more hands, cont.

This weekend I went back to Slidell, Louisiana for another clean-up trip. When we arrived late Friday afternoon, we drove on in to New Orleans to take a peek. It was getting dark just as we crossed the bridge. Very few lights were on. No one was home for miles. The westbound side of the I-10 bridge is finished, so one lane goes westbound and the other goes eastbound. I had no idea just how much of the eastbound side had been completely washed out - not just missing concrete sections, but supports and all. As we entered New Orleans it felt empty. There were people milling around downtown, but it felt empty. The outskirts of town were dark and still. Very creepy. Not in a criminal way (well, kinda) but more in a ghost-town way. Made me remember how many people must still be in shelters somewhere and how many of them are probably not coming back.

On Saturday we put the primer coat on the walls of two homes that had been flooded. It is neat to see how many people come through a house helping to put it back together. One group gutted it. Another group hung new drywall. We slapped on primer. Someone else will paint the walls. Someone else will lay the floors... At our first house of the day, the family of two parents and four children who once had separate rooms were all living only upstairs. At the second house, the family of a single mom and four boys were living in a FEMA trailer in the front yard. Driving around, we could see such progress. It still looks terrible - scrambled homes, mangled trees, demolished vehicles - but it is better. Some of the debris has been hauled to the landfill. Streets are passable. Some of the damaged homes have signs nailed up that read, "Building Permit." A few more businesses are open and keeping regular hours. I wonder though, do they even see the progress? I recognized progress because I was there weeks ago, went home to normalcy, and came back again. Some people seem to feel better, but some are still very deeply disturbed by the chronic stress.

On a side note, you should check out the latest issue of National Geographic. It is full of pictures and stories related to Katrina. And one of those photos was taken by Ted Jackson, father of Jeremy Jackson whom you all met in a recent post of mine. Congrats, Ted!