Update #3 from New Orleans:
Well, it is Wednesday afternoon, and some of us just returned from East New Orleans, where we finished gutting a house belonging to a 91 year old woman, and cleaned up her yard. East New Orleans was built in a swamp, and the homes are all about 5 or more feet below sea level. Thus when the levees broke, water tends to equalize and everyone had about 9 feet of water in their homes. This home had already had the furniture and appliances, and even most of the drywall already removed, so was an "easy gut". Just lots of nails, the bathrooms (the sledge hammers were flying!), and some drywall. The side and back yards were totally impassible when we started. Many huge trees had come down, and it was impossible to get through…
We had the woman's son helping with his chain saw, and managed to remove all the downed trees and branches, leaves, about 20 trash cans, mattresses, etc from the back yard (the trash cans and mattresses evidently used to belong to others, just happened to float into her yard). It was fun because another crew from the Indiana/Michigan area with some urban missions group was working at the house next door. Our crew was done with the yard cleanup and gutting by about 2:15 or so, and decided to take a tour of downtown New Orleans since we were close. The crew pulling the equipment trailer came back to the church rather than drag it around downtown. Tonight we are looking forward to an authentic cajun dinner made by Tony & Diane (they were the couple whose house we gutted on Monday in Chalmette).Yesterday (on Tuesday) we split into two work crews in the morning, with one crew cleaning up a yard and staining some trim and doors, while the other crew completely removed the subflooring of "Miss Hattie Mills" house here in Slidell. Next week another crew of carpenters will repair the (now drowned) termite eaten and rotted beams below the old subflooring, put down a new subfloor, and then start rebuilding the house (it is an empty shell). We want to designate much of our gift to rebuilding Miss Hattie's house.
In the afternoon, we moved a few big piles of debris at another location, then headed over to Bay St. Louis, MS with the trailer load of school supplies for North Bay Elementry school. It was incredible how much stuff Decorah Cares had packed into that trailer (no wonder it was so heavy pulling it down here!). We had the entire crew go along, and had a chance to see the former school (the entire shool is now in portables) and talk to the school principal, janitor, and a few others. All the walls on the east side of the school were blown out in the storm. Hearing the stories of water up to 30 feet deep throughout the town was incredible. The devastation over much of the coastal area still looks like the storm happened yesterday. Seeing chairs, trash, and even boats up in the trees, vehicles and boats way up on land or 100s of yards back into forests and swamps gives us some idea of the sheer power of the water and storm. However it is also amazing of what has been done, and the people are very appreciative. But these people lost everything, neighbors, schools, jobs, their homes, sometimes family members, pets, and if they go back and try to rebuild (which they often can't do yet due to waiting for flood maps still being made), everything is different for them. Tomorrow (Thursday) is our last full work day and we are hoping to gut another home back in Chalmette for a woman we found out about from a neighbor of Tony & Diane on Monday who evidently desperately needs help.
We're not sure exactly what we'll be doing yet however since Jim, one of the pastors at New Jerusalem who has been coordinating our jobs is busy as "Pastor Suzy", the wife of the senior pastor is in ICU battling cancer. Pray for sister Suzy. We plan to head home Friday afternoon after working Friday am. Please pray for safety during our trip home as well.
Give praise for the students who are incredible workers, and dive right in, and then don't quit either! They've been a great group and are becoming very close. Praise also for the presence of Gayler (aka "the chief"), who is keeping us all entertained and having a great time with the students.
