Hi! Many thanks to all who have 'answered the call' and offered to adopt a family in Lacombe! More details on that later.
Today,enjoy the diary of Ed and Karen from Iowa who have earned the name of "Trojans" for all the work they have been doing. Be sure to check out Monday, 21st--'How many turkeys have you prepared this week?' :) Ellie Menz
Day 1:
Thought you might be interested in what is happening on the Hurricane Katrina relief:
11/14 Monday – we had breakfast at the church and then our team split in half – one half went to New Orleans and our team went to a local house. We have 11 volunteers. It took the New Orleans team almost two hours to get there because the bridges are all under repair and down to one lane each direction. Our project was a 3,000 sq foot house that had water up to the bottom of the kitchen cabinets. We hauled out all the furniture and load after load of food, kitchenwear, books, craft items and misc. out to the street and when the house was empty we started tearing out drywall. Mold covered the walls and was growing on everything. We were cautioned about the possibility of snakes but did not see one. The stench was awful.
Refrigerators and freezers had rotten food inside which had to be buried.
The owners had several cats and the sodden litter (with droppings) had to be hauled out. I don’t think I have ever been this dirty.
Karen
Day 2:
11/15 Tuesday – the entire team went back to the local house and continued tearing out drywall, cabinets and trim. This afternoon we drove to an area in New Orleans and started to gut the house. This house had carpet and it had to be cut up and hauled out. When the refrigerator was moved, it trailed a lot of water and the stench was worse than imaginable. We had to throw bottles of liquor on the floor to try and quell the smell. We got smart this time and opened the windows and threw the stuff out to the wheelbarrows. Everything swells when submerged in water and things become packed into the closets, cabinets, etc. The houses are painted with symbols to indicate who inspected the house, the date it was inspected and if any bodies were found. We found cars upturned or wedged against the houses and boats in the middle of the highway. The cars were submerged so they have the words ‘tow me’ painted on the cars.
Karen
Day 3 - 5:
11/16 Wednesday – Ed and I started the day by going to Rochelle’s mother-in-law to hang a door. Ed had to remove the old brick mold. We didn’t have long enough screws so we will go back this weekend. The door is in place and the lock is working but trim needs to be added and the frame caulked. This afternoon we joined the rest of the team in Chalmette and completed the removal of the drywall. The pile in the front of the house extended the entire width of the property and was about 7 feet high. What took us about 10 hours to haul out only took the city about 1 hour to haul away. Going home it took us 1-½ hours to get back and the traffic just creeps along. And then of course you get the jerks that drive along the shoulder and then want to cut in at the last minute. Tonight we had supper at the church and bible study afterwards.
11/17 Thursday – the entire crew went back to Chalmette but to a different house. This house got about 4 feet of water. These people do not have basements so the house is full of their possessions. Every closet and every drawer is packed full. The Minnesota group is leaving today so we had a short day – got there about 10 am and left about 2:30 pm but we still got all the furnishings out plus most of the woodwork, drywall and floor tile.
The lower kitchen cabinets and their pans, etc retain the water and really stink after 10 weeks. Imagine pulling food products packaged in cardboard out of the cupboards. Everything is a soggy mess and all the canned goods
are rusty. Tonight we went to Wal-Mart and saw people tent camping in the
parking lot. Also, there were 6 trailers parked next to the building and plugged into electric. It is supposed to freeze tonight but the days are nice. It was cool and windy today but when you are working hard, we were actually sweating.
11/18 Friday – today we joined a new crew from Bethany Lutheran Church. 10 volunteers went on a job and our group of 7 went to another home. This lady was a basket case. This crew had already been to her house yesterday and the lady won’t let them throw things away. She is sure she can ‘restore’
them. So everything has to be hauled from room to room in order to tear off the drywall. She lost her husband one year ago, one daughter committed suicide, one son is in jail, another daughter lost her house in Hurricane Katrina, one son is afraid of the mold and will not help her and the last child is estranged. She needed constant reassuring and talked the entire time. And – the house is still not done after two days. Her home is attached to Lake Pontchartrain via water inlets.
Monday 21st– we don’t have any other volunteers this week so Ed and I are assigned to a Methodist Church for Thanksgiving Day meal preparation. We
started at 9 am and worked until 7 pm. Six churches are working together
and plan on feeding a free meal to more than 5,000 people. This morning I
worked on thawing out turkeys and removing the neck and giblets. This afternoon I worked on de-boning the turkeys. Ed spent most of the day helping with the cookers and hauling the turkeys from/to the kitchen. Then he worked on de-boning the turkeys. We had several workers in the morning but few workers in the afternoon. It was almost 7 pm and we still had 25 turkeys to de-bone – and the guy in charge was going to leave. Ended up we put the roasted turkeys in the fridge for tomorrow. They had two smokers; one held 18 turkeys, the other held 15 turkeys, 4 large turkeys in the ovens and 4 turkeys were being deep fried at one time.
11/22 Tuesday – we started our day at 7 am and ended it at 6 pm. Ed was the
chief cook as the other guy’s wife had to go to the hospital. He smoked 66
turkeys in the cookers, 4 in the ovens and 8 were deep-fried. I got put in charge of the kitchen help. The Mormon Church next door has a brand new 3-story freezer-warehouse equipped with an industrial generator and fork lifts. They have been storing the turkeys until we need them. A loaned ice cream truck is parked at the church and is used for storage of the meats and pies, etc. The churches have purchased 350 turkeys (some of which are being cooked in various homes) and the balance we are doing at the church.
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