This article features students who traveled to New Orleans to represent the volunteer service community for hurricane Katrina at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Finger Lakes Times, Geneva, N.Y.
Sunday, March 5, 2006
by Ave Bauder
HWS students see that devastation in New Orleans is still apparent
A stuffed Pooh Bear sits on the curb among the debris of a
middle-class neighborhood's shattered lives in St. Bernard
Parish, Louisiana. A solid-looking brick house, complete
with concrete slab, sits at an odd angle a mere 6 feet from
the back entrance of its former next-door neighbor.
Our van weaves between piles of furniture, plasterboard, insulation and ductwork, then turns right at the corner where a house blocks the middle of the street. A fully outfitted shrimp boat sits on a lawn surrounded by the splintered remains of the six houses it demolished on its last voyage, the one that carried it over the levee.
These are some of the images burned into my mind and
those of 14 Hobart and William Smith Colleges students
after our Hurricane Katrina relief service trip with Operation Helping Hands this past January.
We had read articles, watched films and been briefed by
the Red Cross, but nothing had fully prepared us for the
utter devastation and neglect in St. Bernard, just down river
from New Orleans' Ninth Ward.
While some may be telling you that last week's Mardi Gras
celebration means that everything is proceeding nicely
back to normal in the Big Easy, we have returned to Geneva
to tell you that in vast areas of the Gulf Coast it looks like Katrina hit yesterday. Only the water is gone.
Our first morning of work there left us with plenty of
questions.
Where was everyone? Not just the 67,000 residents who
we later learned were scattered across 25 states - but the
outside help. Where was it?
Why are there unused campers sitting next to the main
artery into the parish when every house there was declared
uninhabitable? Why were there piles of debris taller than
we were tumbling into the street; or, worse yet, houses
from which soaked and ruined contents had yet to be
removed?
How does the richest nation on the face of the earth leave
its own citizens in such a state of misery and despair?
Only a few of these questions were answered during the
five days we donned Tyvek suits and dust masks, entering
homes to rip out everything except the bricks and studs so
that the wood could dry and the owners could think about
rebuilding.
We shoveled five inches of sludge, muck and water from
the floor of a house just down the street from a sewage
plant. We took out furniture and appliances that looked like
they had been agitated in a huge washing machine and
thrown about the room. We pulled down still-soggy
plasterboard and ductwork filled with 4-month-old flood
water.
This was all work that FEMA deemed "non-essential" and
therefore non-reimbursable, leaving the local government
to depend on us and other groups to help its people start
on the road to normalcy.
We met the homeowners, some of the 5,000 still lucky
enough to be in the area. When we asked what we could try
to find for them, they mentioned one or two things, a
special rosary or pictures that might somehow have
escaped the water. But, for the most part, they were just
happy their families were safe.
When she surveyed the remains of what we had brought
outside up to that point, tears welled in one woman's eyes
as she thanked us and said the "stuff" could be replaced.
Her family was safe, but she had no idea where many of
her friends and neighbors were. We put what we could to
one side for her and thought about how we would feel if we
were in her place.
On many levels, our trip was truly a learning experience for
my students.
They learned how to take down "dry" wall and tear up moldy
carpet. They learned that people are resilient, even when
faced with disaster. They learned much about themselves,
their place in the world and that their actions can make a
difference in the lives of others. They also learned that a
government can let its people down.
The fabric of Gulf Coast residents' lives has been torn.
People just like you and me. They deserve better treatment
than they are getting from our government.
As long as there is work to do, Hobart and William Smith
will continue to organize service trips and help, but for the
nation to depend on an army of college students and
church groups to rebuild that part of our country is a gross
dereliction of its duty to its people.
We need to ask ourselves - but, more importantly, our
elected officials - why more is not being done, not simply
in terms of money but in manpower. When we asked a
local councilman what more we could do to help, he said to
just let everyone know they still need help.
Addresses for your elected representatives can be found at
www.vote-smart.org. I urge you to contact the president, our
U.S. Senators and your local congressman and urge them
to take action to properly care for the people of the Gulf
Coast.
As Americans, we should demand nothing less for our
fellow citizens.
Bauder has been the director of public service at Hobart
and William Smith Colleges in Geneva since 1999. Anyone
interested in having a trip participant speak to their group
should contact Bauder at bauder@hws.edu.