October 2, 2006: Headlines: COS - Ukraine: Hurricane Relief: Crisis Corps: PCOL Exclusive: Ukraine RPCV Chandler Harrison Stevens writes about RPCVs working in Crisis Corps in Hurricane Relief (Part 3)

Peace Corps Online: Peace Corps News: Peace Corps Library: Crisis Corps: January 23, 2005: Index: PCOL Exclusive: Crisis Corps : September 17, 2006: Headlines: COS - Ukraine: Hurricane Relief: Crisis Corps: PCOL Exclusive: Ukraine RPCV Chandler Harrison Stevens writes about RPCVs working in Crisis Corps in Hurricane Relief (Part 1) : October 2, 2006: Headlines: COS - Ukraine: Hurricane Relief: Crisis Corps: PCOL Exclusive: Ukraine RPCV Chandler Harrison Stevens writes about RPCVs working in Crisis Corps in Hurricane Relief (Part 3)

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Ukraine RPCV Chandler Harrison Stevens writes about RPCVs working in Crisis Corps in Hurricane Relief (Part 3)

Ukraine RPCV Chandler Harrison Stevens writes about RPCVs working in Crisis Corps in Hurricane Relief (Part 3)

There was a shelter in LaPlace being run by the New Wine Church. I went there and asked for the pastor, who was not available, so I was referred to Brother Joe. I told Brother Joe that I wanted to hire someone to go with me to New Orleans to help me clean up the debris from Katrina. I stressed that it was important to me that Brother Joe choose someone he trusted (of course I didn't know Brother Joe, but decided to trust his judgment). There were two other requirements, first that the person knew how to use a chain saw and second that he not be afraid of dogs, since my shepherd/lab mix, Dolomite would be riding with us.


Ukraine RPCV Chandler Harrison Stevens writes about RPCVs working in Crisis Corps in Hurricane Relief (Part 3)

The Homecoming - Chapter 2 of My Experiences with Hurricane Katrina

This is written long after the events took place, and so it will not be as detailed as I'd like and things that were interesting or important to me when they happened, will be left out. At least it will be shorter, maybe. Please feel free to delete now.

There was a shelter in LaPlace being run by the New Wine Church. I went there and asked for the pastor, who was not available, so I was referred to Brother Joe. I told Brother Joe that I wanted to hire someone to go with me to New Orleans to help me clean up the debris from Katrina. I stressed that it was important to me that Brother Joe choose someone he trusted (of course I didn't know Brother Joe, but decided to trust his judgment). There were two other requirements, first that the person knew how to use a chain saw and second that he not be afraid of dogs, since my shepherd/lab mix, Dolomite would be riding with us.

At the shelter a woman had a little barber shop set up, and she was donating her time giving free haircuts and braidings. Brother Joe talked to a man who was waiting to get his hair cut, and the man agreed to go with me, after his haircut. His name is Mark Perry, and 12 years ago he started a janitorial service. Among his customers is a law enforcement unit on the West bank. I found him to be industrious, competent, a self-starter, easy-going and an excellent choice for exactly what I needed.

First we headed to the Home Depot in LaPlace, and I rented a chain saw. The normally 25 minute ride to NO took an hour. There has been an influx of about 15,000 people in LaPlace and many of them are on the road going to NO. When we arrived at the Orleans Parish line, the police stopped each car, asked if we lived there, and gave out instructions about not drinking the water, being out of the city by curfew, how to separate garbage into natural debris and other types, treating every intersection as a four way stop, (since none of the lights were working), etc.

Once at my house Mark began working outside, and I began inside. The fleas inside were numerous. I again put on mosquito repellant, and that seemed to work for the fleas, although my socks were speckled black. The city had already sprayed for mosquitoes and as a result, the numerous flies that I had encountered the previous week were not a problem.

As Mark cut up tree limbs and cleared debris, I saw that under the debris was a tree that had been uprooted and leaned over onto another tree. I also learned that the fence that had fallen into my driveway, evidently is my fence and not my neighbor's. The neighbor informed me of that, a couple of days later when I suggested that maybe we could get a better sound barrier between the two houses. He rents his units to young people who are often loud and loud at 3 and 4 in the morning.

Anyway, in the four hours that I was at my house, only three vehicles passed by. The first was a military hummer, the second was one that I didn't recognize and the other was driven by Don Seaton. He has done repair work for me in the past, and I was delighted to see him. He agreed to repair the boards on my rental house which had been stripped off by the wind. I asked him to do it as soon as possible in order to avoid letting Hurricane Rita finish what Katrina started. Don didn't show up on a day he had said he would come, and I later learned that the police wouldn't let him in to Orleans parish. I don't know if he was able to get the work done before

Rita or not, because I left for Albuquerque, hoping to beat the throngs on the roads escaping from Rita. I was successful in that.

