New Orleans Project 2005
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New Orleans Project 2005
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The Relief Center is housed at the Aurora United Methodist Church in Algiers, LA, just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. The Team stayed at the church, where they slept in classrooms, prepared their own meals in the church kitchen, and participated in worship that Sunday.
Two rented vans each carrying four team members departed Tuesday November 29 for the 950 mile trip. The vans drove straight through so that they would be able to maximize the time spent working. Team members included: Mike Bila, Ken Edwards, Elizabeth Goussetis, Emily Miner, Rick Seiter, Vickie Ball-Seiter, Dick Schelat, and Dale Tampke.
Below is a journal recorded by Rick Seiter which documents the experience. Use the link above to view pictures.
New Orleans Work Trip Journal
Tuesday, Nov. 29th: We left the Food Services parking lot around 3:20 p.m. with Vickie, Emily M. and Elizabeth G. The trip was uneventful overall. The funniest thing was driving around an area trying to find a strong wireless network connection so we could download (unsuccessfully) a DVD player program. We ended up in the DAYS INN parking lot next to their office. We then continued to travel to New Orleans.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005: We arrived around 11:30 central time. It took a little over 20 hours to get here. The trip in was eye opening. We started seeing tree damage and property damage 40-60 miles outside of New Orleans. Some trees pulled up by the roots, while others were broken off like toothpicks. Then the closer we got, the more damage we saw. Many homes have blue tarps over their roofs. It looks like more than 50%. We took a wrong turn and ended up by the Super Dome. Their roof has been repaired. Parts of the City is still without power. We saw a New Car Dealership lot with hundreds of cars all muddy and must have been under water. Earlier we noticed dozens of wreckers, mainly flatbeds, carrying cars that were all muddy. Obviously, these cars were victims of the hurricane.
The “boys” (Ken E., Dale T, Dick S., Mike B. and Emily & Elizabeth) went out to help another group this afternoon. Vickie and I stayed behind to try and get some much needed rest. Vickie and I took a walk in the late afternoon to a grocery store. On the way, we did see some destruction. This was within 1 mile of the Aurora Methodist Church where we are staying. The evening was great. We met folk from the other groups, we sang while 2 men played guitar, ate some jambalaya, talked about our assignments for the week and went to bed early. Our group will be working at a house tomorrow that requires all the dry wall on the ceiling and walls to be stripped off, all carpet removed and a tarp put on the roof. This should take two days. Then our 2nd assignment will be at a home where we are to totally gut the insides of the home. We are required to wear “hazmat” coveralls and masks for this job.
Thursday, December 1st: Breakfast @ 6:30 a.m. We arrived at the job site around 9:00 a.m. We took plenty of pictures of the before and after of our first day on the job. My highlight was meeting the owner Debbie and her Mother Drewella. They were so nice and appreciative of us being there. She, too, took a picture of us, her new found family (as she says). They were both just filled with The Spirit and loved their God.
We got a lot done today. We completely gutted the living room, entry closet, kitchen (except for new cabinets), family room, utility closet, and parts of the 3 bedrooms and hallways of the house. We removed paneling, drywall, insulation, ceiling tiles, floor tiles, nails, doors, door framing, window framing, bugs, lizards, wasp nests, lights and heating duct work. It was a big job but we were all proud of how the 8 of us worked together and supported each other. We wore disposable overhauls, masks, hardhats, latex gloves, work gloves and safety glasses/goggles.
During lunch Mike Bila and I stayed behind to watch the house with all our tools in it, while the rest jumped in the van and went to Home Depot to purchase 2-wheelborrows and some more small crowbars and wasp killer. They also picked up lunch from Burger King and we all ate outside in the yard. It was in the 70’s today. After lunch we had some entertainment with a wheelbarrow race. Dale and Elizabeth vs. Ken and Emily. Who won? Dick then made us all a great pot roast stew for dinner. Dale, Ken, Mike and I went to choir practice here at the church. Wow, what a demanding rehearsal.
Tomorrow we head back and finish the job. By mid-afternoon we’re slowing down and getting tired, but boy does it feel good.
Friday, December 2nd: Today was the final day on house project #1. After looking at what we had to finish, we realized that we may not get everything done. We had drywall to knock down, kitchen cabinets and sink to remove, 1 ½ bathrooms to gut, nails to pull out, carpet tac strips to remove, tile to remove and sweeping, sweeping and more sweeping to do. After lunch we could see that we had a mission to do . . . we must get this as close to being done as we can. For the next couple of hours you could almost hear a pin drop. We were totally focused on our mission. We really stepped it up a notch. We did almost accomplish our entire mission. I felt that after removing all the moldy drywall and insulation, sweeping everything up and clearing up the last of our tools, that we gave this house a sense of dignity again. I hope that when Debbie, the owner, returns she can start dreaming again and have a fresh beginning in her home. We were able to leave the tile (not completed yet) in the kitchen and entry hall. We were also able to leave the upper kitchen cabinets in which she also just installed weeks before Katrina hit. I saw The Lord working in everyone of us today. We worked as a team, His team, and accomplished the amount of work He wanted us to accomplish.
