Day Eight

Today we continued to work for Catholic Charities to demolish a building on their grounds that served as a food bank. The day got an unusual start (which we will elaborate on later) but first click below to see Team Mannshaft capture the days highlighted event; the building COMING DOWN!



Morning came late today! Okay, well, morning came whenever it usually does, but we didn’t face it until we felt like it. Shawny and Courtney decided that they wouldn’t wake us up at all today, instead letting us sleep as long as we could. We loved it! Most people still got up just after 8:00 a.m., but some slept until almost 10:00. Two people who shall remain nameless slept until almost noon!

Courtney did not enjoy the delayed wakeup as much as the rest of us, because she decided to spend the day doing our laundry so that we could save some money from our huge drop-off laundry bills last year. She collected everyone’s load individually, washed it separately, and folded every piece. It took her ALL day. Now we love Courtney even more than ever!

One reason for our late morning was the weather. It was a cold and rainy morning, making it difficult to jump up and do the things we usually do. The actual temperature wasn’t all that cold (40s or so) but somehow we felt like we were freezing.

The second reason for our late morning was that we switched bus drivers today. Dan flew out to return to Indiana and Leo flew in to take over the driver’s seat. Because the switcheroo happened at about 10:30 in the morning, we needed to leave either early or late. We chose late.

The third reason for our slow wakeup was the fact that we are all just really tired. We don’t get quite enough sleep, we work really hard every day, we eat weird food, and we live in a constant state of eager anticipation, hoping not to miss anything. It’s exhausting. So we slept in.

We had expected to finish the roof back at the Habitat for Humanity house where we worked on Saturday. They couldn’t take us, though, because they had 1000 volunteers scheduled for today and there was no way to give us exclusive rights to Natasha’s house to work on the roof. Besides, it was raining. Even before we knew it would rain, the Habitat folks predicted that with today’s inexperienced volunteers they could not do roof work anyway, so we hope to get another opportunity to return.

We considered several other possibilities, but we kept circling back to the one that fascinated us most: knocking down that building back on the St. Raymond’s lot. We talked about it over a late breakfast and decided to go for it. A few people who really didn’t relish the idea of working in the cold rain decided to go sand floors at Don’s house. The rest of us gathered round to make that building fall DOWN.

Shane had cooked up the overall best plan, including cutting the studs on one face of the house, then making diagonal cuts on the studs along the side. All of us would pull the building down with ropes that we attached before any cuts were made. Once we determined that this plan could unfold safely, we gave it a try. It worked. We cheered up and down the block, giving high fives all around.

The Catholic Charities folks said that they were “astounded.” They couldn’t believe how far we had gotten yesterday and today they got a big kick out of watching us plan and execute the big drop. So did we.

We hadn’t started until 2:30 or so, leaving us with very little time to remove the lumber from the site after the house fell. We worked until darkness approached, then packed up until we can return tomorrow.

Unfortunately, one event that precipitated our departure was a phone call from the crew at Don’s house letting us know that one of their team was hurt. Julie had a pre-existing back problem that got aggravated badly enough to require medical attention. As Justin drove her to the church so that Shawny could accompany her to the hospital, we learned that ANOTHER team member was hurt: Kellie. She was pulling nails with a crowbar and somehow twisted her elbow in a direction that it shouldn’t go. She joined the car that was headed to the hospital to make sure that the injury wasn’t serious. We found it a bit funny that after knocking down a house with not so much as a stray splinter touching any one of us, we were suddenly taking two people to the hospital with injuries totally unrelated to the demolition. Both Julie and Kellie report that they are okay.

These two injuries are not the first that we have experienced, as we have also watched our Habitat for Humanity staffer, Alicia, get cracked on the head with a hammer that was accidentally left in a precarious place and we also watched Shawny’s sister Sherry return to visit us with an eyepatch after having gotten some debris in her eye on Sunday. Alicia recovered quickly right on the spot, but Sherry had to go to the emergency room one day and to two specialists over the next two days to improve her situation. She, too, reports that things are improving quickly. Still, she has extended her NOLA stay for a couple of days to give herself a chance to recover.

