Letter from a Volunteer

I am posting a letter sent out via email to a number of recipients by Chris Hinchey. Chris is a nursing student from San Diego, CA, who decided to spend her holiday break from school and work in the New Orleans area volunteering (Chris is second from left in front in the pic to the right). Another volunteer who visited St. Bernard earlier in 2007 put Chris in touch with me, and I helped set her up with a couple of her projects. She met a lot of people along the way here, and decided to capture her trip in an email that she sent out to a number of people. With her permission, posted below is a copy of that email. I think it's an extremely well-written expression of someone's experience here, and needed to be shared with many more.

BY CHRIS HINCHEY

Hello to my family, new friends and old friends.

I am back - yes tired, with a cold, and stressed over writing this paper due Monday! I was in New Orleans from Dec 24 - Jan 4. The trip was well worth it. New Orleans French Quarter is as great as ever. The music touches me every time. The city has it's own culture and it makes you understand why it's residents are working so hard to rebuild the place they love.

I, like many of you, didn't know exactly what was happening ever since Katrina... so I will give you the understanding that I now have. The population is around half of what it was. Some homes are rebuilt, especially for those that had flood insurance, rather than just home owner's insurance. Any new construction is required to be a number of feet off the ground. The government is attemping to do something, though slowly.

The problems start with who gets help first. You see, the people who were affected, but not quite as bad as others, were able to return first since their houses were habitable and they had a place to stay. So, they were able to apply first and get assistance earlier than some others. Basically, they are at the top of the list - first come, first serve, sort of. So, finally after two years and four months, more families are getting their checks to rebuild. The woman I talked to, who just received her check (did I mention... two years and four months later), is still in her FEMA trailer. She agreed to rebuild with the money and stay in the house for at least three years. Since she has lived there for over 50, that is not a concern for her. But, what do you do first?

Volunteers have gutted the house and so, once it is sprayed for mold, she can begin. Would you know how and who to hire first - plumbing, construction, electric, etc. Not to mention the horrible people that have been ripping residents off- over charging, starting jobs and not finishing, steeling from them, etc. Plus, the robbers who break into houses being constucted to steal copper pipes, electrical wire, etc. How do you find someone reputable? This is a major problem for many people.

Then, like one resident I met, there could be more waiting. As far as this family has been told, the gas company is 5 months behind in inspection, then turn on. So, after getting through all of that construction and finally making it to the other side, they will be in their FEMA trailer (trust me, you wouldn't want to live in these for too long - they are SMALL) for a possible 5 extra months!!! So, for anyone who thinks that the government has given the money (which still hasn't happened for everyone yet) and is wondering what the heck is going on... well, there you go. Not as easy as you might think. Volunteers have built more houses than the government, let's not forget that there is no argumnet that the levy broke related to neglect!! This wasn't just due to Katrina!

We all live in blind faith that our taxes support roads, levies. bridges, etc and we assume they are cared for. Let's keep hoping that is true for the rest of us.

So, there is MUCH still to be done. Few of the local hospitals and clinics have reopened. I doubt that it will be all complete within ten years even. But, it is getting there and the residents and volunteers are outweighing the thieves and the lack of fast action by the government. They are rebuidling, building anew, returned to work and school (and hey, even Brad and Angelina's kids are enrolled in public school there) and are staying strong and being supportive of one another.

So, that is the short story.

I met some great residents and connected with some wonderful fellow volunteers. I nailed, ripped up tile, caulked, painted, moved furniture, drilled, dry walled and had some great talks and heard some amazing stories. I also heard some great music and had a few fun nights out as well. Hope you all had a great holiday and new year. Hope you learn from and enjoy my story. Have a great 2008.

Still Alive

It's been awhile. The holidays were good, save a few bumps, and I'm back in New Orleans since this past weekend after heading to Connecticut to be with family for Christmas. With lots of help from my family (in particular my older brother and sister-in-law), Erin, one of Erin's co-workers and a lot of generous donors, I was able to arrive back in New Orleans with a UHaul full of furniture. On December 29, we distributed most of it to seven households. I have a lot of pictures sitting on another volunteer's camera. As soon as I get them from her, I will share them as well as more about that day.

AWARENESS: Talk about a classic case of something 'appearing' to be good on the surface, but when peeling away the layers (i.e., BS), you see very little substance.

