NOLA 1 1/2 Years after Katrina

This was Mrs. Roberta's house that we worked on all week. We put up dry wall, and lots of other little things around the house to help her move back in a little quicker. Mrs. Roberta has lived in this house for 64 years. Her husband built it and she raised her 10 children in the house.

Brittany and I helped ALOT!!!! Well, we tried our best anyway. We were much better at gutting a house than building it.

This house is across the street from the 17th street canal levee break. You can see the water line at the top of the windows. The girls worked on gutting this house one afternoon. The owners of this house just left it because they could not deal with the amount of loss they had suffered. A friend of the original owner bought it from them and is now working on it himself. It was very eye opening to see people's things still in the home. We could tell that it was once a very nice and warm home.

This was one of the most troubling things that I saw while I was there. This house is directly behind where the levee broke in the Lakeview District. The back of the house is completely gone. In this picture you can see the patio furniture and a mound of mud is now in the what was the living room. This house has not been touched since Katrina. All of thier furniture and appliances are still in the house. Thier spices and kitchen utensils are outside of the kitchen window. I have sooo many more pictures but this is just to give you a little idea of the amount of damage that is still there a year and a half later.

This is a house in the 9th ward. It was completely taken off of its foundation and floated next door. We even saw one house that landed on a car. Most of the 9th ward is completely demolished. Most houses have been completely torn down. Some are still holding on to them in the hopes that they can get something for them from the insurance companies or the government. They aren't having much luck with that.