This letter is the second in a series of updates that we are sending you, our supporters, to keep you posted as to our Hurricane Katrina Relief in the New Orleans area. In our last newsletter we had arrived in town, and were starting a few projects. We also expressed how much we hoped we could make a difference in various people’s lives by the specialized services and skills our team has to offer. In this letter we hope to make you see how we have begun to do just that.

By Saturday, 15th October, we will have assisted thirty-nine families in our recovery efforts. Their stories vary widely, but there are a few common themes: The citizens of New Orleans do plan on a return to greatness. Through perseverance and a strong faith there is forward progress. Facing the newly wrought simplicity of life has been turned into a positive experience, while the negative loss of all material belongings seems to drift away. The stories you will read in this letter are just two of the varied thirty nine families’ struggles, and continuous conquering of the wrath of Hurricane Katrina.

“I HAVE BEEN SENT ANGELS”
There is a very small street off of the 610 Highway called Ada Street. It only spans one block. On a sunny afternoon, our crew members Chad Pregracke, Dave Maasberg, and Geoff Manis, were driving down this particular street, looking for random people to help. They were both awe-struck at the dire state of the houses, their water lines being estimated at about seven feet (waterlines are very easily detectable on the houses and appear as if a brown ring was painted around the entire house). They saw an older couple slowly carrying their belongings out of their house. It appeared as if they were working alone, without any of the recommended safety gear, respirators and Tyvek suits (all of these function as a barrier against the mold and general funk of the area that was flooded. The entire location has been deemed toxically comparable to that of a septic tank). Rolling to a stop, Geoff asked them if they needed help.

The couple introduced themselves as Tony and Ruth. Tony and Ruth have lived in their house on Ada since 1969. They have been married since 1948, and during the storm were some of the few nights that they have ever spent apart since then. They are some of the lucky ones that have been reunited.

When they left their home at the onslaught of the storm, they had the slightest inclination that they would not be able to return for over a month. When they returned, they were glad to see that the roof was completely intact and the house looked in fine shape. The outside appearance scarcely indicated inner damage. It is for this exact reason that their insurance company is not able to assist them financially. Ruth told me that the insurance man was on the brink of tears when he handed them their quote and informed them he would not be able to help because they had no flood insurance and they owned their home outright.

Ruth weeps as she goes through the squalor that used to be her belongings. A single picture of the woman who taught her how to play piano is deemed priceless. She ponders over what clothes she might be able to save, and in the end can keep none because they are spotted with toxic mold. All of her belongings now fit into a small Coleman cooler. “This is my life. This is what seventy years gets you,” she says as she opens it for us to peer in.

Her husband, Tony, hangs his clothes outside to dry. He is retired from the Marines and his utmost priority is to save his dress uniform. The clothes hang in the sun while, exhausted, he sits in a recovered chair from a neighbor’s yard. Like many areas, the remainder of the block seems abandoned. Tony strongly identifies with his past Marine experience. While trudging through the foul of the storm he wore his Marine hat, and when someone asked him if he wanted a ride to the Superdome, he pointed to his hat and said, “If I can get through this, I can get through any hurricane.”

Two of our teams were sent in to help with the damage of Tony and Ruth’s house. The first day they pulled bulky furniture and major appliances out. The following day the house was stripped of drywall that was seeped in water. You can see in the picture that the amount of general substance of what was once a home dwarfs our crew. Tony got very emotional when the crew posed with him in front of this pile of debris. Tony and Ruth hugged every single member of the crew and through tears, stated that they must have done something right to have been sent “a group of angels”.

I have driven by their house a couple of times, as we are currently working within the same neighborhood. Tony and Ruth are there daily trying to improve upon their ruin. They take a few moments to share a quaint story with me of happiness in finding their good silver, or tell me of a friend in need who we might, perchance, help. Ruth states that she is trying to see all of this in a positive way, as “an equalizer”.

Helping them reminded me of my grandparents, and the hope that someone might help them if I wasn’t able to be around. Yesterday we dropped off insulation and drywall so they could rebuild a small apartment attached to the back of their house in which they will live while they fix the main house. This feeling makes all of us feel really great about being here, and this project is one we are all particularly proud of.