When Mark and I went to work on my yard, I took water with me since I knew that we couldn't use the water from the tap. I had a little water, and Mark drank a lot, since he was outside doing heavy work and sweating in the heat. At the end of the day, I drove Mark back to the shelter. He was on his cell phone finding out from his wife if the dinner was going to be good.

Mark had very negative comments about the way the church was running the shelter. He said that the food was bad and only gave small portions and that the church people handing out the sheets and bedding were appropriating the new things for themselves.

The previous night the Red Cross had taken over administration of the shelter, and Mark said that the food was now plentiful and good tasting.

Anyway, he was talking with his wife about dinner. I dropped him off at the shelter and went to the home of my host and hostess. They asked me what

Mark and I had done for lunch. I gave them a blank look and then realized that I'd picked Mark up at 10 AM and dropped him off at the shelter at 7 PM, and we hadn't had anything to eat.

Two days later I picked Mark up again, along with his son, and this time I brought water and food. Mark also brought food. He had MREs, meals ready to eat, which is what was being given out by the Red Cross. He said that previously the church said it was looting if they took any food with them when they went to work. At any rate, everybody got to eat on the second day.

Mark is a perfectionist and wanted to make the yard really look good. He asked if I had a lawn mower, which I did. I also had gasoline. In northern Mississippi I'd bought five two and a half gallon containers, since I'd been told that getting gasoline in Baton Rouge was very difficult. So, I had some fresh gasoline and Mark cut the grass. I finally told him that we had to have a discussion because his energy was running out, and we had different priorities. I wanted the gutters cleaned so that with the rain from Rita, the water wouldn't be forced back in the eaves and into the houses, my house and my rental house. Mark wanted to finish getting my yard in ship-shape and pick up all of the piles of debris he'd made and put them out on the street.

Actually, there was no more room on the street for debris. All across my yard (about 45 feet) there was a pile four feet high, and it extended into my neighbor's yard. Mark acquiesced to my request, although he wanted to come back a third day and finish. I didn't want to return a third day, because I needed a day of rest before heading for Albuquerque, so we left piles of debris at my yard. Since the city still didn't have garbage pick up by the time Rita came through, all of my debris may now be spead out and shared with my neighbors. An email from a friend last night said that the crews are in full force in uptown picking up debris.

While Mark and his son were working outside I painted a new screen door, hung it, packed for my trip, located things I might need in the next couple of months to bring with me for both warm and cold weather, and did chores that took the whole day, although I don't remember now what they were.

I suggested that Mark and his son take the extension latter and walk the three blocks to my rental house while I finished a project at my house.

Mark is African American, and he was very serious about not being mistaken for a looter, especially carrying a latter with him. I went with them, and although we passed no one on the street, the helicopters were always overhead checking out what was going on on the ground.

When we were leaving, I checked on a house for a friend of a friend who is now in Costa Rica. As we drove around, I was paying attention at the intersectons because the lights weren't working, and Mark kept exclaiming how it looked like there had been a nuclear war, how devastated it was, and pointing out boats that were left on the neutral ground/median, which is the grassy land between lanes of traffic going in different directions. When I mentioned how bad a particular street looked, because it was covered in saw dust from the crews that were cutting down hanging limbs, he'd tell me that my street looked just as bad. Somehow I didn't see it at my street. It was quiet - no birds, etc., wires were hanging down, trees were hanging down, no one was around, and it looked like a ghost town There was an empty city bus left at an intersection. At some corners in my neighborhood there were piles of dry dog and cat food left out for those animals that had been left behind. I had put out several piles of food when I'd been in town the previous week and was pleased to see that others were doing the same.

The vehicles that were on the street belonged to tree cutting companies, various electricity companies, the police and military and occassionally a neighbor. It was strange for the work vehicles, which were from other states and not familiar looking, to be speeding up the one way street where I live, in the wrong direction. That was symbolic that things were not as they used to be.

While I was working, a man from the electric company was going house to house shutting off the breakers for the electricity, so that when it was turned on again there would be no gas fires. Also, each house that I passed, including my own, had painted prayed on the sidewalk in front of ithe house or on the house itself, the date on which it was inspected, which unit did it, whether there was anyone there and other information. Every single house in every neighborhood that I saw had the markings. What a lot of hours and effort that took. It was reassuring to know that what I saw on TV was actually happening in my neighborhood too.

I said good bye to my house and neighborhood and headed out, not knowing how long it would be before I returned. I took most of my important documents and other articles with me. Thanks to Mark's help, the house was left in good shape for when I return.





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