Hop’s Blog

Last night quite a few of us enjoyed the other side of New Orleans: Bourbon Street. I know the tale of two cities might seem rather expected, but that’s exactly what this place is. The people on Bourbon Street sure know how to have fun…and then some.

Earlier, we had started off the night with a final group gathering: a pizza & beer party. We found out that the Archdiocesan policy doesn’t allow beer on the grounds, so we headed across the street to an abandoned house. But a guy named Rocket, who was remodeling his home next door, invited us all over and regaled us with stories and jokes with a lot of local flavor.

On our last day today, we were ready to go at it again, but ended up not really doing much of anything. The first house we headed to belonged to an elderly couple…the woman has cancer and the man is blind. The house, which is located right next to a canal within sight of the Superdome, was in one of the worst neighborhoods we’ve seen so far. Not from flood damage so much as how blighted it was before the disaster. Since it was knocked partially off its footings, it’s scheduled for demolition. Our job was to empty the belongings. But after a quick inspection, our leader determined it wasn’t structurally safe to enter. Another more professional group will have to take care of it.

So, we headed to the next site in the Broadmoor neighborhood…a study in contrasts to the last house, but only a short distance away. The mixed-race area is full of well-maintained homes on a live-oak lined street with a flurry of rebuilding activity going on. The water level was probably about 8 feet here 17 months ago. Most homes had two stories, so they made it through OK. After a quick check of the upper level of this duplex (the bottom half has already been renovated), our leader said it wasn’t storm damaged enough to meet the criteria of the program. We headed back to our base to get wait for the other half our group and start on the 20-hour trip home.

Speaking of the other group, I haven’t introduced you to them yet. I’ve gotten to know them socially in the evenings, but haven’t had a chance to work alongside them, so I don’t have as much background. But, take a look:

Alex Albers, Tom Georgia and Mike Reynders are three students at St. Norbert College. They gave up the last week of their break to come down and do this.

Paul Albers is Alex’s dad, and a plumber by trade. He’s been enjoying doing something different: demolition rather than construction & renovation.

Ed Skoldberg is a New Jersey transplant, entrepreneur and consultant who’s enjoying being a stay-at-home dad with young children right now…although he can’t quite resist coming up with new business ideas.

Denis Vanden Heuvel is a shipping and receiving manager at Broadway Automotive in Green Bay. He’s always in good spirits and tells a heck of a story.

Kay Street and Madeline Turner are two nurses in different fields in Green Bay. From all reports, they were like the Energizer bunny…just kept going and going and going…

Jenny Ruechel is a second grade teacher at Notre Dame school in De Pere. She seems quiet and shy, but I know you can’t be if you’re a teacher. And that’s been confirmed on the trip…she’s reportedly a force with a hammer and pry bar.

Ray and Karen Brown are a retired couple who are known by everybody at Lourdes. They sing, they teach, they greet, they minister. And they’ve both got a very unexpected brand of humor. You’ll have to travel with them to find out what I mean. A lot of fun, these two are.

Janice Loehlein works at Cellcom in De Pere. I’ve seen her a lot around church, but never really had a chance to meet her before. A wonderful woman with a big heart and well liked by everyone.

Chris Hasselbacher is a social worker with Brown County. She’s a self-appointed adoptive mom for the week for Jared in our group. Hadn’t met her before, either…everyone speaks very highly of her, as well.

Bob Krzwina is an electrician, father of three and religious ed teacher. His youngest boys – twins – are in my son’s class. I’ve gotten to know his family over the past few years teaching religious ed and through school. Another quiet guy, but great sense of humor and hard worker.

And last but not least is Mike Vander Bloomen. Without our deacon, none of this would have been possible. He’s a great guy…an unassuming leader who’s very easygoing, down-to-earth, supportive and humorous, as well. I’ll be eternally grateful to him for answering the call for help and inviting the rest of us along on the experience.

Well, the car’s heading out…I’ll do a wrap-up tomorrow.

Our group of 32 is divided into 2 teams who go out separately each day to different worksites. I introduced you to those riding in my car the other day, but let me introduce you to the rest of my team…

Jay & Pam Achten – Jay is the crew chief for our team. A contractor by trade, he’s invaluable on the job. What’s more, he’s a great guy to shoot the breeze with. And Pam is a wonderful woman…a nurse who must have a great bedside manner considering all she does to keep the humor in our group.

