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.
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 imagined 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.
Many of the houses in the Ninth Ward still had structurally sound frameworks and foundations, but salvaging the framework required removing everything in the house that had sat underwater for weeks after the flood and was now rotting and harboring toxic mold. To 'gut' these houses we went in groups of ten, dressed in full tyvek suits, and respirators, and armed with shovels, hammers and wheelbarrows. 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 backhoe team to remove the unsalvagable matetial from the house. Later the frame would be treated for mold and new walls would be constructed on the framework.
In one house, a room had been converted into 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 people who lived there before the flood. 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.
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 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.
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| A collapsed house in the 9th Ward |
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| Team Chicago sporting Tyvek suits and the Common Ground logo |
In one house, a room had been converted into 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 people who lived there before the flood. 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.
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| A sunny day in the French Quarter |
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