Hurricane Katrina Relief 2
Camp Hope – St. Bernard Parish, LA
June, 2006

 

Map


I spent the first week of June in Connecticut recovering from my AT hike and visiting friends.  I spent two of those days with Briana & Rachel
while their moms were away or busy.  We went to 2 parks, 6 restaurants, a movie, a toy store, planted tomatoes and watermelons, helped catch 92 tadpoles and a huge bullfrog.  On Sunday, June 11th, Maureen gave me a ride to the airport and I flew back to New Orleans where I planned to meet my nephew, Brennon, and spend another week gutting homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in St. Bernard Parish.

Brennon’s plane landed at the same time as mine and we rented a car and drove out to Camp Hope.  This facility replaced Camp Premier which had been operated by FEMA but was closed June 1st.  The new camp is six miles further from New Orleans and is across the street from four huge military supply ships which are docked on the Mississippi River in Violet, LA.  The camp has only been open for a week and is set-up within what remains of the W. Smith, Jr. Elementary School.  The school was built just six years ago, but was completely submerged in water along with the rest of the Parish.  The Parish government decided to allow Habitat and other volunteer groups use the school rather than loose the services of the volunteers when Camp Premier closed.

The guy in charge of building the camp is Paul Slattery, who was my team leader when I first came here in May.  He told me the Habitat people walked away from the task of converting the school to a volunteer camp three times before finally agreeing to go ahead with the project.  When complete, the camp should house 1000 volunteers and serve 3 meals a day.  There are probably 3-400 volunteers here now, most of whom have come for a one-week stint.

We checked-in and were assigned a sleeping room and team.  There are probably 40 different teams and coincidentally we were assigned to Team Black 5, the same team I was on in May.  There were a few hours before orientation so we took a drive around the parish and I showed Brennon some of the more interesting sights, including the 65-foot shrimp boat which is washed up in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  At 3:30 PM we returned for a 90 minute orientation then ate dinner.  At 8:00 PM we met with other members of our team to go over plans for tomorrow.  Our team leader is Selena from Texas.  In addition to Brennon and me, our team includes Eric & Mike from New Jersey, Seth from Massachusetts, Jude from Maryland, Glen from Georgia and Deb from California.  I had to use the restroom during our meeting and Brennon took the opportunity to nominate me as Tool Captain.  This means I have to leave 15 minutes before everyone else with the tool truck, distribute the tools to the worksites and guard them until everyone else arrives.

Monday morning I dropped off tools for nine teams and met Black 5 at 2329 Benjamin Street.  The homeowners, Dave and Charlene had been told yesterday that we would start gutting their home today.  They live in a FEMA trailer which is parked in the driveway and were very happy to see us.  Although they have done some minor salvage work during the last six months, there remains a huge amount of work to remove their waterlogged furnishings and strip the house down to the studs.

We made good progress the first day and Dave set up a shaded area with some chairs where we could take breaks.  By the time the bus came to pick us up at 3:30 PM, we had completed almost half the house and the pile of trash was growing high.

Back at camp we showered and decided to drive into the city for dinner.  We met Deb & Jude, who are staying at the Sheraton in New Orleans, at Bourbon House and had a great dinner.  Afterwards we walked down Bourbon Street to Café du Monde where we enjoyed sugar coated beignets for dessert.  It rained on our way back to the car, and we darted between porches in an unsuccessful attempt to stay dry.

Tuesday we continued work on Dave & Charlene’s house.  For lunch Dave made us a big pot of jambalaya which we enjoyed much to the envy of other teams working on nearby houses.  In the afternoon a truck came to pick up our debris but the loader broke after only a few scoops so our pile remained quite large.  We knocked off at 3:00 PM and took the bus back to camp.  I had heard that a local high school had a computer lab which we could use for internet access so Brennon and I went there to check email, before having dinner at a Mobil station which served pizza.

On Wednesday we finished Dave & Charlene’s house in the morning.  They read a nice letter written by their daughter expressing the family’s gratitude for our efforts and gave us a grand send-off.  We collected our tools and walked around the corner to Cougar Street where we started work on a new house located at number 1012.

This house is about 1600 square feet and has not been touched since the flooding.  We spent the afternoon breaking out the windows, removing doors and hauling out some of the large pieces of furniture.   We had started on the early shift again today so the bus arrived at 2:30 PM to pick us up.  It gets very hot here in the afternoon and we become less productive as the day wears on, so an early quitting time was welcomed.  Selena told us that volunteers were needed to cook breakfast on Friday morning so Brennon, Seth, Glen, Selena and I elected to wake up at 4:00 AM and cook rather than gut houses that day.  Jude, Deb, Mike & Eric will try to finish up the house on Cougar themselves.

Thursday we left at 7:30 AM again and made considerable headway cleaning out the house and ripping down the sheetrock.  We decided to reward ourselves by ordering pizza for lunch and enjoyed the feast in the little breezeway we had built behind the garage.  After lunch the mother of the homeowner came to take some pictures and look through the personal items we had set aside.  She also brought a nice letter from her daughter thanking us for our efforts and a bag full of homemade pralines.  Although this made us feel wonderful, comments we overheard from other team members working on adjacent houses indicated they were very jealous.  The team which had spent three days gutting the house at the end of the street arrived today to find that their house had been condemned by the local authorities so all their efforts this week have been for naught.

We returned to the camp Thursday afternoon and I headed over to the high school to check email.  I have decided to stay at Camp Hope for another week, during which time I will work with Paul Slattery’s group to help build the camp.  I took the boys over to see the marooned shrimp boat which, of course, they had to climb up on and investigate.  Afterwards we went for ice cream & snow cones.

