Hurricane Katrina reflections: St. Andrew's, Brandon, Manitoba

Early in the still dark, cold morning of Dec. 27, an excited group of 23 Manitobans gathered in front of First Presbyterian Church to board vans that would carry us on a 32-hour ride to the city of New Orleans. Each of us was looking forward, with much anticipation, to making a difference in the life of families we had not yet met. Who would we be working for? What jobs would we be doing at their home? What stories would they have to share with us?

The two and a half day trip to our assigned camp — Olive Tree — provided our group with many opportunities to become a “team”. By assigning different seating combinations each day for each van, members of our group got to know each other well before we got to the camp. This was especially important, as we were a cross-generational group with many of us having only just met during the days and weeks prior to departure.

Our camp was a former Presbyterian Church in the Eastern part of New Orleans. Because the “village” as it was referred to, has only been operational for three months, there were many facets still to be completed. The kitchen had no cooking facilities and so all meals were prepared on a gas barbecue — a challenge when cooking for 35 or more hungry working people. Showers in the trailer provided only cold water until the second last day of our stay and our bunk beds were fitted with hard mattresses and even harder pillows made by inmates of the Louisiana State Prison System. As it turns out, our village provided us with a tiny glimpse of hardship — nowhere near that which the families we would work for have endured for two and one half years.

Our Mission trip to New Orleans was to assist in reconstruction following the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in August of 2005. Though it seems a long time ago, the signs of the devastation are still everywhere — shattered, abandoned houses, businesses in ruin, many desperately poor people sleeping in tents under interstate overpasses. Many of the people sleeping in these tents go to regular jobs but cannot afford the high cost of rent after having lost their own homes to Katrina.

Over the course of our six days at work in New Orleans, we worked on two houses and one garage (which was being converted into a bedroom) that had been completely gutted and fumigated following the floods. We managed to insulate, install vapour barrier, drywall and do the first/second coat of mudding before it was time to leave and return to Canada. The joy of the homeowners at seeing the restoration in progress is difficult to describe. In less than a week they were able to watch their house go from an open maze of wooden studs to a real home neatly divided into identifiable rooms — kitchen, bathroom, bedrooms and so on. There were many tears of joy. It has been a long wait for these people who have been living in cramped uncomfortable quarters in little trailers supplied by the government.

What struck everyone in our work crew was the incredible faith of these people for whom we built houses. Their loss was huge — they lost their homes, all their belongings, and their jobs as well, because most businesses were destroyed or extensively damaged. All they had left was their live and their faith. Comments from the trip evaluation form put it best. One person stated “I was amazed at the faith of everyone I met down there. They had been so unfortunate, but could still hold their heads up and say ‘my family and I are still alive, thank God for that’ “. Another commented “I couldn’t help but be affected by the almost unbelievable stories I heard and the devastation I saw… yet, I felt encouraged by the amazing hope exemplified by the people we encountered. They refuse to give up, even with all they’ve gone through.”

As happened last year in Mississippi, many people expressed their heartfelt thanks to us for coming to New Orleans to assist in the reconstruction effort. The families that we worked with directly were amazed that we had traveled such a large distance to assist. All were very grateful for the help provided. When you spend 6 days in someone’s home, you get to know them quite well. Our lives will be forever entwined — both the homeowners and our team members will be changed by the experience.

One evening we invited a guest to speak at the camp. Our group met him at a Sunday morning church service. The guest, a doctor, was and still is the director of Health for the City of New Orleans. He and his staff spent 5 long days in the Superdome, along with 22,000 other people. The story of how his staff became victims of Katrina touched everyone. Our guest has been working since the storm to restore some sense of order to the health care system in New Orleans. Another thing he told us was that more important than the house building we were involved in, was the relationship-building that we were doing with the people we were helping. He felt there has been a sense among the people following the hurricane that they have been forgotten, and our presence there told them that people do care about their plight, and want to help.

Spending 6 days helping with the rebuilding seems insignificant, BUT when looked at in another way — we worked a total of over 1000 hours — not an insignificant contribution to the lives of three families. We heard many stories of shortages of skilled labour and of course many stories of price gouging that goes along with such a situation. During our time in New Orleans, we got an appreciation for the extent of damage — tens of thousands of homes will need to be gutted, destroyed or rebuilt. There is so much still to be done. There will be a need for volunteer groups such as ours to join in the reconstruction effort for years to come.