All of these injuries – even when they are not life-threatening – help remind us to take seriously the safety measures we all have discussed and to wear our safety equipment whenever we are on the job. So far everyone has remained very committed to following the agreements that we set out before we even arrived in Louisiana.

We still have work to do at St. Raymond tomorrow, so we will no doubt start our day there. More then . . .


This was taken yesterday when the building still stood…



This was taken today after the building was demolished. The pile yesterday consisted of the contents of the inside of the building. Today the pile grew as we placed wood from the outside of the building.



Setting up ropes…
We attached ropes to the main supports of the building. We then went in the street in groups of two or three and pulled the ropes to bring the building down.



Once we pulled the building down we began taking the roof apart with hammers and saws.



Crazy Emily…
At the request of Catholic Charities we tried to save all the salvageable boards that were from the building. Emily chose to wear shorts while removing nails from these boards so as not to get her jeans wet.



Aaron shows us how it’s done, using a sledgehammer to break down the remaining pieces of the house.



Team Knucklebusters capture a three picture sequence of the Nola group pulling down the house at Saint Raymond’s School. Despite the cold and rainy weather, we all managed to pull through and bring the house down.







This is the rubble leftover from our day of work. The rain forced us to retreat back to camp, but we hope the weather clears up and permits us to return and finish our job.



Sleeping before a long day of work, Emily of team Mannschaft (which is German for team) is catching up on some much needed sleep after yesterday’s exhausting effort clearing the house for total demolition!



Here Chris surveys the house before demolition begins. Deciding our final plan our action, cut, pull, and safety first (let it be known that no one was hurt in the tearing down of this structure).



This picture shows “projects” located behind the school where our job site was located. There are no occupants in these homes and there has been no effort to reopen and relocated people into these homes. This community is literally desolate and forsaken.



SUCCESS! The building has come down. Despite popular unbelief the SMC NOLA crew came together to clear, salvage valuable parts, and ultimately level this structure to the ground. With a few relief cuts and some strategically applied force, the building came down with a few quick tugs. Proving the great and powerful versatility.



KING OF THE MOUNTAIN, Justin with a heart full of pride and joy over the successful demolition of the house. With Justin and his brother Chris leading the way, we came, we saw, and we conquered.



Feke sits in our kitchen tent and enjoys the delicious dinner the Fab 5 (Vince, Megan, Yessenia, Kate and Jed) prepared. On the menu tonight was angel hair pasta with shredded chicken and marinara sauce.



At our make-shift kitchen sink, Janeva cleans up her dishes with a smile.



Strike a pose! Kate sure does love her water!

Day Seven

Today we worked for Catholic Charities to demolish a building on their grounds that served as a food bank. The building had flooded, the stockpiles of food had molded long ago, and the time had come to create a clean slate. Click below to see the Transformers’ take on the day’s events.



Another French toast morning (we needed to use up our surplus of bread) came along pretty early, as we decided to get a quick start on our day because we knew we faced a huge challenge. We ventured a little west of our usual zone in the Ninth Ward to work on the grounds of St. Raymond Catholic Church and School. This property is also the staging area for volunteers who come from all over the country to be organized and trained to participate in relief work. Our Easter Break crew spent many early mornings in that parking lot as we sought our assignments day by day.

The plan for the day was to get as far as we could in clearing and gutting the building, in hopes of eventually leveling it so that the space could be better occupied by a safer storage/distribution space. They didn’t want to bulldoze the building, as they hoped to salvage lots of items out of it, including the wood siding on the exterior. Our contact at Catholic Charities thought it was unlikely that we would even manage to clear out all of the food and office equipment inside in one day’s time. Of course, knowing that a task seemed impossible made it even more appealing to all of us. We went into the day with an incredible level of determination to succeed.

