Work Day #1

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Pauline Street Site

Giles, Bob, Lyn, Nancy and Emma (later, Glenda)

An industrial canal is across the street. The water came right through this neighborhood. I can't see evidence of a high water mark. But I do see where holes were cut in roofs. Is this where people escaped? The street is potholed w/ what could be sinkholes. Some houses are rebuilt. Some haven't been touched. Many RV trailers in driveways and front yards.

Staining baseboards (our task at this site) went quickly. Now to McD's for water, salt and potty.

Jeff, who is the youngest son of our homeowner, along with his wife Tammy, stopped by. Jeff asked us to cut a piece of sheetrock and sign and decorate it.

He told us about the house and the neighborhood. He is an Orleans Parish Sheriff's Deputy and grew up in the house. He is the youngest of six kids. His parents bought the house in 1954 for $11,000 using the GI Bill from WWII. It was a 3 bedroom house without the "den" (family room). After Hurricane Betsy damaged the home, they added the back section on, which appears may have doubled the square footage.

Jeff said the water was up to the ceiling in this house. In his own house, the water was only about 4 feet high. But the water in both places didn't recede for 3 weeks.

Several of the neighbors died in the flood. He pointed out which houses they had lived in and named them. The he point out a couple of empty slabs down the street - just five houses to the south. This is where a tornado touched down shortly after the hurricane. One woman was killed in the tornado, her body being found on the levee behind where her house was. Jeff said it was the first tornado here in his whole life of living here. His adult daughter was moving back to New Orleans to live with her grandfather in this house.

This is a working class neighborhood that appears to have had little change in neighbors since everyone moved in back in the 1950's. You can imagine a neighborhood with children playing and everyone knew everyone else - and how it didn't matter who's momma caught you up to no good, you were gonna get a whoopin' from her.

It is now eerily quiet except for the occasional jet from the airport or the train whistle about half a mile away. There is very little people noise. In a place in need of heavy reconstruction, it is quiet. No children play here now. No neighbors are out visiting.

This place reminds me of the neighborhoods I visited as a child. The relatives we would visit in the summertime, lived in neighborhoods like this. These small homes that raised families in the 50's and 60's. Where people didn't buy their "first" house, but rather their only house. Houses that had the mortgage burned decades ago. This isn't "someplace else" - it is a place very familiar to me.


The mail truck drives by and does not stop here. There is no mailbox. Some houses have mailboxes. Others do not. This is how you know who's living here and who is not. Although it might be difficult to say "living" here when the house cannot be occupied and home is the FEMA trailer on the front lawn.


We have been told to track our hours. Each one of us "earns" $18/hour for the City of New Orleans. The money sent by the Federal Government for relief and rebuilding after The Storm (locals only call it The Storm) must be repaid by the city. Our volunteer hours are credited against that debt.

Today's Volunteer Labor Debt Reduction:
7.5 hours x 9 people x $18 = $1215