[StBernard] Spring break Katrina cleanup: A labor of love

[Westley Annis]

KATRINA AFTERMATH >

Spring break Katrina cleanup: A labor of love

While MSU volunteers gutted ruined houses, they filled empty spaces in
peoples' lives, including their own.

By Steve Koehler 
News-Leader 

They had gone to Louisiana to clean up after the end of the world.
In the process of toiling for a week in the devastated neighborhoods in
Chalmette, La., something happened to both the volunteers from Missouri
State University and to the residents of the tiny town located down the
Mississippi River from New Orleans.

Lives changed.

At week's end, the 103 students and a staff member from MSU had a better
understanding about the important things in life while grateful residents
had their spirits lifted and their lives enriched by others showing them
that they had not been forgotten.

"They don't know how much they did for us," said Cindy Bartholomae, in whose
neighborhood the students worked.

"They gave up their spring break to work in this hellhole."

The students, though, gained a new perspective of their lives and of those
in need.

"You fall in love with them," said Emilie Franke, a senior who organized the
trip through the New Orleans chapter of Habitat for Humanity.

"There is an emotional connection for us now with the people and the city.
We talked to families, and they knew we could be anywhere in the world and
we chose to be there. It brought all of us to tears."

The students, wearing hard hats, gloves, masks and boots, worked for a week
in St. Bernard Parish, one of the hardest hit areas in Louisiana, where
27,000 homes were destroyed by the hurricane seven months ago.

"It was like cleaning up the end of the world," said Dan Henke, a junior in
theater and dance.

The landscape resembled a war zone. Homes twisted in unimaginable shapes.
Four houses pushed into a street, blocking passage.

A house picked up, dropped on a truck and that mass shoved into another
house.

Cinderblocks, tree limbs, vehicles, home insulation, framing lumber, roof
shingles, plywood, and outdoor and indoor furniture littered the area like
confetti.

Huge piles of trash and personal possessions were heaped in huge mounds at
the curb in front of residences.

The students' task was simple: gut the structures of almost everything, from
moldy, water-logged walls to rotted furniture and anything else ravaged by
the storm.

The students cleaned out 34 houses in a week's time, working in some of the
worst conditions imaginable.

The smells of rotting food and dead animals was overwhelming. Food left in
refrigerators was beyond spoiled, and the smell was so rancid students had
to flee homes to get a breath of fresh air.

Fish from the Gulf of Mexico had been flung on shore. Minnows and frogs were
stuck to walls, slammed against exteriors by the hurricane-force winds.
Other fish skeletons were caught in fencing.

The water in swimming pools had been replaced with a black muck that
attracted vermin and other animals.

A crab took up residence in one neighborhood pool that became known as "the
crab pool." It was a gathering point for some of the students during work
breaks. They would spend their free time trying to find the crab.

Larry Ettinger, a senior at Missouri State, headed a crew of students who
killed 22 of the 23 rats they saw in the neighborhoods.

Amid all the destruction that shocked the senses, students tried to recover
mementos from the homes. Many were beyond keeping.

Others were found to be remarkably untouched, like two undamaged ceramic
eggs, one with a picture of Jesus on it and the other with a picture of a
cross.

A wedding photograph had been severely water-damaged except for a small area
that pictured a crucifix. That part of the photo was untouched.

"There was a lot of emotion when we worked. We had just gutted their house.
It was their lives," said Kira Knickrehm, a junior studying marketing.

But the neighbors who came to know the students were grateful.

"It was a privilege to see those kids in there. They worked their butts off.
How dear that was to me and the community. It made the natives smile," said
Diane Phillips. Her house and the marina that she and her husband ran for 14
years were leveled by Katrina.

"A lot of people lost their hearts in that hurricane. (What they did) made
us feel like we hadn't been forgotten," she said.

Bartholomae and her husband, James, a captain in the St. Bernard Sheriff's
Department, were so thankful for the students' efforts that they threw a
party for some of the students on their last night in town.

