Hurricane Katrina is remembered as volunteers help rebuild New Orleans
By: Shane Rice
– Staff Writer –
The Atlantic hurricane season of 2005 left many areas in the United States in great distress, most significantly the city of New Orleans, La. Hurricane Katrina left 80 percent of the city under water and although the disaster occurred nearly half a decade ago, destruction is still evident and citizens of New Orleans are continuing to rebuild the city.
This has been successful due to volunteers from across the nation, including 20 students from STLCC-Meramec who assisted in the rebuilding of the area during a spring break service trip by partnering with Operation Nehemiah, a non-profit organization that leads redevelopment projects in New Orleans.
“I had no idea what to expect. It was saddening because there’s still abandoned buildings and devastation all around. It’s hard to imagine that all this destruction took place. These were people’s homes and it was just sad,” said student Trevor Martin, a volunteer for the project.
Meramec students worked for four days helping rebuild a nursing home and a church in the ninth ward.
Volunteers ripped out flooring and pipes in a nursing home that had been a target of the hurricane.
“We were tearing up as much as possible so that the building could be rebuilt into a home for the elderly, rather than a nursing home,” said Destiny Mitchell, a Meramec student-volunteer.
Mitchell said that because the building received so much destruction, the facilities could no longer be used for nursing home purposes.
Despite the efforts to rebuild a home for the elderly, Mitchell said she was surprised by how much work it still needed after five years. “The basement still had food, utensils, buckets of water and even diaries. There are still remnants of the people that lived there.”
Meramec volunteers also spent time at a church and school rebuilding offices and a new gymnasium for a basketball court, Mitchell said.
“The church is in a community that is kind of poor. Schooling in New Orleans is not up to par, and the only way your child can get a good education is by a private school,” Mitchell said. The church provides free private education to all children that live in the area.
Mitchell said the administration of the church was pleased with the work that Meramec students completed. “They were really impressed with what we finished.”
Student Marina Allen, a volunteer for the project who also attended the service trip last year, said she was amazed by how much devastation and destruction was still apparent in New Orleans. Even though Allen said it was beautiful to see the progress that has been made over the last five years, she said there is still a lot of work to be done.
“I was thinking that things should be getting back to normal, and it was just heart breaking to see that it hadn’t,” Allen said, remembering her first visit to New Orleans a year ago. “It was just so emotional to see these communities in complete obliteration the first time I went. This time it was just wonderful to see all the new construction and homes being built.”
Allen said, “You can read about destruction and devastation, but it becomes more real when you can see and experiences them for yourself.”
