Day two

Tues. june13

The group was split this am on jobs, We worked on gutting houses again, at a food bank, cleaning up a playground (which included a special guest...more on that later!) and organizing a school library.
Four people including myself and Andrea our leader went across town to work at a food bank. The actual building was destroyed during the storm, so they are using a parking lot of a church (again wiped out) as their temporary site. The site is basically a huge tent, and three PODS. Our job was tohaul cases of food from the PODS to the tent, sort it, and bag it to specifications. Actually, clients from the area were able to obtain two bgs, containing, mac and cheese, potatoes, canned fruit and veggies, beans, rice, H20, sports drinks, cereal etc. Cars lined up, showed their ID's, got their goods and drove off.
The site is open five days a week from 10-1:30. Most of the volunteers that we met that run the organization had lost their own houses and had other jobs.
The best part of the day, was that we canned our PB sandwiches and were served a jambalaya for lunch! It was terrific!
I t was an easy day compared to yesterday's hot gut. Hot but breezy. The toughest part of the day for me was actually the drive over which had been a nice area with malls and many fast foods,etc. ALL of it was gone! Dillards, Sears, Best Buy, McDonalds, etc. It really got to me just how devestating this storm was. To see these major American companies not up and running yet, is a testament to the damage. You can kinda get an understanding of how difficult it is for the average joe. Anyway, I am positive that NO and other places hard hit in this storm are in for a very long journey of hard work. They need any help we can give them and are so appreciative.
You'll hear about other people's day later. Until then!

Val