“COME GET ME NOW”
Thirty families now live in the FEMA village our team helped construct. They were placed here because their homes were no longer habitable. Since they live in the same location as the crew, we constantly run into them. There is one such woman who has stuck out among the group. Her name is Q. Q will approach anyone with a friendly greeting and a smile. At her job she is one of the only females, and she holds her own. Her rye sense of humor and quick come-backs keep her conversations engaging. It was a pleasure to meet her and to have the opportunity to hear her story.

Q and her daughter Janet, age 19, arrived here Sunday after being gone for almost a month and a half. Janet told me she feels like she is one of the lucky ones because she can “still see her house”, as most of the homes located in the Eighth Ward, as theirs was, were completely demolished. Having seen her home, she is able to have a bit of closure to her bereavement.

Janet left her home on the Sunday before the storm, 27th August. Against her mother’s advice, she went to the Superdome. Like all of us ,Janet stayed tuned to the television to watch the news of what was to come. “When I saw the mayor crying on TV, I decided that I was going to go to the Superdome” she says. Janet’s overall experience there was “terrifying”. From the beginning of her tale through her decision to depart, she relays some of the most awful accounts of a mass in frenzy.

Janet arrived at the Superdome with her Aunt and three of her cousins. They got there at around one in the afternoon and stood in line until about six o’clock just to get in. Two hours later, the lights went out, and the madness began.

Upon first entering the dome, all had been informed that they would be posted every half hour of the occurrences outside. They were also told that they would be supplied with food, water and clothing. What actually happened is a clear juxtaposition of these statements.

When the lights went out, the authorities stopped allowing people still waiting in line to come into the Superdome. At this juncture, those outside who had guns started shooting at the Superdome. On the inside, in the dark, the people could hear shots and amongst the screams, no one could tell where they were coming from. The winds that eventually tore at the Superdome roof, leaving splotches of it exposed, could be heard in the darkness. The persistent rains eventually permeated the exposed insulation and debris started falling from the ceiling, leaving only a few safe spaces within the dome area. Left to wait inside, the now trapped people seemed to go mad.

Janet accounts for the inhumane actions people resorted to as survival, seemingly proof that Thoreau’s theory of too many people forced together in a small space results in an incline of negative actions. The most grueling of Janet’s narratives was witnessing a ten year-old girl being raped and killed-this being the ultimate reason that Janet decided to leave the Superdome. She ponders when nightmares this will eventually bring, and cringes whenever she sees the Superdome. “I can’t believe I was ever there,” Janet said.

During her four days in the Superdome, Janet feels that she was continuously lied to. The National Guard came in to “take charge” of the situation, but her descriptions sound like their presence made the environment similar to that of a concentration camp. For example, people were told to line up in a straight line in order to receive food, and one bottle of water. One day no one received these rations because they were not standing in a straight enough line. When the crowd was supplied food there was constant fighting over it, even if they didn’t know the contents of the little brown sacks being passed out.

On Thursday, having seen a rape occur, Janet knew it was time to leave. “Even though I knew there was water out there, I had to get out,” she said. She was going to try to make it to her Aunt’s house, but the water was so toxic her feet immediately swelled up and started peeling. What she saw in her brief venture consisted of five dead bodies and the once known landscape of New Orleans that now looked like “a desert”.

While her daughter was at the Superdome, Q decided to wait out the storm at home. While all of her relatives fled town and headed to the Superdome, Q dawned upon past storms under evacuation mandate, and only wind damage had occurred. Having been through this before, she felt secure with her Grandmother’s advice to “hide in the closet--the safest place in the house”.

When Katrina finally hit land, the wind “sounded like a freight train running over the house”. She decided to peer outside to see what was occurring. What she saw out her window were trees being pulled out by their roots and neighbors roofs peeling away. She quickly ran back to the closet and dialed her Aunt and daughter who were in the Superdome. She assured them that everything was going to be alright, and told them she loved them. At that moment, the phone died.

