Not Enough
Yesterday we spent the day at Craig Klein's house, inside there was pressure washing, outside was yard work and pond water removal. No one wanted to touch the pool. The difference inside the house from the start of the day to the end of the day was amazing. Just amazing. They will still need a mold inspector to come out, but they are so so so so close to getting the house ready to live back in it. All Kay wants is electricity and she will be back. I spent the day weeding a portion of her garden and she is coming back this week to start planting....her easter lily survived and is in bloom.
After we left, we took a bit of a tour of St. Bernard Parish. There was a line almost 8 blocks long to get supplies at an aid station......the debris piles there are large, who knows when they will be picked up. Not only is everything moldy, but some areas where hit in the oil spill, so its all black. We went to check out two houses. A lady had contacted the Arabi Wrecking Krewe after seeing the piece on EHM and pretty much she hasn't gotten anyone to help her yet. She is a retiree and she is helping out an eldery couple as well, and no one has touched their home yet either. Almost 8 months after the storm.....and their things are just sitting in this moldy waste, and yes covered in oil. We went to the elderly couples house and by some miracle, a tree in the back yard missed the house and the closly spaced shed....really there was maybe 4 ft in between.....there is some roof damage and an entire house to gut. We then went to the ladies house, and I had the hardest time to not cry. Her house was the only house in sight, that had half its roof blown off.....and no one has helped her to cover it. There is spray paint on the sides of the house, snakes. She has snakes and other critters in her house. No one is helping her. AWK may bend the musicians rule to help her and the elderly couple out.
It was very sad and depressing to drive through that area and see how much work there is STILL to be done. A lot of those houses didn't seem like they had been touched yet. Then you think, there is still the 9th ward, there is still Lakeview, there is still Gentilly.....everywhere so much work to be done still. I know the work we are doing with AWK is helping some people, but there are so many other people out there......so many our small group can't help everyone. I guess I just have to accept that we are helping, that we don't sit in our non damaged homes and bitch about the state of the city, that we are actually doing something to help. I wish we could let people know outside of this city that NO the work isn't being done.....that we do need help in a desperate way. That we are 2 months away from the hurricane season and we haven't nearly completed the cleanup from the last one. How many times can you ask them to imagine that this was happening to themselves, their homes and their families????
We still need the help America.....
Yesterday we spent the day at Craig Klein's house, inside there was pressure washing, outside was yard work and pond water removal. No one wanted to touch the pool. The difference inside the house from the start of the day to the end of the day was amazing. Just amazing. They will still need a mold inspector to come out, but they are so so so so close to getting the house ready to live back in it. All Kay wants is electricity and she will be back. I spent the day weeding a portion of her garden and she is coming back this week to start planting....her easter lily survived and is in bloom.
After we left, we took a bit of a tour of St. Bernard Parish. There was a line almost 8 blocks long to get supplies at an aid station......the debris piles there are large, who knows when they will be picked up. Not only is everything moldy, but some areas where hit in the oil spill, so its all black. We went to check out two houses. A lady had contacted the Arabi Wrecking Krewe after seeing the piece on EHM and pretty much she hasn't gotten anyone to help her yet. She is a retiree and she is helping out an eldery couple as well, and no one has touched their home yet either. Almost 8 months after the storm.....and their things are just sitting in this moldy waste, and yes covered in oil. We went to the elderly couples house and by some miracle, a tree in the back yard missed the house and the closly spaced shed....really there was maybe 4 ft in between.....there is some roof damage and an entire house to gut. We then went to the ladies house, and I had the hardest time to not cry. Her house was the only house in sight, that had half its roof blown off.....and no one has helped her to cover it. There is spray paint on the sides of the house, snakes. She has snakes and other critters in her house. No one is helping her. AWK may bend the musicians rule to help her and the elderly couple out.
It was very sad and depressing to drive through that area and see how much work there is STILL to be done. A lot of those houses didn't seem like they had been touched yet. Then you think, there is still the 9th ward, there is still Lakeview, there is still Gentilly.....everywhere so much work to be done still. I know the work we are doing with AWK is helping some people, but there are so many other people out there......so many our small group can't help everyone. I guess I just have to accept that we are helping, that we don't sit in our non damaged homes and bitch about the state of the city, that we are actually doing something to help. I wish we could let people know outside of this city that NO the work isn't being done.....that we do need help in a desperate way. That we are 2 months away from the hurricane season and we haven't nearly completed the cleanup from the last one. How many times can you ask them to imagine that this was happening to themselves, their homes and their families????
We still need the help America.....
3 Comments:
wow...it's so hard to even imagine-the tv/news coverage is shocking, yet I'm sure doesn't even begin to cover the scope of what needs to be done. We need to send entire an entire army in there to help people. Oh, wait, sorry our army and money is tied up in Iraq, darn. I guess a large portion of our country gets to go at it alone, being terrorized by hurricans and left with nothing. :(
argh frustrating.
I'm proud of all the people you AWK has helped though Stace! It's good to get to see at least one clean up at a time among the now wasteland of a community.
-kristy
Mike and I get so mad, we just dont understand why our military isnt there helping...they have engineers and construction workers and every service imaginable helping rebuild fuckingg Iraq....how about sending those folks down south? Where their efforts will be appreciated. Help our own country for a change....it infuriates me.
True 'dat!
Take the money from 1 month in Iraq, and it could rebuild ALL of the 9th ward!
-kk
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