You have two hands, one for helping yourself,
the other for helping others -  Audrey Hepburn
  • Blog
  • Thank you!
  • About Me
  • Tanzania EWH
    • Engineering World Health
    • Costs
  • Kenya
    • Reflections
  • Life at Tulane
    • New Orleans
    • Biomedical Engineering
    • A's and Aces
  • Comments

Back to Reality - Isaac Damage

9/12/2012

 
School is back to the usual, but for many people, especially those is LaPlace parish, life took a drastic turn when the storm hit. Even today, they are still suffering from the devastating effects of Hurricane Isaac. Aubrey, Zerick, and I spent last Sunday cleaning out an older lady's home who had never seen flooding in the 30 years she had lived there. During the storm she had evacuated to her daughter's house about 5 minutes away, where they were later rescued by a team once the area became completely flooded. The new levees were a hot topic because their homes aren't covered by the new system, and that water had to go somewhere. She had TONS of things in her house, so while we were there we were continuously dragging bag after bag out of her home. One room still had about 4 inches of water in it, stagnant, warm water that had been sitting there for almost two weeks. Two of her grandchildren were there to help, but were so thankful that we were able to clean out their rooms. The grandson was crying in the back yard as we emptied his room that had been recently redone and contained most of his possessions. I had never experienced a real flood before, it was bad enough when my basement flooded growing up, so this was a big eye-opener. I'm glad that even though we were there just a few hours, the 30 of us probably spared these local families over 100 hours of endless lifting and emptying.  (Shout out to Meghan Stanger for making this volunteering event happen- she did a great job coordinating it all!)

News story on LaPlace... we're in the background in a few clips! http://www.wwltv.com/news/local/st-john/Beacon-of-Hope-volunteers-set-up-in-LaPlace-169183366.html 

Aubrey and I thought we had it bad when we arrived back on the 3rd, but it definitely didn't compare to LaPlace.  Our kitchen smelled like a port-o-potty, but all we had to do was clean out our somewhat inaccessible drip pan with a bit of engineering thinking (or so we think anyways :p). We think we have it under control now... after a little creativity with bleach and vinegar!

    Author

    Go to www.kupikiatanzania.com for all the details on my cookbook!!!

    Archives

    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011

    RSS Feed

     

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.