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Tri-State Area residents find that devastation remains from Katrina
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| A mission group from St. John’s Episcopal Church in Keokuk and Paul’s Episcopal Church, Warsaw, Ill., visited the Wilson Charter School in the Broadmoor area of New Orleans and met the students. The group also delivered 25 boxes of school supplies donated by people in the Tri-State Area. |
Editor's Note: This is the first part of a two-part series about a recent mission trip to New Orleans by Tri-State Area residents.
By Sandy Seabold/For the Daily Gate City
A delegation from St. John's Episcopal Church, Keokuk, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Warsaw, Ill., traveled to New Orleans in mid-October on a mission to help with restoration work on homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
The group, led by the Rev. Larry Snyder, drove two vans packed with school supplies donated by area residents through the two churches.
“It was incredible,” said Sandy Seabold of Keokuk.
The group toured the city after they had worked on the Arthur and Mia Montague house in Broadmoor Parish.
“When we were driving around New Orleans, I couldn't stop crying,” Seabold said. “I love New Orleans.”
Seabold said repopulation is being discouraged in Broadmoor Parish, so homeowners, all lower middle class working people, are receiving very little official support.
In addition, their taxes have been raised to $500 per month. A church in Africa is paying the taxes for the local minister so that he can stay and support the ailing city.
Seabold said homeowners in the 17th Street Canal area are typically wealthy and are encouraged to return and rebuild. Their taxes have been reduced.
The Ninth Ward also has been abandoned by the government, but people have returned because “they don't have anywhere else to go,” Seabold said. The land was given to freed slaves and handed down from generation to generation without official paperwork showing ownership.
“A lot of the people in the Ninth Ward hadn't ever been out of the Ninth Ward,” Seabold said.
The symbols spraypainted on homes by rescue parties - X designating that the building had been checked for survivors and 0 alive followed by a number indicating the number of bodies inside - are still visible to day.
We are staying at the Free Church of the Annunciation which is an Episcopal Church in the Broadmoor area of New Orleans.
Broadmoor is the lowest area in the city and was under as much as 10 feet of water for two weeks after Katrina. The priest at Annunciation told us that percent of the churches in this area have closed since the flooding and many more will be closing in the future. About a third of the parishioners here are Baptist, a third are Catholic and the other third are an assortment including some Episcopalians.
Many of the hospitals in the city have not reopened after the damage they incurred. Along with repairing the buildings, the certification process has been difficult. Also many doctors did not return to New Orleans or have had to rebuild their practices. There are no level one trauma centers left in the city. The nearest hospital with a level one trauma center is in Houston, Texas.
One thing that has not been lost in New Orleans is the Southern hospitality. The people at this mission church have told us that we are part of their family now and we are welcome to stay here any time we want. The price is right, only $25 a day for room and board. The only drawback is that we are bedding down in dorm rooms. The ladies room that our group is in has 18 beds in a very small room. Volunteers from all over the country, including a group from AmeriCorp, are here to lend a helping hand . Dorm capacity is 100 volunteers.
Today (Oct. 13) we began our task of helping a family in this area sand and paint the outside of their house. The house is in a beautiful middle class neighborhood that was completely devastated by the flood. This family received $50,000 from the insurance company.
The city required them to raise the house several feet which cost them $47,000. The only thing that the family recovered from the house was their wedding rings so they have had to buy everything new for their house.
Arthur (Montague) has rebuilt the inside after removing all of the walls which were ruined by mold. One of their cars was lost in the flood and the car they drove to get out of town was demolished in an accident upon their return. They had to buy two new cars because the used cars that were available were water damaged.
At this point the family has used all of their savings including college funds for their daughter and they are $146,000 in debt in addition to their mortgage.
Arthur is diabetic and was doing well before Katrina but like others in the area, stress has contributed to increasing his problems with diabetes. Arthur and his wife, Mia, are both working and feel the future is hopeful.
He is working along side us while we sand and caulk the siding of his house, preparing it for painting. He would be farther along with the rehabilitation of his own home if he hadn't spent a lot of time helping less fortunate people rehab their homes.
The Broadmoor area is a mixture of middle class and working class homes. There are about 2,000 homes here and many have been refurbished.
The city's original plan was to tear down all of the homes in this area and make a green space. The local residents rallied together to save their neighborhood.
This morning (Oct. 14) we had the privilege of visiting Wilson Charter School in the Broadmoor area of New Orleans.
We delivered 25 large boxes of school supplies which were donated by residents of the Tri-State area to a group of very grateful children.
Included in the delivery were 60 school bags hand sewn by Fr. Larry Snyder's 88 year old mother and filled with crayons, pencils, paper, rulers, pens, and art supplies donated by our churches.
In the past, schools in this area have been rated as some of the worst in the country. Also many children missed over a year of school after the floods. In an effort to improve the educational system in New Orleans following Katrina, more than 50 percent of its schools were reorganized as Charter Schools.
Charter schools are allowed to write their own curriculum and hire their own teachers. At Wilson Charter School, the first two hours of every day are spent learning to read. During our visit we witnessed a group of excellent dedicated teachers and students who were very enthusiastic about learning.
Miss Connie, the president of Wilson's school board gave us a tour of the school and introduced us to the students. The students wear uniforms to school and are extremely polite and well disciplined.
We asked her what other needs the school had besides school supplies. She told us that most of the students only have one uniform for school. Since the students do not have a gymnasium, they have all of their physical education classes outside. Less than 15 percent of the students' families can afford to buy them a sweat suit to wear outside so they are very cold in the winter months during PE. The instructors were dressed very professionally and appeared to be wonderful role models for the children.
St. John's Episcopal Church in Keokuk and St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Warsaw will be accepting donations to provide uniforms and sweat suits for the children. Cash donations are preferred but clothing donations will be accepted also. Any kind of children's new khaki pants, dark forest green knit shirts or forest green sweat shirts and pants will be appreciated.
More about the mission trip will be printed as space allows.
By Sandy Seabold/For the Daily Gate City
A delegation from St. John's Episcopal Church, Keokuk, and St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Warsaw, Ill., traveled to New Orleans in mid-October on a mission to help with restoration work on homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
The group, led by the Rev. Larry Snyder, drove two vans packed with school supplies donated by area residents through the two churches.
“It was incredible,” said Sandy Seabold of Keokuk.
The group toured the city after they had worked on the Arthur and Mia Montague house in Broadmoor Parish.
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Seabold said repopulation is being discouraged in Broadmoor Parish, so homeowners, all lower middle class working people, are receiving very little official support.
In addition, their taxes have been raised to $500 per month. A church in Africa is paying the taxes for the local minister so that he can stay and support the ailing city.
Seabold said homeowners in the 17th Street Canal area are typically wealthy and are encouraged to return and rebuild. Their taxes have been reduced.
The Ninth Ward also has been abandoned by the government, but people have returned because “they don't have anywhere else to go,” Seabold said. The land was given to freed slaves and handed down from generation to generation without official paperwork showing ownership.
“A lot of the people in the Ninth Ward hadn't ever been out of the Ninth Ward,” Seabold said.
The symbols spraypainted on homes by rescue parties - X designating that the building had been checked for survivors and 0 alive followed by a number indicating the number of bodies inside - are still visible to day.
We are staying at the Free Church of the Annunciation which is an Episcopal Church in the Broadmoor area of New Orleans.
Broadmoor is the lowest area in the city and was under as much as 10 feet of water for two weeks after Katrina. The priest at Annunciation told us that percent of the churches in this area have closed since the flooding and many more will be closing in the future. About a third of the parishioners here are Baptist, a third are Catholic and the other third are an assortment including some Episcopalians.
Many of the hospitals in the city have not reopened after the damage they incurred. Along with repairing the buildings, the certification process has been difficult. Also many doctors did not return to New Orleans or have had to rebuild their practices. There are no level one trauma centers left in the city. The nearest hospital with a level one trauma center is in Houston, Texas.
One thing that has not been lost in New Orleans is the Southern hospitality. The people at this mission church have told us that we are part of their family now and we are welcome to stay here any time we want. The price is right, only $25 a day for room and board. The only drawback is that we are bedding down in dorm rooms. The ladies room that our group is in has 18 beds in a very small room. Volunteers from all over the country, including a group from AmeriCorp, are here to lend a helping hand . Dorm capacity is 100 volunteers.
Today (Oct. 13) we began our task of helping a family in this area sand and paint the outside of their house. The house is in a beautiful middle class neighborhood that was completely devastated by the flood. This family received $50,000 from the insurance company.
The city required them to raise the house several feet which cost them $47,000. The only thing that the family recovered from the house was their wedding rings so they have had to buy everything new for their house.
Arthur (Montague) has rebuilt the inside after removing all of the walls which were ruined by mold. One of their cars was lost in the flood and the car they drove to get out of town was demolished in an accident upon their return. They had to buy two new cars because the used cars that were available were water damaged.
At this point the family has used all of their savings including college funds for their daughter and they are $146,000 in debt in addition to their mortgage.
Arthur is diabetic and was doing well before Katrina but like others in the area, stress has contributed to increasing his problems with diabetes. Arthur and his wife, Mia, are both working and feel the future is hopeful.
He is working along side us while we sand and caulk the siding of his house, preparing it for painting. He would be farther along with the rehabilitation of his own home if he hadn't spent a lot of time helping less fortunate people rehab their homes.
The Broadmoor area is a mixture of middle class and working class homes. There are about 2,000 homes here and many have been refurbished.
The city's original plan was to tear down all of the homes in this area and make a green space. The local residents rallied together to save their neighborhood.
This morning (Oct. 14) we had the privilege of visiting Wilson Charter School in the Broadmoor area of New Orleans.
We delivered 25 large boxes of school supplies which were donated by residents of the Tri-State area to a group of very grateful children.
Included in the delivery were 60 school bags hand sewn by Fr. Larry Snyder's 88 year old mother and filled with crayons, pencils, paper, rulers, pens, and art supplies donated by our churches.
In the past, schools in this area have been rated as some of the worst in the country. Also many children missed over a year of school after the floods. In an effort to improve the educational system in New Orleans following Katrina, more than 50 percent of its schools were reorganized as Charter Schools.
Charter schools are allowed to write their own curriculum and hire their own teachers. At Wilson Charter School, the first two hours of every day are spent learning to read. During our visit we witnessed a group of excellent dedicated teachers and students who were very enthusiastic about learning.
Miss Connie, the president of Wilson's school board gave us a tour of the school and introduced us to the students. The students wear uniforms to school and are extremely polite and well disciplined.
We asked her what other needs the school had besides school supplies. She told us that most of the students only have one uniform for school. Since the students do not have a gymnasium, they have all of their physical education classes outside. Less than 15 percent of the students' families can afford to buy them a sweat suit to wear outside so they are very cold in the winter months during PE. The instructors were dressed very professionally and appeared to be wonderful role models for the children.
St. John's Episcopal Church in Keokuk and St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Warsaw will be accepting donations to provide uniforms and sweat suits for the children. Cash donations are preferred but clothing donations will be accepted also. Any kind of children's new khaki pants, dark forest green knit shirts or forest green sweat shirts and pants will be appreciated.
More about the mission trip will be printed as space allows.
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