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For Cecelia Lindequist, a longtime resident and member of St. Michael’s Episcopal Church, reading that sign during a recent walk through one of the neighborhoods still devastated by Katrina was something of a wakeup call. It recalled just how widespread that monster storm was back in 2005, and the tragic death toll – more than 1,000 lives lost along the Gulf Coast.
It brought home just how many people are still suffering from Katrina’s wrath.
“There’s so much damage still down there. It’s just amazing,” Lindequist said upon returning to town. “And there’s just not enough bodies. That’s why, when they were deciding what houses to take down, if yours looked like the lawn hasn’t been kept up, your house was marked for demolition.”
Lindequist was on her way to a Super Bowl party with other members of her church group when she saw the sign. The group, numbering 15 in all, was down there to help those still trying to cope, who have been left to sort through the broken pieces left in the storm’s wake.
Sheila Monks was another member of St. Michael’s who took the trip.
“It’s really sad. People think it’s fine down there now and it’s not,” she said. “There’s still so much work to be done. People are really despairing because they lost everything. And they’re pretty angry, too. They feel abandoned. It’s really the churches that are going down there and continuing to help these people out.”
The St. Michael’s group spent a week in the storm-ravaged city. They worked in homes, an animal shelter, a school, and wherever else they could make a difference. They even cooked Jambalaya and other traditional Southern dishes for the homeless.
“Anything we were physically able to do, we did it,” Lindequist said. “You really have to be very open-minded when you go down there and say ‘I’m willing to do anything.”
Church member Heather Putnam recalled the trip as a “week of hard work.”
“It was eight or nine or sometimes even 10 hours a day,” she said. “But it was so worth it to be able to help these people out. I thought it was extraordinary.”
Part of the job was working with homeowners whose properties are still in ruin nearly four years after the storm. Monks said she worked with one homeowner whose home was “more or less destroyed” by the storm.
“Our job was basically going around and doing small tasks at specific homes … building shelves, painting, laying tiles. We plastered and sanded the walls. The homeowners were very, very grateful. And it’s extremely rewarding to do that.”
At one house, they even planted a brand-new garden. They bought a tree for the garden they named St. Michael’s Tree.
Monks and Lindequist were part of a group that repaired the library at Samuel J. Green Charter School, a school for students in grades K through 8. Lindequist said she saw how the students had fallen behind after Katrina because of lost classroom time and wanted to help.
“I was so impressed with what they’re doing at that school,” Lindequist said. “The kids are literally there from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. They are two years behind, some of them. They have enrichment in the afternoons.”
She said the job was to completely renovate the library, which was being used as a storage room. It was a surprise to the students, who didn’t know the work was being done for them.
“We were painting and repairing bookshelves … washing them all down. We were committed to finishing the painting and we did manage to do that,” Lindequist said.
“It was so great. They’re going to surprise the children with it,” added Monks.
Lindequist said she was amazed to see how many people still care and want to provide relief to the Gulf communities hit hardest by the storm.
“It was really inspiring,” she said. “We met a lot of people who have literally stopped their lives to do all this work down there. They do this week after week … strangers come down there to help out. Our hope is that maybe this will inspire other people to say, ‘Well, maybe I can go down there and do something, too.’”
For more information, call St. Michael’s at (617) 698-1813. To read the daily blog and see additional photos from the New Orleans trip, visit www.stmichaelsmilton.blogspot.com.