Well, it is 8 pm on Monday night, after a long day of work on Katrina cleanup. It is overwhelming the sheer immensity of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. Yesterday we travelled SE of here to Bay St. Louis, and saw the areas hit by a 26 foot wave pushed by the storm on the Gulf of Mexico. The extent of damage goes miles inland, and it feels like you are driving through a large landfill no matter where you drive as garbage is piled high everywhere. We did visit the beach, but nobody felt much like playing, later on though a few were "dancin' in the street" to a jazz combo playing at a birthday party at the former site of a home in Bay St. Louis. The house is gone, the the party went on….
Last night we had a great time of sharing and debriefing, especially regarding the pentecostal worship service we experienced yesterday morning. Then, everyone was hitting the hay pretty early again!
This morning we were ready to go about 8 am, and travelled down to Chalmette, LA, in St. Bernard Parish, to the home of Tony & Diane. This was about 30 miles to the south from here and the devastation streched there as well. They are members now here at New Jerusalem church, and hadn't been in their home much since the storm at the end of August. They were our tour guides yesterday. We saw there old church (now destroyed) and then their former house (a brick ranch style home). The front lawn was messy but empty when we arrived. Inside the front window was furniture tossed everywhere, covered with mud and mold. The crew eagerly dug in, first removing all the furniture, then appliances, all clothes, games, personal articles - every last item from the entire house into a HUGE pile along the street in the front yard. This started at 9 am, by 11 we were ripping out (not so dry) drywall. The flooding there was due to overtopping of the levee that protects Chalmette from Lake Ponchartrain, then busted through the dikes, and was 6 feet deep in their home (a clear water line was on all the walls). Thus everything was ruined. The worst was the refridgerator. Imagine your fridge full of food, pulling the plug, then dumping it in a pond, and opening it up 7 months later? Yuck! Many containers in kitchen cupboards, drawers in dressers, etc, that could hold water still had flood water IN THEM 7 months later. Everyone had masks on as the stench and mold was thick. However, by 4 pm the entire house was completely gutted, every last drywall nail out of all the studs, every tile scraped off the floor, the house is ready for rewiring, inspection, then drywalling!
We then toured other areas of Chalmette to see places that a neighborhood literally floated across a canal into another neighborhood, and the houses are still sitting crossways blocking the streets. We saw houses completely collapsed, sitting on TOP of cars, huge logs up on top of roofs, and trash and garbage everywhere.
Well, we returned about 7 pm tonight, have all benn showering, and it is time for dinner. Thanks for your continued prayers! Only a few minor cuts today. Everyone is in good spirits but pretty overwhelmed by the sheer extent of the devastation.
- Kirk