I went to sleep early as we needed to be up at 4:00 AM to prepare breakfast.  I was assigned to make scrambled eggs which had to be made outside as there is no gas in the kitchen yet.  The 300 eggs had been cracked the night before so all I had to do was fry them up in a large wok with a paddle in about 8 batches which took 2 hours.  Brennon made fruit salad and Seth transported the food to the other side of camp where the dining hall is set-up in the gym.  Glen created the most excitement when he sliced the top of his thumb off while cutting ham, but received quick medical attention and was able to join us later.

We wanted to do something special for breakfast so we had arranged for Deb & Jude to stop at Café du Monde on their way into camp and pick up 225 hot beignets which we doused with powered sugar and served with breakfast.  They arrived at 6:15 AM and were a huge success.  Those of us who cooked had the rest of the day off so I went back to sleep, not knowing that we also had to make 150 sandwiches for lunch, which was done by Brennon & Seth.

Our team had planned a farewell dinner in New Orleans for Friday night.  Brennon and I had made arrangements to stay in the French Quarter at The Royal Sonesta Hotel on Bourbon Street for the weekend.  Before we left camp, however, we saw the busses returning and learned they had quit early because of tornado warnings in the next parish.  Camp Hope’s main generator had run out of gas so none of the lights or air conditioners was operating so Brennon and I packed up and headed for New Orleans.  We stopped in the Upper Ninth Ward to check out Habitat’s Baptist Crossroads Project.  It is truly amazing the scope of projects that Habitat is involved with in the area.  Baptist Crossroads is a joint venture between the Baptist Community and Habitat for Humanity.  The church had pledged to fund 40 homes before the hurricane, but increased its commitment ten fold to 400 homes after Katrina.  There were a couple hundred volunteers assembling framing built by Habitat Chapters throughout the country and shipped to New Orleans on flatbed trucks.  The houses are sheathed, roofed and fit-out on-site.

We checked into The Royal Sonesta Hotel around 2:00 PM.  Brennon went out to explore the area while I took a nap.  At 5:00 PM we walked over to the Sheraton where our team had arranged to meet at Deb’s suite on the 48th floor.  She is a meeting planner and has a 2500-person convention coming here early next year so the hotel gave her the suite for the week.  We had a drink to toast our successful week before heading out for the night.

We walked down Bourbon Street and tried to get into Pat O’Brien’s to buy Hurricanes, the local specialty drink, but the half of our group who were under 21 could not get in.  The bar was more than willing to sell us all Hurricanes to go, however, so we continued exploring the city with drinks in hand.  At the riverfront, we took a group photo with the bridge in the background and then found a place to eat.   I was not feeling well so after dinner I said my good-byes and returned to the hotel while the rest of the group continued partying at a karaoke bar.  Brennon got back to the hotel by midnight and told me that the rest of the group had gone back to Deb’s suite to spend the night rather than drive half an hour back to Camp Hope.

Brennon and I had breakfast at the hotel Saturday morning and then I took him out to the airport for his 1:00 PM flight back to Sacramento.  I returned to the city and spent the afternoon at Harrah’s where I also had dinner.

Sunday I checked out of the hotel around noontime and drove back to Camp Hope.  Seth has taken over as Team Leader of Black 5 with Glen as his Tool Captain.  Selena is also still here, but will work in the office in an administrative role for the rest of the summer.

I found some projects to keep me busy, ate dinner and then went to bed early.  It seems there are only about half as many people in camp this week as there were last week, but perhaps more will show up tomorrow.

I spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday putting up sheetrock to separate the rooms at Camp Hope.  Up until now, the metal studs have been draped with blue plastic tarps to create some privacy between classrooms where we sleep.  The Fire Marshall wants the tarps removed as they are flammable so all the walls must now have sheetrock.  We are only covering the lower eight feet of the twelve-foot walls.

The guy in charge of the camp is Tom Pfalzer.  He came here as a volunteer a number of months ago and has been hired by the Parish to run the camp.  Interestingly, he formerly managed the Woodbury Premium Outlet Mall in New York, which I visited last month while hiking the Appalachian Trail.

On Thursday, Evan asked that I stop putting up sheetrock to help with the shower project.  The truck-mounted showers we have been using are costing the camp a fortune to rent and the sooner the showers are built, the sooner we can send back the portable showers.  Forty-eight showers are being constructed on the former stage of the gymnasium.  There are no plumbers available to help with this project and I think the whole design is highly dubious, but I can think of no better solution.  There is one guy who, as a general contractor, has some knowledge of plumbing, but even he is over his head in trying to hook up the new commercial hot water heaters.  I tried to get hold of my brother, Rick, who is a plumber in California to see if he could offer some assistance via phone, but I couldn’t reach him.  I helped to put up a huge tarp separating the showers from the dining area, but returned to the sheetrock project when I discovered they still needed fixtures to complete the plumbing.

I have heard that we may be accommodating some National Guard Troops here at Camp Hope.  Criminal activity in New Orleans has increased dramatically with five teenagers being shot just this last weekend.  Mayor Nagin asked the Governor for assistance and she immediately sent 100 National Guard with a promise for another 100 in a few days.  I am not sure if they will stay at Camp Hope, but we have the room and I overheard a discussion as to how to insure the security of firearms here in the camp.

Friday morning I worked for a few hours and then decided to pack it in and go to New Orleans where I had reserved a room at Harrah’s for the night.  I said goodbye to the people at Camp Hope and drove into the city where I was able to check-in early.  I showered, played in the casino for a while, ate dinner and enjoyed a good nights sleep.

Saturday I turned in my rental car and flew back to California where I plan to spend the next six weeks.

| Back | Map | Home |