris had been cleared from the streets, some families were back and their houses had electricity and water, more organizations had become involved with the clean-up efforts.
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| A sunny day in the French Quarter |
While the devastation from the storm is no longer making national news a year and a half later, the city is a long way away from being being fully recovered. We took heart in the signs of recovery we saw - the tourists coming back, the French Quarter buzzing and the Saints playing in their Superdome - and we hope that this recovery will make it to all parts of the city.