We're all exhausted tonight. Once again Dick S. made a wonderful Chili soup with help from Dale T. and Vickie B-S. Some of us ended the evening with devotions and answered the question, "How did we see God at work today?"
Tomorrow we head out to our 2nd and last project. I wonder what new experiences we will see?
Saturday, December 3rd: We started out the morning with Dale providing the devotional for our group and the Georgia group. He compared the candle lighting of Advent and Christmas Eve to what we are doing down here. As we share Christ with each other and help rebuild the lives of these folk, one at a time, we are lighting their candles of Hope and Promise. Soon, like Christmas Eve, New Orleans and/or the people themselves will be all lit-up and the light will be for all to see.
Project #2, Christy & James Johnson. This project is in the Eastside of New Orleans. It was one of the worst hit by Katrina. As we exited off the highway there was a sudden “stillness” in the area. Hardly any vehicles, people and no electricity. We suddenly were in the midst of the worst destruction we have yet to have seen. Our 5 senses were suddenly on overload. We were in shock by what we saw and smelled. Words can’t describe this type of destruction. When we came to the house we realized that it was a middle class home with a very strong Christian couple named Christy and James Johnson. Christy asked if we’d been here long and we said just a couple of days and that this was our 2nd project. She told me later that our answer didn’t surprise her because she saw the “shock” on our faces when we got out of the vans.
The house had not been touched by anyone. Our first job was to clear out all the furniture, doors, clothes, pictures, lamps, electronics, etc. and place them out curbside. James helped us a lot but Christy couldn’t bear to help. However, she never left and was always there. We all have many stories about this job. The tremendous amount of mold, the stench from the refrigerator after 3 months of thawing out, the wet carpets and the slippery tiles.
Several of us shed many tears and emotions throughout the day. We ended in a prayer circle, gave the Johnsons a new Bible with all our signatures in it and Ken read Psalm 66 which was requested by Christy.
We celebrated the last few days by going out to eat at The Dry Dock. On the way, in the van, we suddenly began singing Christmas carols and songs. At the restaurant we laughed, sang songs and even did some dancing. What a wonderful, and yes, deserving celebration we had.
Tomorrow, Sunday, is a day of rest for us. Dale, Ken, Mike and myself will be singing in the Church Choir and then off to some sightseeing. Monday we head back, for the last time, to the Johnson household to begin the tearing out and removal of wood trim, drywall, paneling, insulation, appliances and whatever else we can do. When we leave, another group will come in to finish.
Monday, December 5: Today was a totally awesome day. We are truly a working machine group. We got so much accomplished for our last day.
The day started out for Dale and I around 3:30 a.m. when Dale discovered that there was heavy rain coming down and you could hear a leak in our room. We moved a wastepaper basket to catch the drippings and went back to bed. It rained until we got to the job site and then stopped. Praise the Lord! The temperature dropped and it was quite cold outside but the house temperature wasn't bad. We did stay warm in our protective suits and gear along with working hard.
This house has 2500 sq. ft. and is a single level. It had 2 ½ baths, 3 BR, office, LR, DR, FR, Kitchen and Utility closet. Almost all homes are built on a slao, there's no basement. In approximately 7 hours we demo'd all the ceilings (except for 2) and walls( except for 2), including removing the
insulation, kitchen cabinets, kitchen sink, light fixtures, cover plates, trim, washer and dryer. We swept, shoveled and loaded wheel barrel after wheel barrel to be dumped between the street and sidewalk. I think Mike Bila gets the wheel barrel award for the most trips made. By the end of the day we left a pile of "rubble" 4'- 5' in height across the front (75' approx.) and side (75' approx.). We gathered together in the driveway for our prayer circle and Praised God for our experiences and asked God's blessings and strength for those who are the survivors amongst this devastation.
Tomorrow we leave for Athens @ 3:00 a.m. but a part of us will always remain in New Orleans.
Tuesday, December 6th: We left at 3:00 a.m. central time and made it back home 16 hours later. Our van clocked up 2,154 miles for the trip.
Thank you so much for your prayers. We felt them while we were there. It's good to be home again. God Bless.