When we arrived, our Catholic Charities hosts let us know that we might witness some protests in the neighborhood in honor of Martin Luther King Day. St. Raymond is very close to “the projects,” low-income housing that was damaged in the storm and that remains unoccupied 16 months later. Many locals are torn by the competing arguments about how to deal with this issue; some believe that more low-income housing must be made available immediately while others argue that the entire premise of government-sponsored housing should be rethought. The large complex stood empty, though it seemed to be in usable condition; we could see why families who had lived there before might wish to return.

We became even more aware of the desperate needs in the neighborhood when we began to address the rotting pile of surplus food inside the structure we were clearing. We had been asked to save any food that was still consumable, but we had trouble placing any of the food we found in that category. The pile was infested with mice and cockroaches, there was mold growing up the sides of the boxes in the storeroom, and even the canned goods were covered with rust. We consulted with one of the staff who finally made the call: ditch it all. We transferred the food from the storage space into the enormous trash pile that we were creating outside. As we did so, we were surprised to see residents of the neighborhood coming from all directions to see what they could glean from the pile. Where we had been certain that the goods were worthless, others apparently found them to be quite valuable.

Once we had emptied the space, our next job was to prep the house for demolition. We tore out every possible piece of drywall, baseboard, and trim, along with the toilet, plumbing, heating system, and anything else that would take us down to the skeleton of the place. Even before lunch, we had accomplished more than we (or Catholic Charities) thought possible.

After lunch, a crew went onto the roof to try to dismantle it. Justin, Shane, and Jed were in the first wave, while Julie, Aaron, Chris and Tim took up the second shift. By the time that the second shift took the roof, however, we had decided that it was going to take way too long to complete the demolition in this way. We all regrouped and strategized to figure out what to do next. We had three competing options: 1) continue our first strategy and go back onto the roof, 2) find a way to bring the house down by cutting the sides and letting it collapse, and 3) forget the whole idea and leave the skeletal structure for someone else to address.

We went around and around about which option was best, as we all recognized that each of the three options was appealing in its own way. As we began to move in the direction of #2, big black rain clouds rolled in and it began to sprinkle. Once we decided that the next step would have to be delayed – no matter what it was – we committed to returning on another day and finding a way to demolish the entire building once and for all. Depending upon the weather, that day might be tomorrow.

We headed home with a special treat planned for the end of the day: our first collective trip into the French Quarter in honor of our driver Dan’s last day with us (Dan flies out on Tuesday at the same time that our driver from last year, Leo, flies in). We took our time primping and getting our project work organized so that we could go into town without any responsibilities dangling over our heads.

We all started at Café DuMonde so that we could have a beignet or two, and then we split up: some went looking for a real dinner, some went after a bit of entertainment, and some went home to catch up on work or rest. The Transformers stayed home to edit their video for the day. No matter what choice each person made about how to spend the evening, we all got to be transported far away from the land of mold and mice and into the land of laughter and leisure. Our 11:00 curfew kept us from getting into any real trouble. A long but lovely day and a fitting end to our week with our good friend Dan. We welcome Leo’s arrival, but we will definitely miss Dan. Thanks for everything, Dan!

Armed with her hard hat, protective glasses, and face mask, Bree shows off her tough tenacity by saving the siding for another building.



Courtney shows her NOLA pride while dumping a bunch of a old sheet rock.



It’s dark and cloudy, but Justin excitedly prepares for the roof to come down.



Aaron offers Soraya some aspirin to alleviate the pain from her injury. The Oneder works hard, but injuries are just part of the job. Go Soraya!



Justin, Jed, and Shane give directions to the rest of the group from on top of the roof.



Emily Robbins wedges a crowbar between a nail and a stud. Even though it is meticulous, it pays off at the end of a hard day’s work.



Today everybody contributed to our enormous amount of work. We removed all of the trash, moldy food, and eventually the drywall from the entire house.



