Project 1, Phase 1 complete.
Objectives Completed:
- Had a hurricane on Burbon Street
- Had Jumbalaya in the French Quarter
- Watched Harry Potter 4 and Saw 2
- Assisted Red Cross with providing 21,000 meals a day to families throughout New Orleans
So holy crap. Our first actual project is done. I will be totaly honest in that it feels like I just left for New Orleans the day before yesterday. But 3 weeks have passed and now we are back here in Washington DC for our project debreifing.
So.... Where to begin?
The first day in New Orleans, we boarded the shuttle that was waiting for us at the airport to go to the Red Cross headquarters to try and get inprocessed. On the way over there, we saw some of the damage that the hurricane had caused. Blue tarps over the roofs of some of the houses, windows replaced with wooden pannels, nothing much that you could see visibly. As we left new orleans and headed over what I liked to call the endless bridge "A causeway that is 24 miles long", we looked out of the window to witness a beautiful sunset, but as time went on, we finaly arrived at headquarters, unfortunatly too late to get inprocessed, so we drove to some sort of summer camp where we would spend the night. They gave us the orentation to the place, what was to happen while we stayed the night, blah blah blah, an hour later we had some dinner provided to us by the staff working in the kitchen. Then after that we went to our "Cabin" and after that, we went to bed to await the next day.
The next day we woke up and packed everything back up and headed back to headquarters. We had to get our official Red Cross ID cards, our paperwork done that proves we're working in this operation and that we DO exist in the organization, then we had an hour long orentation as to what to expect while we are down here and what to do in certain situations. 3 hours later, we headed over to our official staff shelter, Saint Matthews United Methodist Church. Not a bad place at all. Instead of everyone staying in one room all together, they had small rooms that fit about 8 people each. Me and all the other guys from our team stayed in one room, all the girls from our team stayed in another room. Pretty straight forward. In the kitchen area, there was always snacks and drinks ready, so we were all set.
From every day after that, our team had this schedule.
7:00 Morning meeting
7:20 Leave for Susan Parks
8:00 to whenever - Working on the Erv's
Susan Parks is the staff shelter we went to everyday to assist the red cross on these ambulences called ERV's "Emergency Response Vehicles". They have 3 groups that are sent out all throughout new orleans and the outlying areas. Alpha, bravo and charlie. Alpha runs start out with 800 meals, they go to the areas that need the food the most. Bravo runs get 600 meals, 300 to start with in the morning, then after the first 300 run out, they come back and get 300 more meals and then drive around, also known as going mobile, where we announce to the neighborhood that we have hot food, snacks and water to be provided free to people in need. Then there is charlie group, which get 600 meals. They go to the smaller areas, and usualy end up coming back later in the evening.
A typical day goes like this. We have a little meeting every morning at susan parks, with announcements, news and what is going to happen that particular day. After that, everyone heads out to their ERV, meet the crew that you work with, then after everyone is ready, dispatch does a radio check, then you head out to the Baptist church, which cooks all, and i mean ALL, the meals that the red cross distributes to everyone. To get an idea of how fucking awesome these baptists are, they cook 21,000 meals, in the course of about 4 hours. Its simply amazing. And im not talking about chef boyardee quality, i mean these people can cook a meal. I ate a few meals myself and I can personaly vouch for the quality of the food.
Anyways....
We get to the church and pull inside, past the security checkpoint, then along the side of the road to pick up boxes of snacks, bread, utensils, and of course, the Cambro's of Food. This takes about 20 minutes, then once that is done, we leave the kitchen and onto our destination, which changes every day because you are always with a different crew. When you arrive at your destination, you usualy have 2 people in the back in charge of water and snacks, then the other 3 assisting in the front of the erv, putting the food into the styrofoam containers "Nicknamed clamshells", then one out of those 3 sit at the window, taking the number of meals needed for each person and their family or co-workers "We had a lot of contractors with their crews that needed to be fed". Then when you were done, you headed back to the kitchen to unload all the trash into the dumpsters, unloaded all the cambros, then headed back to Susan parks to clean the inside and outside of the ERV. After that, you headed to a field adjacent to Susan Parks to load up on Water for the next day. When that is done, your day is complete and you are free to go. This describes the last 3 weeks of my life.
Some people might be asking, "So from what you described so far, it seems that New Orleans is doing pretty well after the hurricane right?"
My answer to them is this
If you think that in 3 months, you can rebuild a city with new houses, streets completly clean, cars perfectly clean, and no debris anywhere after a storm hits, then I must meet you. Because if you come back to any place after a disaster like a hurricane, usualy after a few months....
IT STILL LOOKS THE SAME.
Parts of New Orleans are still horribly affected. Mainly St Bernards parish and the 9th ward. If you vist those places right now, you could swear it got hit by a nuclear bomb. Houses are literaly torn apart to where you can see the studs from where the house stood originaly. Cars are fliped over, some even made it on top of fences. Some houses were even moved completely from their foundation onto the streets. Everywhere you looked there were huge debris piles, animals roaming the streets trying to survive. It was bad.
The scareist thing I think though, had to be going down to Lakeview and St Bernards Parish at night. Those places still have no electricity and almost all of the houses are uninhabbitable. When we took our 15 passanger van to Lakeview the first night we got there, it was the weirdist feeling. We strolled down the streets touring the damage. No one was at their houses, no electricity, which ment no lighting in the area. It was literaly, like going through a post apocolyptic environment. It was a ghost town. No life to be found, nothing but destroyed houses and debris piles. I wish I could describe it more, but you have to have seen it for yourself. You can never truely describe something unless you actually see it for yourself.
So other then work, there was a lot of things I did on my off time. I saw 2 movies, the new Harry Potter and Saw II. I visited the French Quarter and had some good authentic New Orleans cuisine "Jumbalaya". Went down to burbon street a few times. On the last day of work, I went down with a few people and we got a few drinks. I only had half of mikes fishbowl, which had a hurricane in it. Went to a few jazz bars and listened to some good jazz. A few of my team mates got tattoos, and one person from another team got her belly button pierced, So I went with them cause I had nothing else to do.
Other then that, that pretty much describes what I did down in New Orleans. If you want more information, just message me on AIM or call me. I'll be willing to talk. Right now im in Phili working with a local food bank. This project will last 3 weeks, when thats done, I fly back home to portland for 2 weeks for winter break, so someone throw a LAN.
