Arizona!

Soon we are leaving Texas and going back to Denver. There we will debrief from this project and get ready for the next one. This round is a shuffle round, which means that we are switching teams and team leaders. It makes for a little excitement and means that we got assigned our project before we normally would. I am going to Crown King, Arizona to fight fires and live in the mountains about two and a half hours away from Phoenix. We are getting really excited to be leaving Texas and everyone is psyched for the next round!
We went to a Mardi Gras celebration in Port Aurthur last weekend, which apparently a quarter million people go to from Thursday to Sunday of parades. Tomorrow, we are going to work with Churches of Christ, who will give us a house to gut. This weekend, we are going to do a cleanup in Sabine Pass, which is definitely needed.

disaster in tx

Today, we started a new project in Sabine Pass, which should be pretty interesting. We are going to buildings that were destroyed in the hurricanes and writing down all information we can about them and their exact location using a GPS. We will be doing this for the next couple of days and then moving on to Port Arthur.

These are pictures from when we went to Chambers County to check out the damage.

We even got to get super close to an alligator! Kimmy wanted to get even closer!

The tubes in the picture three from the bottom of the page used to be buried under the ground to protect the homes that were all along the beach from storms, but now it is about eight feet above ground.

These wires along the side of the road were never repaired and are still in the bushes.

FEMA

We are working with FEMA as our sponsor. At first, there was a project for us that consisted of going out into the community and surveying houses damaged from the hurricanes. Lately, a few of us have been working with an organization called Churches of Christ, which helps people out with food donations, furniture and sheet rock delivery. It is a very good program and well worth being a part of. This past Thursday, we worked with a Texan to deliver sheet rock to homes that needed rebuilding. We delivered approximately 740 sheets to about 5 homes over the course of the day. Friday, Saturday and Monday, we worked in a house to gut it, which basically means taking out the drywall and everything in the house, leaving only the basic parts- the studs. We even got to rip out a wooden floor in the main room of the house. It was a lot of fun and we got to use sledgehammers to rip up floors.
Today, we wanted to work with the Army Corps of Engineers, but it turns out that he didn't have anything for us to do right now. We went out to lunch and got a tour of Oak Island, which is very destroyed by the hurricanes. Then we came back to the FEMA office and learned about Microsoft Access for a couple of hours.
A couple Saturdays ago, some of us went on a tour of Chambers County to see all of the damage and assess it. There is a lot of damage and it was really sad to look at. We got to drive up to the one house left standing in Gilchrist that was all over the news, which was kind of neat. We also got to see this alligator up close, which was pretty exciting!
On a lighter note, the people of Beaumont and surrounding areas are really nice people in general. They are very friendly and appreciative of what we are doing here. Although downtown Beaumont is pretty quiet, we have a movie theater next to our hotel and quite a few restaurants and stores, so we are doing pretty well activity wise. On Martin Luther King Day, my team and I went to a parade and then festivities afterward where MLK was praised.

Getting things done with FEMA in Beaumont Texas!

So now that Christmas and New Years are over, I have gone back to Colorado and am in Texas now, I have survived the first day of working with FEMA! We are staying in an extended stay hotel. I am staying in a room with three other girls in a room, which should be interesting. We have to make our own meals, so we shopped for food tonight at the grocery store. It's really hard to budget food when there are ten people to shop for, including vegetarian food.
We had our first day in Beaumont Texas at the FEMA AFO today, which was interesting. We filled out a lot of paperwork but still don't know all of what we will be doing for the next two months. We will most likely be finding out tomorrow!
We have to get up at 6:30 so we can get up to work at 8:00. Our work days are Monday through Saturday- Monday through Friday 8:00 to 5:00 and Saturday is 8:00 to 12:00.

Last day in LA

Sadly, I have reached the end of my time here in New Orleans and must begin packing and getting ready to move back to Denver. I have to admit that I am not looking forward to the trip back. Our van is a 12-seater and the 12th is half a seat in the way back of the van. The problem arises with our cargo van- they forgot about us and so now, last minute, we are sharing a truck with another team. We have to fit three people to a bench now the whole way back. Hopefully no one explodes. There will be tension in that van, that's for sure.

On a lighter note, we have been told that our next project will be somewhere in Texas, working with FEMA. We do not know yet where we will be staying, but at least we know the state!

It snowed last Thursday, and so I thought it would be appropriate to have some pictures of the craziness taking place in Louisiana. It was so amazing that we all jumped out of bed and rushed outside with our cameras.


It really was sticking to the cars!

Here is Jack saying, "What is going on?"

New Orleans

Sadly, there is still a lot of damage here, and a lot of houses that are so damaged that they are going to be bulldozed soon. It is sad to look down a street and see that all of the houses are empty because they are uninhabitable.



The parking lot and the sign were part of a mall that is now completely empty.



These are some among the many destroyed houses I have seen that have not been cared for since the hurricane.

The real KaBoom Build

The other weekend, my team and I did some ISP- building a playground in New Orleans. It was a lot of fun and we got to be pretty creative. The next day, we went back to the playground and took pictures of it without all of the people there. It looks amazing!

KC and I painted this pole! It says New Orleans spirling around the pole and LSU at the bottom with the S as the S in New Orleans too. Also it has the fleur de lis.
Some people got to paint this mural, which we all sat in front of and got a picture because it was pretty neat and very brightly colored.

KC and I got to put this sign together!

The finished playground!