Rick & Dawn Crabb – What a hard working couple! Rick is with Valley Unit Step, and Dawn is with a medical transcription service. They’re among the quieter members of the group, but every once in a while, they crack us up with a well-timed one-liner.

Dick Collar – he’s Dawn’s dad, and a former Parks Department equipment operator for the city of De Pere. When he gets his nose to the grindstone (which is quite often), there’s no stopping him. I call him the Candy Man…every lunch break, he brings around the bag of chocolates.

John & Carol Mueller – One of the retired couples on the trip, they’re on a return engagement from last April. They’re a study in contrasts, but it works well for them…John jumps into any situation with gusto, and Carol brings a comforting calmness to the group that puts anyone around her at ease.

Erin Riley – Erin is with the religious ed program at Our Lady of Lourdes. That girl can really swing a sledge hammer. There’s not much she’s afraid of…except roaches, snakes, mice, and rats…as we quickly found out. But when it comes to tearing houses apart, get out of the way!

Courtney Christiansen – As it turns out, Courtney is a former student and basketball player for my wife’s brother, Mike, in Wausau. She’s now with Humana, and with her height she teams well with Erin. When they’re ripping drywall and pulling nails, Erin gets the low parts, and Courtney takes the high parts. They’ve got it down to a science.

Paul Van Den Heuvel – Paul’s another quiet one, but a consistent hard worker who takes on any job he’s asked to do. He’s with Wisconsin Public Service, so it’s been interesting getting his take on the power grid in this city. And he’s another one to watch out for when it comes to one-liners. Not all that often, but when it happens, it’s pretty good.

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Today was an easier day as far as the complexity of challenges, but we managed to finish two houses. The first was the house we began yesterday, and the second was a cleanup job in a house that had been partially completed by another group before they departed.

At the second site, we visited with a contractor who was working on the house next door. It looked fantastic! He had purchased the home (a duplex), completely renovated it with over $100,000 of new work into it, and plans on renting it out. It was nice to see that type of progress going on.

The group has really become an efficient machine…we’re actually working faster than Catholic Charities has managed to line up jobs for us. And we’re having a lot of fun with each other along the way, no matter how hard the work. This afternoon we knocked off early because there was no other job lined up for us, and are heading down to the French Quarter for some food & entertainment. We’re going to see an IMAX movie called “Hurricane on the Bayou,” which is a documentary on what happened here 17 months ago.
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Found out after some conversation last night that Willy Mae (the woman whose house we fixed yesterday), was actually thanking the hurricane for one loss in her life. Among other troubles her husband was causing, he had begun using her home as a crack house and she couldn’t get him to leave. Turns out that the storm chased him away…he doesn’t want to change, nor come back to the neighborhood! God works in mysterious ways.
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A theme we’ve heard a couple times over is that of the “lost generation” here in New Orleans. Two African American older women lamented the fact to the other half of our group while they were on two separate jobs. As the group gutted one woman’s house, she pointed down the street and said, “Look at those little bastards down there.” Evidently, she had offered several neighborhood teenagers money some months before to do the same job our group was doing for free. Over the last few months, she had done what work she could on her own, and used our people for the heavy lifting. She told the group that after they left, she was going down to tell them they should be ashamed of themselves for sitting on the porch and watching.

I’ll giver her credit…it sounds like she was the neighborhood caretaker before the storm, sweeping sidewalks and prompting people to fix their houses and take care of their lawns. New Orleans needs a lot more people like her in every neighborhood. But it seems like many of the ambitious folks have moved away. And the older people don’t have as much sway with the younger generation as they used to. I hope she and others like her throughout the Gulf Coast area keep on trying, though.
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Time to head down to the French Quarter to absorb some local culture. Tomorrow we begin the journey home.

New location today. We drove 14 miles east of where we’re staying to a neighborhood near Lake Pontchartrain that had about 4 feet of water during Katrina. Again, I’m completely floored by the vastness of the area affected by the flood. You can’t tell the magnitude by photos or video…it’s just not the same as the 360-degree view.

