Yesterday I had perhaps the most eye opening experience yet, and I warn you that some of this entry may be a bit too graphic for some. I was here in the tech office when Alex, the house coordinator asked if I would come to Margaret's house to see if I could help with some rebuilding work. Margaret has been volunteering here in the administration office for a couple months. She remained in New Orleans through the hurricane and the flood until finally she was able to get out and go to Florida to stay in a hotel using her savings to do so with a promise that she would be getting some money from FEMA. She made it back a few months ago and is now trying to rebuild her house.
Margaret showing us where her bathroom used to be
So I sat next to Margaret in the car as the five of us made our way to her house in Uptown. Margaret has such an incredibly open and friendly personality. As we drove down the streets of downtown New Orleans, she described the scenes that she saw during the storm and flood. She described water levels on the downtown buildings, some still abandoned with broken windows. She shared about the alligators that were not bothering the living because they were satisfied with the dead that were floating in the water. She shared stories of sharks spotted in the downtown streets, of hundreds of people waiting for rescue on top of a bridge she pointed out to us. She talked about the relief helicopters in the Wal-Mart parking lot and how the wind from the blades that you could feel blocks away. She pointed out parks and buildings where people where staying because their houses were uninhabitable (as many still are). I did sense a little bitterness as Margaret shared that nobody came to get her. Everyone she worked with, and all her friends didn't show up to take her clear of Katrina. According to Margaret, after she was featured in Time Magazine (Nov 28, 2006), then everyone was calling her and she was thinking "where were you then?" [If anyone keeps back issues, or can get to a library you can read Margaret's story and see a picture of her in front of her house 3 months after Katrina]
We made it to her house and I got my first look at a house that had been completely gutted. No wallboard, insulation, ceiling or floor cover. You could see light from the outside streaming in all over the place. One of the windows missing promoted her to share that's where the birds come and visit me. Her brother had helped put up wallboard in one upstairs room where Margaret sleeps, and someone had tapped into the power line outside the house and stretched extension cords so that she could plug a few things in. I learned that the insurance company, though offering her a $150,000 policy, has only granted her $3,000 (the balance due on the mortgage) because they say the house is still standing.
We walked around to the back of the house and Margaret showed us where the addition to the house once stood. She shared "this is what she took from me" referring to hurricane Katrina. The addition was built out of cinderblock while the rest of the house was wood. Margaret's way of explaining the odd way that the addition was ripped from the house was: "that's 'cause that's what man made and the rest is what God made." Margaret struck me as someone who is very close to God, even while huddling in the bathroom of her house during the storm praying as she heard the house being torn up around her that she would be saved. Every time she pointed out how a part of her house had been destroyed how grateful to God she was that she made it through.
Finally, after 13 months, Margaret has been offered a FEMA trailer, and she is in the process of moving over there so that volunteers, including some of us from this house, can begin to rebuild. Despite it's current state, it is a nice house, and Margaret pointed out that she really wants to stay in this neighborhood. There is a lot of work to be done, if anyone reading this can come lend a hand, you will experience for yourself the gratitude that is so much a part of Margaret's personality.
