Spring Break on the Gulf coast, Katrina relief work-photo intensive beware

[uppityperson]

I took 2 high schoolers to the gulf coast for spring break. Here's my report:

We stayed at the Bayou Liberty Relief Camp in Slidell, LA. This camp provides food and housing (tent and a bunk house) for volunteers working with any group, as well as providing a 2 day respite for volunteers working other places around the gulf. If you need a break, you can come hang out for a couple days and return refreshed to work. There were several volunteers AND residents doing this while we were there.


One volunteer was giving haircuts:


We helped deconstruct a flooded house in Slidell:


And reconstruct another flooded house in E. New Orleans, son had stayed during Katrina, went to attic and had to chop through roof during flood, was rescued the next day though neighbors weren't for a couple more days. This son is staying mid-state, crys all the time, is not doing well, PTSD:


We met merh and drove across the southern edge of Mississippi:
We didn't stay at this hotel:


Or shop at this WalMart, though we heard of the young people hired to spend the hurricane there to keep an eye on it. Another reason to not shop at WalMart, financially it made sense to hire a couple kids for cheap. Too bad they died:


We helped out at Food for Love/Emergency Communities community kitchen and distribution center in Chalmette, MS, cooking and serving 1500 meals a day to residents and volunteers who do not have electricity water sewage or grocery stores nearby, sorting clothes for the free store, moving pallets of stuff:


Here is a volunteer that could perhaps use a break, nice dress:


We saw a photograph session in New Orleans French Quarter:


We worked one day with Animal Relief New Orleans, filling petfeeding stations around the Upper 9th Ward:




Before driving over the canal to the Lower 9th Ward:


Where we saw a ventilated bedroom:


And a cadaver dog working, it's owner said they were finding "lots of places bodies used to be":


We attended a gathering in support of St. Augustine's church in New Orleans, got the see/hear Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, and hear the Treme band play. Here's the inside of the church since my photo of Jesse and Al didn't work:


Finally, a picture of puppy wranglers at EC:


Some things have changed since Sept, some look the same. Houses in New Orleans and Slidell being worked on range from 1/4-3 per block where we saw (E. New Orleans, Upper 9th Ward, 7th Ward, Slidell). Piles of debris move around, so work is being done. Some residents said they wanted to muck and gut their houses, but not reconstruct until after this new hurricane season to see if levees hold (New Orleans). More cadaver dogs and workers MUST be used to canvass the areas that need bulldozing before they bulldoze. Several bodies were found in the last month in residential areas of the Lower 9th and Chalmette.

The Mississippi coast is mostly totally devastated for several blocks inland, then just massively flooded and destroyed, then a bit less to finally just flooded or windblown (130 mph winds make a mess). Pass Christian's governmental buildings are trailers/manufactured homes, with a very big Americorps army-tent site. Bay St.Louis is bad. Biloxi has serious problems. All across Mississippi it is bad. I have seen the pictures here on DU and other places, and heard reports, but it still very much surprised me how bad.

Again I am struck with how little we really need to survive and to be happy. Summer socks. Homemade cookies. A place to relax and call your own. How spoiled most of us, including me, are. How little we can expect from our government as far as disaster help. I want a place on my income tax form to be able to specify where my tax money goes.

I don't think I'll be back until fall, can't take the heat/humidity very well. The teens want to return this summer between school and school.

More pictures at http://s6.photobucket.com/albums/y233/jlaskey/Katrina%20relief%20March-April%202006/

[movonne]

1. Great pictures..

[uppityperson]

2. thanks, the teens took more pictures, but

getting ahold of them is difficult. I wanted to put some up to share. It was quite something.

[Olney Blue]

3. Thank you for this amazing report.

We really are on our own, aren't we? The story about the son who
has PTSD was very sad. It must be very common along the entire coast.

Harry Connick, Jr. was on ABC this morning saying that he has never cried so much.

:cry:

[uppityperson]

7. Camp manager talked with the son's mom about him

recommended that he get some help, that lots of people are having problems about all this. It was not just that he almost drowned, or that he had to get rescued, but that the neighbors didn't get picked up for a couple more days, sat on their roof in the sun. The whole thing.

[TacticalPeek]

4. K&R

Very informative. Thanks.

:kick:

[BrklynLiberal]

5. Thanks for taking the time to post these. The story needs to be told.

There is still so much to be done. So many people who still need help.:(

[uppityperson]

6. It is difficult, coming back home

every little bit helps, you would do the same for me, we are all in this together, so much of just the basics is missing, every little bit helps.

Men's work pants, matching socks. This is what I heard that people want. Besides people, money, materials to get their homes and communities going better I mean.

[Sal Minella]

8. Thank you so much for posting these pix.

[intheflow]

9. Thank you for being another witness to Katrina's wrath on DU.

It's so true that you can see the photos and read the accounts, and still be very much shocked by the enormity of the devastation. A million images couldn't adequately convey the reality. My beau, usedtobesick, was on the front lines of the first Gulf War, and even he was shocked by how bad it is down here.

I'm so sorry your son isn't doing well. Here's a :hug: for you and a :hug: for him. I know a lot of people are having tremendous difficulties after the storm. People who survived with homes mostly or wholly intact feel guilty. People who were able to evacuate to safety but returned to destroyed homes feel guilty. People who survived the storm have the full range of stress-related issues including, of course, PTSD--and even they feel guilty for not being strong enough emotionally, of having to rely on hand outs from the government and relief agencies, of getting sick from mold or other toxins and becoming a burden on their families. It's not good any way you slice it.

