Empty House

This is what it looks like when you unload a house of all it's flooded contents.
This was very hard work, not only physically but extremely tough emotionally.
Lisa's mom's house that you see here had 8 ft of water INSIDE the house (about 1 ft below the ceiling). The house sits about 4 ft or more off the ground.
It is truly hard to fathom that there was 12 ft of water in the neighborhood.

Friends helping Friends

Here's a couple of shots of when a group of us worked on Lisa M's mom's house in Lakeview and another group on Donna & Carol's house in Gentilly.

Thanks for all the hard work everyone!

Old Bricks for the Patio

Down the street from the apartment I am living in, some folks decided to raise their house. It is very dramatic.

This house was built in the early 1900's, so I loaded up on some cool, old and best of all, free bricks to use on my patio when I get around to fixing it up.

The shoring company took apart the original brick piers and threw them in a pile to be trashed in the landfill.

The cute convertible was replaced with the more useful and responsible pick-up truck.
As you can see, it has come in quite handy for many things.

Free Shrimp-October 2005

Despite the creepily deserted streets and quiet...
you gotta have a sense of humor! This is my neighbor's fridge and it had 10 lbs. of shrimp in the freezer. I am smiling despite the smell of it! UGH!

My favorite car...drowned

Navigating the Apocalypse--Sept 2005

Pictures say it all.....one of many flat tires.

One Year Anniversary

Tonight was the one year anniversary of Katrina.
Thank you to everyone who has helped me.
My gratitude and appreciation are immeasurable.

Here are some pictures I snapped the first time I entered the city of New Orleans after Katrina struck (actually "sneaked in" under the guise of being an insurance claims adjuster). It certainly is a pretty day, but it did not prepare me for what I was going to see. I was so shocked I failed to take a lot of pictures.

It's probably hard to see here, but the black building in the middle has brown spots towards the top. Those brown spots are plywood boards covering up broken windows.



This is the first time I saw my house.
Notice the "X" spraypainted on the plywood.
They checked my house on Sept 12th.....14 days/two weeks after Katrina struck to make sure no one was still there.

The higher flood lines are hard to see. But you can certainly see the lower flood lines as the water slowly was drained from the city. Most of us call it the bath tub ring around New Orleans.
The house doesn't look too bad from the outside. What I didn't know was how bad it was going to smell when I pried those boards off and opened the door for the first time. Yuck!
My house was well boarded up and sealed. Ripe for lotsa mold!
I could not figure out for a few moments why this picture of my house looked so weird after posting. Then it dawned on me....the blank concrete spaces on each side of my steps--all my pots with my pretty flowers are gone!

Backtracking--The Siding Gang

Gee...back in March '06 I had a bunch of people come over and help me take the old 70's aluminum siding off of the house. It was still holding the moisture in and the house was not drying out properly from the flood. Here is a picture from that adventure and thanks to everyone who helped! Oh yeah, and thanks Cindy for making brisket..it was terrific! :-)

Here's a few more pictures: