Marshall Miller recently returned from his second trip to the New Orleans area where he helped with rebuilding efforts that were left by Hurricane Katrina.
Q Where were you?
A We went to Waveland, Miss., and both times we worked in the Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Miss., area on the Gulf. They are adjoining communities.
Q What changes did you see from your first trip to your second trip? Is progress being made?
A The thing we saw this time was the commercial is coming back fairly well on U.S. Highway 90. There was quite a bit of repair on the homes that survived. But very few new home starts on the Gulf side.
Q When you look at the area does it still look storm ravaged or is it cleaned up?
A The thing that bothered all of us was that we are still seeing the smaller debris piles. When people gut out a home they put the debris on the curb, in the ditch. I wish we had a high loader and truck to get the debris piles cleaned up. It was kind of demoralizing to see the piles. We saw two or three smashed cars left over from the storm.
Another thing you notice is the dead timber that has not been removed yet. As well as debris still hanging in the trees. It still looks like a disaster area.
Q In the reconstruction efforts where do you feel the priorities are?
A One thing we did see, there were about seven cranes working on U.S. 90 that crosses the St. Louis Bay. Next time we go down that will probably be somewhat complete. Another thing in Bay St. Louis is a new resort casino is open. They want the tourists to come back in. The second casino is on down the coast and it is called the Silver Slipper. It was supposed to open on the 11th of November. We weren’t sure it was going to be open, but there was a lot of work going on.
We did go through New Orleans and there was a lot of work going on but there are a lot of homes still vacant. It wasn’t consistent on what homes were getting repaired so it was going to be a long drawn-out affair. The French Quarter looked like business as usual. Every space was filled with cars and the cafes were full. Downtown New Orleans was hard to get through because of all the construction.
Q Did you see other volunteers helping with the rebuilding efforts?
A I think people are still involved down there. We had 40 or 50 people in our encampment. Then there was a Mennonite camp behind us and they have been down there since Day One. There are numerous groups down there still working
Q How many people from Emporia went down to help on the rebuilding efforts and what did you work on this time?
A There were 12 of us all from First United Methodist Church. We worked on four different properties. The first house we went to had been gutted. We put in five new windows and three new doors. It was a brick home so we had to do some mortar work.
On two of the homes we did hurricane strapping. They are metal straps that go between the studs and upper and lower plates so if 120 mph winds blow, the roof won’t blow off or destroy the home. We did insulating. Another home it had been sheet rocked and we started to do the finishing.
Q Did you check on the progress of the homes you worked on before?
A We did revisit a home on the Bay St. Louis River. It was a home we sheeted and wrapped. I took the whole group over there to see the progress.
The gentleman is a 77-year-old retiree. He came out and had a big smile when he saw us. His home was looking good. It had been sided and painted. The only thing he had left to do was the trim work and cabinets. That is the ultimate is get someone back in their property after they had been out of it for so long. He said his 10x30 FEMA trailer was getting awfully small.