Saturday, September 30, 2006
This morning I want to share someone else's words. I will do my best to myself remain objective on this blog, but I will from time to time write about what others are saying, or in this case, said, like a haunting vision of another time. As I said yesterday, I am staying in a Catholic High School. During the floods in New Orleans following the breaking of the levees, this building was used, like many others as a refuge from the rising waters. I am staying on the third floor, and the following was written on the blackboard:
September 2, 2005 at 9:13 a.m.St. Mary's during the flood:
We are sorry for the school, but the shelter was a blessing. We had to bring over 200 people here with no help from any coast guard boats, people died and are still in there house, we had to leave them. We asked the C.G. [Coast Guard] for help and got NONE. Thanks to micky, mckinley, eric, phil, tyrone, karl b., cory, + g-roy-ray ray, al, lance, + Anthony. we saved the whole project.
THEY LEFT US HERE TO DIE
God Sons Spirit Gates
R.I.P. to the ones we lost.
Also today, one note of thanks; my dear friend Kristin has offered us the money to set up a phone number for the Common Ground Collective Tech Line.
If anyone else would like to help with specific projects, please let me know. I will not bother you with requests, but there is a lot to be done here, and unfortunately there is not much time left for fundraising.
Peace,
geoffrey/pax
If anyone else would like to help with specific projects, please let me know. I will not bother you with requests, but there is a lot to be done here, and unfortunately there is not much time left for fundraising.
Peace,
geoffrey/pax
Friday, September 29, 2006
Arrived in New Orleans Yesterday. It has already been quite an overwhelming experience.
Rode down with Scott, who is from New Orleans and was sharing what it was like there both before and after Katrina. He had been back once before, shortly after Katrina.
As we drove into East New Orleans, I began to see the reality of not just the devastation of the hurricane, but the fact that there has been so little done to recover the city. We saw large complexes of apartments, abandoned. Office buildings, supermarkets, strip malls, all boarded behind vacant parking lots.
We arrived in North Ninth Ward, and at the House of Excellence, one of many buildings that Common Ground Collective has procured for their work. CGC is a completely volunteer run organization to aid in the recovery of the residence of New Orleans. I will not say more about them now, as you can (and I encourage you to) read all about them on their website.
House of Excellence (HOE) or "the hoe" as it is nicknamed houses CGC's administration offices, a computer lab for local residents, the CGC legal offices and the tech office which is where I will be working. I am helping Ted, who has been going it alone, for a few weeks now. There are 3 computer labs and about 5 offices with computers and it is our role to keep them all up and running. It has been a while since I have done this type of work, but I feel good about being able to help.
After learning about our role, we walked over to St. Mary's High School, the building that offers most of CGC's volunteers housing. The walk was beyond belief, again we saw house after house devastated by Katrina. After a year, about one house in 10 was to some level restored; the rest in various states of either boarded up, gutted, or with all of it's contents out front as if the house puked out its insides into the street. Power lines were down everywhere. Ted told me that this wasn't as bad as the Lower Ninth Ward.
St. Mary's School is a now abandoned 3 story Catholic high school that the local parish has offered to CGC in exchange for their renovation of the building when they are finished. There are simply not enough students around to occupy all the schools.
After a really nice meal, and an evening house meeting, I retired on my cot on the second floor in a classroom with about 8 others. There seemed to be about 80 volunteers in the building, but cots for many more. They are very short of volunteers right now and hoping there will be many coming in the fall. Most of the volunteers are either gutting buildings, or working on documenting and finding solutions to the toxic residues of both natural (mold etc.) and man made (chemicals such as fuel that leaked from compromised tanks) that are results of the storm.
I walked back to the HOE with another volunteer Trina who manages the computer lab. She like me, heard about the need for volunteers down here and took the train from New York. We took different streets than the night before, so I saw more of the same, house after house, unlivable, each having to be gutted before it can be rebuilt. Like a ghost town at times we saw very few people. A few houses were being restored by private contractors, but most waiting for someone to come and determine if it is worth restoration, or razing.
Rode down with Scott, who is from New Orleans and was sharing what it was like there both before and after Katrina. He had been back once before, shortly after Katrina.
As we drove into East New Orleans, I began to see the reality of not just the devastation of the hurricane, but the fact that there has been so little done to recover the city. We saw large complexes of apartments, abandoned. Office buildings, supermarkets, strip malls, all boarded behind vacant parking lots.
We arrived in North Ninth Ward, and at the House of Excellence, one of many buildings that Common Ground Collective has procured for their work. CGC is a completely volunteer run organization to aid in the recovery of the residence of New Orleans. I will not say more about them now, as you can (and I encourage you to) read all about them on their website.
House of Excellence (HOE) or "the hoe" as it is nicknamed houses CGC's administration offices, a computer lab for local residents, the CGC legal offices and the tech office which is where I will be working. I am helping Ted, who has been going it alone, for a few weeks now. There are 3 computer labs and about 5 offices with computers and it is our role to keep them all up and running. It has been a while since I have done this type of work, but I feel good about being able to help.
After learning about our role, we walked over to St. Mary's High School, the building that offers most of CGC's volunteers housing. The walk was beyond belief, again we saw house after house devastated by Katrina. After a year, about one house in 10 was to some level restored; the rest in various states of either boarded up, gutted, or with all of it's contents out front as if the house puked out its insides into the street. Power lines were down everywhere. Ted told me that this wasn't as bad as the Lower Ninth Ward.
St. Mary's School is a now abandoned 3 story Catholic high school that the local parish has offered to CGC in exchange for their renovation of the building when they are finished. There are simply not enough students around to occupy all the schools.
After a really nice meal, and an evening house meeting, I retired on my cot on the second floor in a classroom with about 8 others. There seemed to be about 80 volunteers in the building, but cots for many more. They are very short of volunteers right now and hoping there will be many coming in the fall. Most of the volunteers are either gutting buildings, or working on documenting and finding solutions to the toxic residues of both natural (mold etc.) and man made (chemicals such as fuel that leaked from compromised tanks) that are results of the storm.
I walked back to the HOE with another volunteer Trina who manages the computer lab. She like me, heard about the need for volunteers down here and took the train from New York. We took different streets than the night before, so I saw more of the same, house after house, unlivable, each having to be gutted before it can be rebuilt. Like a ghost town at times we saw very few people. A few houses were being restored by private contractors, but most waiting for someone to come and determine if it is worth restoration, or razing.
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