The Road Home Program, which funds money back to people who were homeowners pre-Katrina and either lost the home or had it incur a significant amount of damage (every home in St. Bernard Parish falls into one of those two categories), has been a debacle since Day 1. Apparently they reached some end of year deadline to finish processing 90,000 applications. But the company contracted to run it is doing nothing but blowing smoke. Yes, more people have received their money (I know a few residents who finally got it in the past month or so), but isn't it about time? Are we to applaud someone or something that has been so inefficient just because they 'finally' reach some benchmarks that should have been hit months ago? Are we to forget the horrible service, the long lines, the lost applications, the no call-backs to residents. I have heard plenty of first hand accounts of this, and it's sad. Yet here was ICF patting itself on the back because it hit some arbitrary end of year deadline. Funny, but ICF would have lost money per its contract had it not hit the mark, and I'm sure they were jumping through hoops to process just enough so that that didn't happen. And trust me, there are plenty of people still waiting and dealing with non-returned calls and buckets of red tape.

Pardon the cynicism, but this is reality. And it's a big reason why I'm still here. People haven't gotten the help they should from agencies and programs that were supposed to deliver it. And don't let some fluffy figures and benchmarks lead you to think otherwise.

Anyway, the following links provide a good recap. The first is to the story the Times-Picayune ran on January 1st (just need to read the first few paragraphs of that one). Try to read the 2nd link in full, an editorial by the TP. It's on the money.

Happy New Year.

STORY:

http://www.nola.com/timespic/stories/index.ssf?/base/news-9/1199200268154110.xml&coll=1

EDITORIAL:

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1199168431314580.xml&coll=1

Christmas Just About Here

Check out this photo to the right. I had it under Pic of the Day the past few days, but I couldn't get it to post at the right size (and I think I'm still having that problem over there). I had to post it here, though, so that you could see it better. It's a FEMA Trailer decorated for Christmas. I spotted it in one of the neighborhoods in St. Bernard after leaving a house the other day. Whoever lives there, props for making the best of a "not so great" situation, and staying in the spirit of things.

I'm writing this post as I pack and do a few other things to get ready for my trip to Connecticut for the holiday. I'm finding more and more that I'm squeezing two and three things in at once. Not complaining, that just seems to be reality these days. I love to write, but I definitely don't have as much time for it. Starting and running St. Bernard Recovery Corp. dominates most of my time and energy (Erin, friends and family can probably attest to me being consumed by this in a borderline annoying way). It's interesting how earlier in the year I was so much more into writing, to the point where I was buying and reading books on non-fiction writing, how to write better, I bought and re-read some of my favorite books from college writing classes. I was really into it, believing that writing almost every day about my experiences here was my calling. But things have changed, and I've adjusted. I was busy a lot and working and volunteering, getting my hands in on lots of different things, especially when I was really engaged helping out at Camp Hope. I always found time to write, though. Now, not so much. I think my calling now is more about doing than writing. I'm good with that, as I think that is what is meant to be.

Here's another photo to check out. I took this this morning at a school that houses volunteers most weeks. An outfit called the Gathering, which is faith-based, takes in 20 to 30 volunteers who come in from out of state, houses them in this school and puts them to work at different houses. One of the Gathering's team leads, Aaron, calls me when he needs to find some extra work. I had a couple of houses for them to go to this week. I'd go to this school, which is completely gutted, to meet them as they eat breakfast and get ready to head out to the houses. Seeing scenes like this kind of remind of my Camp Hope days, which was also a 'gutted out' school. 28 months later (sounds like a movie title) and I still see things that make me think it's just a few weeks after Katrina hit.

Had a pretty big scare this morning, by the way. I'm flying Southwest up to Hartford tomorrow, a 6:30 a.m. flight. Southwest has that first come, first serve boarding process so it's imperative to check in online as soon as possible once your flight is 24 hours away. I set my alarm for 6:20 a.m. so that I could get up, turn my laptop on, and be ready to click "Check-In" right at 6:30 and get my 'A' Boarding pass. Well, I got up at 6:20 no problem, only after powering on my laptop, I laid back down on my bed, thinking I'd just rest there for a minute while it warmed up. Next thing I know, I'm waking up, in a fog, wiping my eyes, everything black, and it's 7:35 a.m.! "Jesus", I screamed, "just great!". Miraculously, I still got an A for both legs of my flight, even my first one at 6:30. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.