I wish I had known you were down here, I would have loved to meet you for a drink. I'll be spending the month of August up your way, perhaps we can meet for a drink then. I'm a normal person and so is uedtobesick. merh can vouch for us! :hi:

K&R, of course.

[uppityperson]

11. We missed meeting you, and my son is fine

The son of the woman whose house we were working on is having problems. My son is just a normal teenageer with normal teenage problems but thatnks anyways. If you get up this way, I'd love to meet you. We're pretty normal too, and merh has vouched for you already with me.

[intheflow]

12. Well, I'm glad for your sake it's not your son.

Although I'm sorry about the hormone thing your son is going through, too. :)

[Suich]

10. Thanks, Uppityperson!

Did Wal-Mart really hire people to keep an eye on the store during Katrina??? Unbelievable...

:hi:

[northofdenali]

13. K&R & HUGH (sic) Kudos to the teens who gave up spring break

to help others in need. It's true - what goes around, comes around - Louisiana, Southern Mississippi & Southern Alabama supplied a LOT of assistance when Andrew clobbered South Florida. It's wonderful to see/hear about these young folks learning how to be real.

Thank you for the photos, UP, and :hug:

[uppityperson]

26. thanks, they are good kids

kilts and top hats. Someday we on the west coast will need help when the earthquake hits.

[flashdebadge]

14. Thanks for sharing. As Americans, we really are spoiled.

[Janice325]

15. Bless you and all of those people who are giving so much of

themselves without expecting anything in return. It's wonderful in this day and age that people are helping their fellow man, expecting nothing in return (especially FINANCIALLY), just because it's the right thing to do.:hug:
The pictures of the puppy wranglers actually brought a smile to my lips.
I hope that karma really is a bitch and that those people who have fucked up,ripped off, disparaged and ignored the suffering and destitution of so many people in this country get what they truly deserve some day.
A truly minor question. You wrote:
"We helped out at Food for Love/Emergency Communities community kitchen and distribution center in Chalmette, MS,"
Is there a Chalmette, MS, of is that referring to Chalmette, Louisiana (St.Bernard Parish)?
k&r

[uppityperson]

23. oops, Chalmette, LA St.Bernard Parrish

http://www.emergencycommunities.org/

[Catchawave]

16. Thank you for sharing

your photos and inspiring story :hi:

[noamnety]

17. question for you

did you happen to note if any of the relief camps will accept volunteers that are under 18? I have a group of highschoolers wanting to go down with me once school lets out, and the Bayou Liberty Relief Camp was one of the places I was considering, but I have a few that are 16 or 17, I think.

[uppityperson]

18. They will if you are 18 I believe.

email the BLRC and check, but I think there should be no problem if there is an adult (assuming you are not a minor). I'd email them and ask. There were people at EC that were minors with parents but they are closing for the hurricane season. Seems like they'd need a CYA form from parents, wise to have anyways (CYS=cover your ass). BLRC is involved with several project, and has ties to many more. If you have something in particular you want to do they can help you set it up, or else help out with one that they are doing.

[noamnety]

19. Thanks for the info

I have 4 full-fledged adults interested in going, and a bunch of 18-19 year olds, and then a bunch of younger ones. Our first choice is letting the IVAW or another vet from the gulf march boss us around, and I knew BLRC was one of the places they were considering going.

[uppityperson]

20. Hope you get to go down, BLRC are good people

They are part of the group of individuals that answered the VFP call for help from Covington after going there after Camp Casey last summer. I hope you get to go. There was a group of 8th graders working in Chalmette last month, very educational for them and oh that youthful energy!

[noamnety]

21. I know they are good people

I stayed there on the gulf march one night, there was just an incredible energy there, and Niki did an amazing job of organizing that night for us. Love them!

[Kurovski]

22. K&R (nt)

[HeeBGBz]

24. Thanks for helping

And for the great images.

I'll be heading back to Biloxi on May 15 if all goes well. I expect it will be an emotional time for me when I actually see all the devastation along Hwy 90. I only saw two intersections right after the storm before I left. I have many special memory places that I know are gone or forever changed. It's gonna hurt.

I hope to see you somewhere in the fall.

Peace.

[uppityperson]

25. Good luck with the trip back, take it easy, little bits at a time

Maybe we will meet this fall when it cools back off. I'll post in before I come down again, would like to meet.

[aaronbees]

27. Thank you!

It's vital for folks to know exactly how far the Gulf Coast has left to go and how far it has come. Those kids sound like treasures and could give a good lesson in a citizen's responsibility to people who moan and groan about rebuilding NOLA -- that's for sure. That pic where the house in the Lower 9th is camped atop a car ... saw that exact same home back in February. Just heartbreaking :(

[uppityperson]

28. I think that house got a lot of photos, how did that combo happen?

An empty slab. An upside down truck. A bigger house. Stack them. There was a man sitting on steps in the blast zone, head in hands. I took pictures of houses and things because it was too heartbreakingly intrusive to take them of people. And the house with the moldy bedroom exposed. Someone left home for a couple days, and there is their bedroom, bear, furniture, closet. Very heartbreaking.

[JNelson6563]

29. Commendations to you

Bravo! :applause:

Great work and wonderful report! A million thanks.

Julie