Flood Water and Politics

Today we split up in the vans and our group went through the Lower 9th Ward, which was really sad. It’s crazy to see all the houses that were still so damaged even though it’s been five years. It’s especially strange to see when many of the new houses they are building are so new and modern looking; they are built up off the ground to prevent future flooding and they’re so nice they stand out and look pretty out of place there.

We also checked out the rebuilt flood wall; the original one gave-away which is why the 9th Ward was so damaged. We were told that these walls are supposed to be able to handle up to a category 4 storm, but anything stronger than that and the walls will break again. From talking to different people, some people things it’s a result from a lack of funding and others say it’s because of faulty construction to begin with. I don’t know which has more truth to it or if it’s a combination of both reasons, but I find it strange that it’s common knowledge that the walls could break again if there’s another storm like Katrina and yet it seems like nothing is being done about it.

On the topic of damaged houses, there’s still a lot of houses everywhere that have spray-paint still on them where they were marked after they were checked for survivors. It’s very sad and haunting to see the reminders everywhere of how many houses were effected and how widespread the damage from Katrina really was.

Anyway, after we went to the 9th Ward we went to a new work site, where we met Sandy. She’s an older woman who is still working on getting her house back to a more normal state. She was really welcoming and very happy to have us there to help. We painted a few rooms for her and will be going back tomorrow to finish panting and replacing some flooring. Sandy was extremely open and willing to tell us her story, which was really interesting and new for me because I it was the first house I’ve worked on where I was able to meet who I was helping.

On Monday I helped at a house where the owners are currently living in Texas and yesterday I didn’t get to talk to the house owner much because she was in and out, so I enjoyed meeting Sandy today and hearing parts of her story. Something that really struck me was that her husband died two years after the floor so now she’s not only going through all the devastation of Katrina, but she is going through it without her husband in the house that they lived in together for most of their lives. Also, she was telling us about how excited she was because her lights were finally installed yesterday or the day before and her electricity was working; she is finally using lights that aren’t run from extension cords for the first time since 2005 when she evacuated for the hurricane.

I thought today was a very positive experience after getting to meet Sandy and talked to her about what she’s been through and how happy she is that things are moving along with her house. She’s so grateful for everything people have done for her and so struck that strangers come so far during their free time to help her; she was a very encouraging person to talk to.

One of the last things she said to us was that she works hard to stay happy, but she has to deal with all of this in a way she can live with so she has to always try to be happy. I think this is definitely a “take home” point because I know there’s a lot of little things that I get upset over that really aren’t anything in the big picture of things, so I hope that even after I go home I can take a lesson with me from this trip.

Amanda R.