After returning from the airboat ride, we all took a nap. The sun and humidity in New Orleans zaps you of all your energy. We had to be at the St. Bernard Church in Chalmette to meet the director of Camp Collide where we are going to be doing our second mission for Christ.
I want to take a minute and explain what happened in New Orleans in Sept of 2005. After Katrina blew thru, basically there was wind damage to the area but the eye went through in Biloxi, Mississippi which was devastated. What happened in New Orleans was due to poor engineering. Days after the storm, the levys could not contain the rise in the Mississippi and it broke thru and spilled over into the causeways. Since NO is like a bowl, it just simply filled up. Some say that the government smashed a ship into the levy causing it to break on the lower 9th ward because they did not want it to spill into New Orleans, others say they heard an explosion like dynamite – the truth may never be known. Given the topo of New Orleans, the west side was hardly flooded at all NO proper except for French Quarter (which saw no flooding) saw about 3 – 6 feet of water. The lower 9th and Chalmette saw about 18 feet of water (remember they are already 6 – 8 feet below sea level.) 18 feet will cover a complete one story home. Many neighborhoods still have homes that are abandoned. Some will never be replaced because the owners just up and left, never to return. Those homes have a yellow square with a red "X"
It is very common to see a row of homes on a street where some homes are being replaced and the home next to it is condemned. It makes the neighborhood look scared. It is very common to see a home left in ruin from Katrina then right next to it the very same home restored. I'll explain the hieroglyphic on the homes later.
So we went to the St. Bernard parish. A parish is like a town. NO is set up this way as is other cities in Louisiana. A parish would be the name of a community that attends the local church. In this way, they understand the concept of a local church. There would be no other church in the parish. The group that we connected to called Camp Collide was headquartered in this church. They had a sanctuary, dining hall and kitchen that was air-conditioned. They also had an office building and a devotion area. We also had a chance to check out the other site which is called the Hiliton Arabi. It is in the parish of Arabi and is just a converted church to allow groups to stay for a short period of time. For some reason I do not have any pictures of it. Oh well. So, logistically, everything looks good and we even decided to put our motorhome down where folks were staying. They have 110 power, a sewer hookup and water. Cool!
After returning to the sanctuary, we had tacos for dinner, and then broke up into 5 teams. Isaiah and I were on Charles' team and Therese and Ethan were on Erika's team. We were hanging sheetrock, taping and mudding all week and Therese and Ethan were doing many different activities on many different homes. After this we left to go back to the KOA and pack to move to our new location. Actually in reality we were ambivalent about moving, however, after what happened the next day we made our final decision.
