Day One.
Woke up this morning at about 5:30am after getting to sleep around 2 in the morning. I arrived in New Orleans last night, as dusk was settling in...in time to see the blue FEMA tarps on many of the rooftops and the backup of traffic as mostly construction trucks and cars were leaving the city...these are all the people that are commuting every day, probably from Baton Rouge, in order to work on their houses.
So here I am, in a disaster zone, and it surprisingly has most of the amenities...in fact, I am sitting here in a canvas tent at one of four computers on site at Emergency Communities, the organization that I am volunteering with over the next couple months. EC is located in St. Bernard Parish, just outside of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The night I arrived, I was taken from the well-lit streets of downtown New Orleans into the absolute darkness of a neighborhood where no one is living or working. I was shocked even then...tomorrow one of the other volunteers is going to take me on a 'disaster tour' (believe it or not there is actually a company that is giving these tours for real and charging...a bit odd and not quite right if you ask me...).
As I said, my morning began early in the bustling kitchen, grating cheese for the grits and eggs that we were serving for breakfast. EC runs the "Made with Love Cafe and Grill" and provides three healthy, often organic, meals per day to residents, workers and volunteers in the area. They usually provide upwards of approximately 1,000 meals/day, 80% of which are for returning residents who are currently staying in FEMA trailers and working on cleaning out their houses. The Parish is slowly coming back to life. With a pre-hurricane population of 70,000, most of the people living here were middle to low-income families, many of them fisherpeople. There are now 8,000 residents living back in the area, with an additional 15,000 that commute every day to work on their houses. All houses have to be cleaned out before they can be inspected in order for residents to start living in them again. Of course, as you would expect, many have opted to demolish the structures as most of the houses in this area were entirely under water after Katrina hit.
As for myself, I feel fortunate to have a tent (thanks Danielle!) and am currently nesting. The weather has been fairly cooperative thus far although nights and mornings are pretty chilly. I have to admit, I'm already skeptical as to whether I'll be able to work twelve to fourteen hour days for 2 months but I figure I'll get into a groove. Currently there are approximately 40 volunteers working here, with people coming and going literally every day. They are desperately in need of more so if you have a week to spare please consider coming down!
For more visuals of the community, some volunteers have set up a photo gallery, go to http://actionhero.smugmug.com/gallery/1059510/4.
More detailed updates soon but my fingers are getting cold and it's time to crawl into my sleeping bag...
Kareen
So here I am, in a disaster zone, and it surprisingly has most of the amenities...in fact, I am sitting here in a canvas tent at one of four computers on site at Emergency Communities, the organization that I am volunteering with over the next couple months. EC is located in St. Bernard Parish, just outside of the Ninth Ward in New Orleans. The night I arrived, I was taken from the well-lit streets of downtown New Orleans into the absolute darkness of a neighborhood where no one is living or working. I was shocked even then...tomorrow one of the other volunteers is going to take me on a 'disaster tour' (believe it or not there is actually a company that is giving these tours for real and charging...a bit odd and not quite right if you ask me...).
As I said, my morning began early in the bustling kitchen, grating cheese for the grits and eggs that we were serving for breakfast. EC runs the "Made with Love Cafe and Grill" and provides three healthy, often organic, meals per day to residents, workers and volunteers in the area. They usually provide upwards of approximately 1,000 meals/day, 80% of which are for returning residents who are currently staying in FEMA trailers and working on cleaning out their houses. The Parish is slowly coming back to life. With a pre-hurricane population of 70,000, most of the people living here were middle to low-income families, many of them fisherpeople. There are now 8,000 residents living back in the area, with an additional 15,000 that commute every day to work on their houses. All houses have to be cleaned out before they can be inspected in order for residents to start living in them again. Of course, as you would expect, many have opted to demolish the structures as most of the houses in this area were entirely under water after Katrina hit.
As for myself, I feel fortunate to have a tent (thanks Danielle!) and am currently nesting. The weather has been fairly cooperative thus far although nights and mornings are pretty chilly. I have to admit, I'm already skeptical as to whether I'll be able to work twelve to fourteen hour days for 2 months but I figure I'll get into a groove. Currently there are approximately 40 volunteers working here, with people coming and going literally every day. They are desperately in need of more so if you have a week to spare please consider coming down!
For more visuals of the community, some volunteers have set up a photo gallery, go to http://actionhero.smugmug.com/gallery/1059510/4.
More detailed updates soon but my fingers are getting cold and it's time to crawl into my sleeping bag...
Kareen
posted by Kareen at
3:53 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home