As soon as they lost their connection, Q felt water rise around her. She opened the closet and all she could see was water. “I didn’t know I had so many cracks in my floor until I saw water coming through it”, she says. Her first reaction was to get her insulin out of the fridge (Q is diabetic). In the quiet moments, Q figured the storm had passed, and laid down to rest. She was awoken by water which had risen up to her elbows. With a start she realized she had to get out! She looked out the window and all she could see was water everywhere. She knew she had to go, but she did not know where.

Seeking any information Q fussed with a radio. She could not get it to work at first but when it eventually did, only one channel would come in. The radio repeatedly announced that helicopters were coming to rescue individuals.

Q swiftly packed a bag containing her insulin, water, crackers, a can of Vienna sausages, a flashlight, peanut butter, and peanuts (from the baseball game she had been to the night before). She had a couple of mishaps and endured injuries, but finally clamored to the roof. To her horror she could now see her entire neighborhood swamped in water.

Q suffered through three grueling days and nights waiting on the roof. She saw helicopters flying by, but could not get their attention. Finally she spotted a can of white paint floating by, and wrote in big letters “Come and get me NOW”. At around two o’clock on the third day, a helicopter signaled her but did not return for four hours.

When the “jump man” finally came down to rescue her, Q was not ready to go. Her bag that she had so carefully packed was not able to go with her. The man, now standing before her told her he was going to leave her on her roof if she did not leave her bag. She retorted “I am standing on my house that has all of my new furniture in it and is covered by water. I have lost everything that I have ever worked for. What do I have to loose?” He took the bag from her and threw it into the water and said “You have got to trust me, We’re going to take care of you.” He then hugged her and told her to hug the cushion which was being lowered to her in the same manner. Q grabbed the cushion and was promptly lifted up to the helicopter.

From this vantage point, flying head, Q now could see the entire city was toppled over in the quake of the flood. “It looked like a war zone.” Flying over the bridge, Q saw first hand the image many of us are familiar with from television clips. The helicopter flew over one more spot, picking up a family of a mother and three children before making its way to the New Orleans International Airport.

Upon entering the airport, Q held up the other woman who was rescued, and the woman dropped dead right next to her. Q was surrounded by death--body bags were scattered about, children screamed, and old people hobbled near-by. People were scattered throughout the airport in what was now a make-shift hospital. Q realized the calamity of the situation and briefly felt blessed that she had survived. All around her she could hear murmurs of similar stories, and whispers of dreadfulness. “All talked of the flood waters, but also of the present life”.

Q was eventually flown out to San Antonio, and says she is eager to return there. She said the people were friendly and the town was beautiful. While she walked through this new town she thought of her life, coming up with many questions in search for a reason for such a devastating storm, and thought of her only daughter. “It’s just us, me and my daughter.”

They were united about three weeks later. The rest of their family is scattered around the country in Arkansas, Virginia, Houston, California, Mississippi, and Atlanta. Many of their relatives are not certain when, or if, they are returning to New Orleans. Q decided to come back when her employer called her and told her they had a place for her to live, and a job to return to. Janet lost her job. Neither of them is certain of their next step, but one thing is for sure, “When the next storm comes, I am going to be the first one filling up my car and getting new tires,” Q says.

Q is currently looking for a home in a neighborhood near her work. “I want to live in a neighborhood full of old people—they’re nosy, but they’re not noisy.”

STAY TUNED
As for the crew, every day our lives are being changed with the acquaintance of these strangers. Their stories fill our thoughts.

The most outstanding element in the people that we continue to meet is their utmost appreciation. Every day we are meeting more. This compels us to wake every morning with pride, and the desire to reach out to more in need. There are so many stories just like these, so detailed in vivid crudity.

Luckily, we are able to help turn around some of the bad voodoo wrought upon this beautiful city. We continue to take great strides toward the dream of waking up this sleepy town. It is you, our supporters who make all of this possible, and we send you our thankfulness.

From all of us at Living Lands & Waters,
THANK YOU!!!