The fare included hamburgers, hot dogs, crawfish and some homemade New
Orleans jambalaya. It was cooked outside of the family's trailer, which is
on the spot where their house once stood.

Cindy Bartholomae wanted to thank the students for doing more than just
gutting buildings. She was grateful for the example the students set for her
five children.

"I have an 18-year-old, and he saw that it's cool to help other people," she
said. "If it weren't for kids like that, we'd really be in a mess."

Missouri State President Michael Nietzel said he received e-mails from
Bartholomae and others praising the students.

"I think it was an opportunity for our students to practice an enlightened
compassion that will have a long-term effect on their lives for some time,"
he said.

About 2,000 students from across the country gave up their spring breaks to
help in the New Orleans area.

Michael Hayes, special projects coordinator for Habitat for Humanity in New
Orleans, said the response by the students was overwhelming.

They slept in a tent city and were bused to neighborhoods to work about
seven hours a day.

"It was a life-changing experience for them. They have to go into people's
homes and separate treasures from waste," he said.

Hayes said students showed up even when they were told the tent camp
couldn't accommodate them.

"They came anyway and made their own arrangements. They've been incredible,"
he said.

The energy and excitement the Missouri State students got from their
experience was still palpable Wednesday when about a dozen of them gathered
at the News-Leader's request to talk about what they did and saw and the
people they met.

Mike Barnett, student body president, said there was plenty of work left for
students to do and many would return to help again.

"Seven months (after the hurricane), life is not even close to normal. There
are few businesses, few residents and a huge mess that needs cleaned. It is
too big of a job for the people of the parish to do alone. Only with help of
the entire country, not just the government, will this city ever be back to
normal," he said.

Barnett remembers a woman named Sharon. They were working on her 80-year-old
sister's house when she told them about her sister.

Sharon's sister had been in the hospital having open-heart surgery the week
that the hurricane hit.

Her sister was in critical condition after the surgery, and when Sharon
called the hospital she was told her sister would be evacuated.

When the hospital staff finally contacted her, they said her sister had been
moved but they couldn't remember where, and Sharon was forced to call 125
hospitals between New Orleans and Houston, Texas, before she found her.

Sharon surprised the Missouri State crew with a homemade lunch: jambalaya
along with po'boy and cajun shrimp sandwiches.

Marissa LeClaire, associate director of student activities who went with the
students, said the students' work "gave (residents) a sense of moving
forward even if it was a baby step."

For some students, imagining the people who lived in the homes was one way
they passed the time.

"We found valuables but they were still ruined," Knickrehm said. "You tried
to figure out people's lives by what you saw."

Mardi Gras beads were a common find. One house was filled with decorations
for every conceivable holiday. There were expensive homes with swimming
pools and living-room wet bars.

"People there looked like they enjoyed life. You wanted to be able to hang
out with them," LeClaire said.

When some students opened a clothes closet, they found a black cocktail
dress and a military dress uniform and wondered what kind of event the
couple would attend in those clothes.

An old man offered Ettinger his coin collection as payment for the students'
hard work.

"He wanted to give it to us in appreciation for what we had done. He had
such a pain in his face," he said.

Students will carry the looks on the residents' faces, the tears that were
shed, and the sights and smells of the neighborhoods with them for a long
time.

It was hard for the students to say goodbye.

"I felt fulfilled, but I felt like we were pulling out. I didn't want to
leave. I did all I could, but we were leaving so much behind," said Morgan
Vieira, a sophomore.

Franke said a return trip may be planned for Christmas break.

Once home, the students began to realize what they had gone through and what
they had left behind.

Phil Dieke, a religious studies major, said the emotion of the week hit him
when he walked in his apartment.

"I looked around at the things we have and take for granted. It's nothing
compared to what other people have had to go through," he said.

Kristin Kirchoff, a senior majoring in communications, was thinking about
the Katrina victims she had met when she returned to her Springfield
apartment.

"I get to go home to all my things," she said, "and they don't go home to
anything."