The house we worked on was within about a half block of the levee. It’s owned by a 57-year-old woman named Willa Mae. She wasn’t home at the time the water came over the levee. She was taking care of some older neighbors and had evacuated them to Kentucky. She came to see us work on her house, and today was her first time home in 17 months (she’s living in Baton Rouge with some family). She handled it all well. A seamstress by trade, she hopped out of the car as we began clearing out her house and rescued a few dozen bolts of cloth and other supplies. Outside of a few other mementoes, she quickly indicated that most of it be thrown on the curb. Then it was all business, as she matter-of-factly directed us to put certain items in her car.

As the morning went on and each of us took breaks, we stopped to chat with her one by one. Her defenses came down after a while, and she told us much about her life. I asked her about her neighborhood, and pointed at the levee nearby. “What’s on the other side of that?” I asked. She stared at me straightfaced and answered, “Water,” then broke out in a laugh. “And it better stay where it belongs so I can come back home,” she said in my ear as she started gathering up belongings again. “I am coming back. And soon.”

I’d expected her to be more distraught, but it wasn’t until she was leaving that I saw the first tear in her eye. “You’re all wonderful people,” she said. “And I want to thank you for what you’re doing.” Then she proceeded to hug each and every one of us.

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Part of our group stopped by a Home Depot today and said that it’s a contrast to what we don’t easily see happening around us. It was crowded with those looking for building supplies. So there is rebuilding happening. But the city is huge…it’ll take a long time to gain even some semblance of normalcy. We did see some actual rebuilding happening first-hand today, too. A group from Indianapolis was working down the block doing tile work on an older man’s home…it was just about complete, and a welcome sight to see rather than the demolition work we’re doing.

Even so, building supplies are short around here. Catholic Charities is constantly seeking all kinds of supplies from outside the area that they can’t get here (building materials, cleaning supplies and household goods). And once the homeowner is back in their house, they really don’t have anything to put in it, so furniture, towels, dishes, etc., are always welcome.

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Random thought: You know how they say that when you’re nervous during public speaking, you should just imagine the audience in their underwear? Hope I never have to speak in church, because I’m not going to need a whole lot of imagination. With a couple hundred people living in the same gym, only 9 showers, and no real private areas, it’s amazing how quickly inhibitions disappear…and especially among the college students. It sure wasn’t like that when I was in school. I’m going to have to talk to Father Tim about remodeling the church to have all the pews face forward, rather than facing each other.

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P.S. I’m definitely cleaning my basement when I get home. And my closet. And my dresser. And the garage. Compared to these people, we have WAY too much stuff we don’t need. And I don’t ever want to have someone do this kind of work for me and see how much junk we have. Kids, get ready for a clean room…Out with it!!!

A devastated home in the Ninth Ward

Today we saw the bad stuff.

After we finished our house for the day, we drove down to the Lower 9th Ward. It’s completely and utterly devastated. We drove up to where the walls had breached along the river. They’re now rebuilt and river traffic is flowing. But on land, there’s literally nothing for blocks but the skeletons of some trees and foundations wiped clean of the homes that used to rest on them. We heard the waters were 20 feet deep. The spray-painted rescuers’ marks on the houses tell the tale of the bodies found here. The flood had to be horrific.

A few blocks in are some homes that were swept in from blocks away and those crumbled on their foundations. It’s not until you get a little farther inland that signs of life are returning. Some homes have been restored, but not many. Even Fats Domino’s house, where he tried to ride out the storm, sits empty and not back to normal. City workers are beginning to replace the infrastructure now. But still, there are very few street signs beyond those bent and hanging from their brackets, or those spray painted on bent and broken power poles. Schools here are closed, as are most of the businesses that used to struggle to eke out their living in the poverty-stricken neighborhood.

It was hard not to feel sick looking at it all. These were not only dwellings and neighborhoods swept away, but lives as well. Not only those who died in the flood, but those whose families have been displaced, too. They have lost everything that was dear to them. And for those who didn’t have much to begin with, that’s saying a lot.

But we saw a lot of good, too, and discovered a lot about ourselves.

I, for one, found out that I’m not 19 years old anymore. Even though Tracy tells me that often, the otherwise obvious revelation came to me working alongside Jared Recker, a sophomore at Northern Michigan University who grew up at Our Lady of Lourdes. After trying to keep up with his non-stop high energy level for a couple hours, I did the math. Sure enough, he’s young enough to be one of mine…just four years older than my own son. I hadn’t realized I was that old yet. I wouldn’t have felt so bad not being able to keep up if only Joe Maar, a 73-year-old powerhouse, would have slowed down long enough to give me an excuse to take a break.