Tim Huey heaves remnants of sheet rock over a fence and into the dump pile to be hauled away. We salvaged what we could, however most of what we found was beyond saving.



Justin Verrips briefs the crew before strapping up and getting to work.



Although the attempt to take the roof off the house failed, everyone put in 100%. Here, Julie and Jed pull shingles off the roof so the Verrips brothers can saw and hammer out the plywood.



Getting the moldy food out of the house by far the worst job of the trip. You can see that it took everyone as a group to complete the task – you couldn’t imagine how many cockroaches and mice that came crawling out of those boxes.



The most eerie thing we found today was a chalkboard in the elementary school that had still remained untouched - as seen by the date (August 25, 2005) on the board. The irony was added by what else was left written on the board.



Here is a before pic of the storage house in all its glory – if only it knew that the SMC kids were coming for it!



A view from the rooftop of the house, you can see the elementary school to the left and the projects – to the right. Neither has been open since the storm. A protest was anticipated in reaction to the fact that the projects are still closed.



Here is the skeleton of the house that we left behind, it was hard work but we got it done!



After much sweat (and even a little blood) we were successfully able to strip down the entire building. This job could not have been accomplished without a full effort from everyone here!



We placed all of the debris from the building into a pile on the street. All of us were taken aback when local neighbors came by and started collecting the debris and tainted food for personal use.



Megan is hard at work shoveling out the stripped down ceiling.

Day Six

Today we visited St. Bernard Parish for this group’s first day of house gutting at the home of Cindy and David Fernanavitch. Cindy is the daughter of our good friends Connie and Jerry LeRouge, whose house we cleared on our last day of gutting in January 2006. Click below to see The ONEders’ account of their day.



We awoke this morning to a delicious morning of French toast that was made from the leftover bread from last night’s tailgate cookout. We accidentally bought bread twice, which left us with a huge amount for Mannschaft to use in making a special breakfast. Having bread in camp is a rarity and having leftover bread is unbelievable. Also, the lack of actual eggs in our NOLA home is usually another obstacle to making French toast. Thus, the event was so special that we actually bothered to write a whole paragraph about it in this blog entry!

We headed out EARLY for once to get to our job for today. Violet, Louisiana, is in the far reaches of St. Bernard Parish, one of the areas hit hardest by Katrina. The group last year visited Violet on their first day of gutting; it was a very striking experience, as they had not yet seen acres and acres of land covered with rolled-over cars, landlocked boats, and displaced jet-skis. We are happy to report that almost all of the debris that littered the landscape back then is now gone; we are sorry to report that very few families have returned. Even our hosts for the day, Cindy and David, do not intend to return. They are not interested in returning to a neighborhood that has lost of its neighbors, so they have moved closer to the Louisiana/Mississippi border.

Their house was already cleared of much of the debris that it contained after holding 13 feet of water for a month or so. Perhaps the oddest item they found in their house after the storm was a live alligator. After removing the alligator (or at least we assume that they removed it; we didn’t see it), they removed the other normal household goods that had been swirled by the flood and dumped throughout the house. David actually drove a tractor into the front of the house and bulldozed part of the interior himself. Obviously the tractor did not reach all of the rooms, so our job was to use shovels and wheelbarrows to complete the clearing of the house. The drywall on the ceilings was still intact (though ruined), but the drywall on the walls had already been removed. Additionally, we were to clear the backyard and garage area and salvage the contents of the never-flooded attic.

We had borrowed a couple of wheelbarrows and lots of shovels, crowbars and flatbars from Catholic Charities, so everyone grabbed one tool or another and started loading out debris. Different groups took over different zones of the property, but no one necessarily stayed with their designated teams. Some people hit the tops of ladders and started ripping down ceilings, some pulled nails from the studs, some shoveled piles of insulation into wheelbarrows, some cleared an above-ground pool and deck from the backyard, some fought off cockroaches with their gloved hands, and Jed tried to kill a live rat with a shovel (the animal rights activists among us managed to stop him).

