Hi from Tricia

Monday, April 03, 2006



Many emotions were felt today as some of our group did work at the Boys and Girls Club and others did work at a mold-infested house in New Orleans. I was lucky to be in the small group that gutted the house of a single mom who is currently living in Atlanta, Georgia. She is living there while her house is being gutted and rebuilt. One of the most memorable things I saw today was on our drive to the house. Each house we drove by in this neighborhood had an X spray painted very largely on the front of the house showing four things: the date of the rescue, who inspected the house, if anyone was found in the house and if it was “all clear”. This hit me the most as I could more clearly imagine what the days following the hurricane must have been like. As we unloaded the tools from the van, a local man named Herman Brooks, who lives a block away from the house we were gutting, stopped and filled us in on the hours and days during and immediately following Katrina. How meaningful to hear this first hand. See the video footage for his amazing story.

The gutting consisted of tearing out moldy sheet rock, appliances, toilets and a washing machine filled with water and clothes from August. Needless to say there was an extremely bad odor coming from the washing machine and the house in general. We all wore respirators and goggles to protect ourselves – although some smells still floated through the respirators. The water had risen to about 5 feet in the house and about 9 feet from the street level. This area was very close to Lake Pontchartrane and as Herman explained, the water rose faster than anyone could imagine.

Tomorrow the Oak Point group is planning on helping at one of only three public schools now open in New Orleans. We are very excited to make a connection with kids in New Orleans.

One more thing, today was the first day that U.S. Mail in New Orleans was back to its regular schedule!

What a rewarding day!

Tricia