The group from Pat’s car: l-r, Tim Grocholski, Jared Recker, Jim Schaefer, David Brooks, and Pat Hopkins.

I also learned a lot about the guys who traveled down in the car with me. Besides me and Jared, there’s Tim Grocholski, an engineer by trade to whom I’m eternally grateful for sharing driving duties; David Brooks, who along with Tim was on the previous trip in April and is a great tour guide and hard worker; and Jim Schaefer, an easy-going hand therapist at Aurora BayCare who showed us the valuable skill of how to break up floor tile with a claw hammer. I couldn’t have asked for a better crew.

Early this morning, a few of us were talking about how much we had accomplished together in just a day. “You can’t do this stuff alone,” noted Scott Crevier, a 40-something computer genius/Packer fanatic/and all-around fun guy who’s also a first-timer.

An off-hand remark, but powerful words. How much could this city or our country accomplish by working together? How much could each of us grow by getting to know each other better…learning to ask for help…letting go and trusting that those closest to us – or God, for that matter – will be there for us if we just let them in? What could each of us become if we did just a bit more to help those around us who really need us and can’t help themselves?

The whole group.

You really can’t do this stuff alone. And life sure is a lot easier and more fun when you finally realize that.

I can’t believe this place will ever be back to normal.

We all saw the pictures of the days following Katrina on TV, but they didn’t do the true story justice. The magnitude of the scope of this disaster in incredible. I truly had no idea what it was really like.

Eighty percent of the city was under water at some point. Thousands and thousands of homes are damaged and still untouched by cleanup workers or their owners…many of whom remain living outside the area to wherever they fled.

If it weren’t for the work of some charitable organizations and volunteers, it would seem that the world has forgotten what happened here. The cleanup job will take years to complete. If you ask the Catholic Charities workers, they believe the government at all levels has forgotten them and has abandoned those they promised to help. Monies that are supposed to arrive haven’t. Insurance to rehabilitate homes is running out or nonexistent in many cases. The levels of red tape are mind boggling. FEMA has gone away for the most part. They see massive organized U.S. efforts overseas and wonder why that can’t happen here. And local government has failed them miserably.

The city has spent much of its efforts on the high profile places like Bourbon Street, downtown, the Superdome, and a new wireless Internet system. It’s all very nice (if not totally necessary), but New Orleans is down to 270,000 residents where there used to be around a million. Many parts are a ghost town, full of houses that haven’t been touched in 17 months, but without citizens to do anything about it. And for those that remain, the suicide rate has tripled from pre-Katrina days.

It’s easy to overlook if you keep your eyes on the fun parts of town, or go whizzing by at 65 on the freeway. But when you slow down and drive the neighborhoods, or walk and talk to the few souls remaining, you see a far different city.

You can see the water lines on buildings everywhere, so it’s easy to imagine how rough life was in the days following Katrina. I’m still amazed that they were able to pump all the water out.

Catholic Charities has gutted over 1,300 homes so far, and has hundreds more remaining from those who’ve applied for help. Not many are calling these days…they’ve either given up, done it themselves, or are being helped by other agencies. Still, they think they can finish gutting the rest on their list by June and then shift completely into the construction phase.

Before beginning our work, we visited a home our group did last April. It still remains as they left it…gutted, but with very little reconstruction work done other than a new roof. Some in the group were discouraged that all their hard work hasn’t resulted in a returned family, but they soon jumped in to the new job at hand.

We gutted the home of a 70-year-old woman today. I’ve never seen anything like it. You could smell the squalor from the street. Our masks didn’t help much. We opened the door and mice scattered among piles of refuse. After a quick walk-through, we all started in with shovels, crowbars and hammers to take everything down to the 2×4s. Everything. Unless something had real or sentimental value for the homeowner, it went in a pile by the street to be picked up later by the city.

After one day, I’ve had my fill of seeing cockroaches, mice and rats. There were thousands of roaches in one house alone where we worked today. But by the time we were through, there weren’t many places for them to hide.

