Although New Orleans is broken, Katrina offers opportunities for volunteerism

Editor’s note: Warwick residents Richard Kimball, his wife Andrea and son Quinn were in New Orleans for the last week of April as volunteers for “Emergency Communities.” They helped serve 2,000 meals a day to people who are trying to restore their homes in the devastated areas. Andrea and Quinn also worked on a house-gutting crew. They flew down in their own plane and landed at New Orleans’ Lake Front airport, which was still with no control tower and had only a single runway open. Here are some of Richard’s observations: By Richard Kimball New Orleans - Of all the people displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, nearly a quarter million were from New Orleans and its environs. Nine months after the storms, the majority of these folks have been unable to return. For most it is because there’s no habitable house to come home to, no flood insurance or no place to stay during renovations (that is even if they were able to get a FEMA grant or to even get through to FEMA to apply for one). Manpower is worse than scarce - the work force largely gone. Of those who had the means to gut their houses of the mold-covered sheet rock and the heaps of sludge that had entombed their possessions, very few have been able to get the necessary permits and construction crews to help. The city of New Orleans is broken; it’s run out of money as its tax base has largely fled, and the flood map which shows where residents can and cannot re-build just came out. Mile after mile after mile in every direction are the frayed remains of modest single-family dwellings. Many stand idle and helpless-looking, with their doors and windows hanging open, a water line traced near the roof from up to three weeks of submersion and menacing-looking vegetation taking over their yards. Every house has a red “X” with various coded notations sprayed on it from the boat crews that were methodically scouring the flooded areas looking for survivors. Wafting in the air is the noxious smell of mold, river sludge, and water soaked building materials. The effect is biblical. Though the central business district and the French Quarter were spared, still, after all these months, the vast remaining areas of devastation show no signs of recovery. Everywhere are broken traffic lights, piles of construction debris and trash and occasional FEMA trailers housing returnees while they work on their homes. Expecting to encounter large work forces everywhere engaged in major recovery efforts, what is absolutely astonishing is to see none. Where are the governmental agencies that are charged with protection, renewal, and repair? Whatever can be said of failing bureaucracies, the American spirit of volunteerism is readily evident in the presence of both church and lay organizations providing numerous services to returnees. One such outfit, from Brooklyn, N.Y., “Emergency Communities,” is filling a whole suite of needs from clothing, telephone and internet services to house gutting crews, and providing about 2,000 well-prepared hot meals a day. Gleaming in the sun, the stunning white temporary geodesic dome, one hundred feet across, is the centerpiece of their portable city of tent structures. Gaily colored hand-painted signs reminiscent of the sixties point the way to the various “departments.” A returning resident can come here, be fed, interact with fellow residents and a host of volunteers who are anxious to help and feel safe. Volunteers can put in as little or as much time and effort as they wish, easily finding a job which would suit both their abilities and their limitations. What’s most heartening about all this, it seems, is that with so many terrible things going on in our world over which we have little or no control, the Katrina recovery offers opportunities for people to really help, hands on. It seems that it’s the volunteer organizations that are really having the most impact right now, re-building the houses, the hopes, and the lives of so many people affected by this tremendous disaster. We are not powerless. We can do something to help. A quick visit to the Internet or a call to one’s church starts that process. Richard Kimball is a composer and pianist. He and the musicians of Warwick produced a concert last Oct. 16. to raise money for two of the foundations helping to rebuild peoples’ homes and re-kindle the artistic and musical life of New Orleans. The concert raised $11,000.