When the attic crew finally braved the stairs to check out the scene above, they were quite surprised to find the equivalent of another whole house upstairs. There was no furniture or appliances but there was lots of what David called “Cindy’s junk.” Cindy is a serious Mardi Gras celebrant and her attic provided lots of evidence of her impressive participation in parades over many years. She had beads, beads, and more beads, along with lots of costumes and other decorations. And then she had some beads. And some more beads. Lots of beads. Really. Lots.

Additionally, there were a few random containers that somehow had managed to hold water for (apparently) quite awhile. It wasn’t nearly as awful as the infamous “fridge tea” from last year, but it was still quite nasty, especially if it dropped through the ceiling onto your back unexpectedly. Like it did to Bryan Navarro. Ugh.

Even though readers might think that this all sounds really horrible (debris, rats, cockroaches, alligators, and stinky water), it was a wonderful day. We all worked together in ever-changing configurations and we got to talk to different people than our normal work groups. We learned about alligator hunting from David, who invited us out to their house to eat alligator before we leave at the end of the month. We completed the task we set out to do. We found pictures that were precious to Cindy. We got another surprise lunch of southern fried chicken (this time with Vault energy drink and actual ICE!) And we got to watch a Gulf Coast resident reconnect with parts of the life that she thought had washed away in a storm.

We’re happy we’re here. We’re happy we’re with each other. We’re proud to be part of all that New Orleans will eventually become. Thanks for your support and thanks for listening.

Tommy rests after pulling up the plastic liner of an above ground pool.



While surrounded by her destroyed belongings, Cindy shares with Linzy her children’s toys and pictures.



Juan and Tommy wrestle with dismantling a garage door.



Bree, Rachael, Yessenia, and Linzy were “encouraged” by the usual loading group of guys to pack up the trailer and truck.



Feke shows Cindy’s son’s childhood Mardi Gras costume.



Courtney hauls an overflowing wheelbarrow full of moldy, muddy insulation while Shawny pries nails out of the exposed studs.



Feke, Shane, and Jed scope out the deck that they are about to work on. After this shot they moved all of the garbage pile in the front.



Kate works diligently on the ceiling, a very difficult job to do. As you can see, she is making sure that each nail is removed. Before pulling the nails, Kate and Aaron worked on tearing the drywall from the ceiling. They did an amazing job.



As the sun goes down a beautiful shot is taken by Tommy. Although all the debris is sitting on the sidewalk, it is a great sight for the teams. All of the debris that you see used to be inside the Fernanavich’s home.



It’s amazing what articles are found among the rubble.



Kellie brings down the house…literally.



Shawny and Sherry, the Anderson sisters show us their stuff as they bring down a pesky closet rod.



Despite the homeowners bringing a small bulldozer into the house to clear out the sludge we managed to assemble this impressive pile of debris in front of the house. To recognize the rebirth of her house the home owner, Cindy hung the banner stating “The Party’s Here.”



As the day begins Janeva shares her expertise of taking down walls with Emily.



As we stripped the surface of the Fernanavitch’s walls we were able to see the layers of paint, drywall, insulation, styrofoam, and brick. Although Hurricane Katrina itself only lasted a short time, it took a whole day to clean up the damage created in this home.



Homeowner Cindy sorts through salvageable items found in her attic with Linzy. She was thrilled to find a snowman figurine made for her by her godmother who passed away just before the storm.



We unloaded all the debris from the Fernanovitch home onto the front lawn and sidewalk. The pile was over three feet high and extended the entire width of the house. It was filled with insulation, rotted wood, scrap metal, and all the various contents of the kitchen.



On the porch of the house we placed all the items untouched by the water that were in the attic. There were bags of Mardi Gras decorations, high school yearbooks, tons of children’s toys and books, as well as Christmas gifts Cindy intended to give for 2005.



Cindy poses with a banner found in her attic after the gutting is complete. She is happy that her house is now completed, as she told many stories of the parties she has hosted there.