Still, in the face of all this, life goes on. The only renovated and occupied home on the street had its garbage picked up by a shiny new garbage truck. And a U.S. Postal Service carrier wove his vehicle between trash piles and broken glass to cheerfully deliver the mail on his sparsely populated route.

Pat and his fellow blue-coveralled workers are known as “The Blue Man Group”

And our group returned to our gymnasium full of satisfaction that we had helped make a small dent in it all. These people, ranging from college students to those in their 80s amaze me with their fortitude, camaraderie and good cheer. Just getting to know a few of them has been worth the trip.

This one’s going to be a bit long…there were lots of new sights, experiences and insights that greeted us today…

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Came through a long night’s drive into rain and fog in Louisiana. Crossing the Lake Pontchartrain causeway, we began to see the first signs of the devastation that still remained after 16 months since Katrina. Houses and houseboats in the bayous were still damaged, and some were outright destroyed, the walls and contents still littering the ground and water.

Yet the veterans from the previous trip in April ’06 were impressed with how much things had already improved. Gone were the countless of blue tarps over damaged roofs. But still a smattering remained, and damaged roof tiles and garbage piles were plain to see as we drove.

We stopped first at St. Leo the Great Church, the group hosting us, located just north of the French Quarter in a formerly flood-ravaged neighborhood. Again as I started taking pictures of damaged homes (with their gutted refuse at the curb and rescuers’ spray paint marks still on the walls), the veterans told me, “wait until you see the bad stuff.” Already here were signs of repair and people returning to their sparsely populated neighborhoods.

Prior to Mass beginning, some of the primarily African-American parishioners casually greeted we tired travelers outside, with instant thanks and beaming faces. One woman walked to each member of our group with a genuine, warm-hearted hug. In the midst of what could make most people depressed, the men and women of St. Leo’s were dressed in their Sunday best and radiated contagious attitudes of joy and hope. If you didn’t catch the feeling then, it was nearly impossible to escape during the following Gospel Mass…the music and the energy were incredible! We all were touched at how their Mass was a true celebration, as opposed to the lower-key obligation it can become in many of our lives.

(Note to Our Lady of Lourdes parishioners: If you think Father Tim’s masses are long, they pale in comparison to the hour and forty minute marathon we witnessed today…and most seemed like they couldn’t get enough!)

Proceeded up the road to our home for the week: an abandoned middle school that’s just been opened to house volunteers. A couple hundred of us are on bunks in the gymnasium. When Katrina happened, the water was about a foot over the tops of the basketball hoops. Although a lot of work has been done here, like the surrounding neighborhood it’s still musty, damp and on the edge of habitable (not many homes are occupied yet here). It gives us just a glimpse of what conditions were like for the Katrina refugees in the days following the storm, but on a FAR smaller scale.

We’re joined by volunteers from all over, including a lot of college students giving up their last week of holiday break. Each of our groups will have a different house to gut each day. All the work begins tomorrow…until then, we have the afternoon and evening to catch up on some sleep and get to know each other a little better.

Saturday morning, De Pere, WI — Our group of volunteers from Our Lady of Lourdes leaves today for an overnight drive to New Orleans to help in the continued cleanup and rebuilding after last year’s Hurricane Katrina. We don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing, or what conditions are like. We do know we’re stying in an abandoned middle school that was flooded during Katrina. Some in the gymnasium, some in bunkbeds in old classrooms. We’re not sure how many others will be stying there, but we do know there’s a grand total of 9 showers to share.

Last night, Father Tim Shillcox held a mass for us and our families. He described a recent photo he received of the Northern Lights and how that type of phenomenon may have been what led the Wise Men to Bethlehem. They, too, knew not where they were going, but simply set out to follow the light. And Father Tim rather aptly pointed out that in order to find a guiding light (or to shine brightly yourself, for that matter), one must first plunge into the darkness.

And so we 34 ordinary people do just that, too. We head into the darkness not only of a long night’s drive, but of a strained and devastated area and people who continue to know great sorrow and an unknown future. We hope to not only bring a little light into their darkness, but to find a guiding light for ourselves, as well.

Tomorrow, 34 of us from De Pere leave for New Orleans to continue cleanup from last year’s hurricane. We’ll be driving straight through and arrive to begin our work on Sunday, Jan. 7.

Check back here during the week to hear our story and see some images of what life is like over a year after Katrina.

– Pat Hopkins