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So this is what the coyote girls do on spring break. |
(It's a joke. A joke!!!!)
Posted on 03/21/2006 10:45:53 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
A group of Madison Area Technical College students had been working in New Orleans for several days and they were getting tired of eating frozen sandwiches.
A man was nice enough to offer them barbecue. So the students returned the favor: They picked up their tools and gutted his house.
"That's the economy they're working in now. It's very unofficial. You do favors for each other," said Allie Berenyi, an MATC construction and remodeling instructor, who served as an adviser on the trip.
The delegation, made up of 47 students and three advisers, was one of several from Madison to spend their spring break in the flood-ravaged Crescent City. Two buses chartered by WISPIRG brought down just over 100 local college students. Smaller delegations also went from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Edgewood College.
They went with the mission of tearing down houses from the inside, pulling out the drywall, cabinets, rugs and insulation, as well as furniture. Some homeowners will be able to salvage the wood framing and, at some point, rebuild.
The houses were ruined, of course, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in late August, when the levees broke and water flooded the city. Students recalled seeing waterlines within an inch of the ceiling in the homes they gutted.
Although the water has receded, many houses were still soaking, the students said. The WISPIRG group worked in an area that had suffered an oil spill, so the mud was thicker, said Courtney Davis, one of the organizers of the trip.
During the first few days, they pulled everything out, trying to salvage whatever memorabilia they could find. "Mostly, we just made a pile of everything," she said. Backhoes would come every day to clear away the piles, she said.
Davis said her group got a taste of the confusion and communication problems that plagued New Orleans in the days around the hurricane. Her group had traveled 16 hours and, upon arriving, found out that the tent city was not ready to receive them. They drove around the city for an additional seven hours, she said.
Volunteer groups later squandered much of their time because they were disorganized, Davis said.
One the hardest moments came after the group was finally tearing down houses, Davis said. A woman broke her elbow and left the work site at noon. By 8 p.m., she still hadn't seen a doctor. The injured woman had to be flown back to Madison for emergency surgery.
A student who needed help flushing insulation out of his eye was told he would only be seen if he was bleeding or unconscious, she said.
Still, Davis said it was worthwhile going down there, despite the setbacks. Someone had to get into those houses, many of which had not been touched since the hurricane, and take care of business.
"All their belongings were strewn everywhere, caked together in mud. There was rotting food that had fallen out of the refrigerator. It was one big mess that used to be a house," Davis said.
Berenyi marveled at "the surreal occasion of finding the dishes are still in the dishwasher, the clothes are still in the washing machine. It's like some peoples' lives were just interrupted."
There was mold from floor to ceiling, she said.
Dwayne Myal, who went down with the UW group, said in an e-mail that it was frustrating seeing entire neighborhoods that were destroyed, looking very much the same as they did six months ago.
"This past spring break was an opportunity for me to do something that our government is not doing enough of: act," Myal said. "Although a beach somewhere and crazy nights out would have been nice, I only wish that even more college students had the opportunity to do what we did and feel what we felt."
Myal said, from his experience, the volunteer efforts were generally well-organized.
Berenyi said she was proud of the MATC students, who gutted 10 houses. She said so much more needs to be done in New Orleans and encouraged other people to spend a week of their time there.
"It's hard to feel like you've made a dent at all," Berenyi said. "Ten houses, but there's tens of thousands of others."
Darned students! Spring break comes and all they want to do is party and take their clothes off.
Oh, wait....this is a different bunch of students.
Seriously, students from all over the United States spent their spring breaks helping out like this. We should cheer their efforts.
Indeed. Hopefully they'll all learn you can't depend on gov't, you have to be gov't. People solve problems, not beauracy.
I saw where one group found $30,000 in the walls of a house they were tearing down....and yes, they turned it in to the family that owned the house.
The free market in action! Barbeque for demolition. Fine example of private effectiveness vs. public ineffectiveness. Good for those kids.
Where are the people who had lived in these houses? Are they helping out? Are they homeowners or renters? I know for sure that if my house was hit, I'd be there myself and not wait for the gubernment or college students to do the work. I'd accept help, but I'd have made progress on my own and not sit on my fanny waiting for handouts.
"The WISPIRG group worked in an area that had suffered an oil spill, so the mud was thicker,"
um ... no.
Nice environmentally-conscious BS.
New Orleans sinks further into the black hole of obscurity. The MSM beats up the Feds and GW Bush, when the real morons are Mayor Ray Nagin, the Congressional Black Caucus and the moron Governor Kathleen Blanco, idiots all!!! Why no shouting and screaming from the rest of America. Because, silly, Americans get it. The people of New Orleans and Louisiana have shot themselves in the foot, and all the spinning from the MSM ain't gonna change change things. Until the good folks of LA wake and destroy the current Black leadership of NOLA, NOLA is not going anywhere. Wake up, fools!!!! Down with Blanco, the CBC and Ray Nagin. Then good things will start happening.
I visited the entire area a couple weeks ago. All the cleanup delays seem to involve private assets. The repair and rebuild is progressing, but they had to repair the hotels, motels and apartment complexes first, because there is absolutely no place for contractors to stay while they work.
Meanwhile the rental tenants complain the the government is not fixing property that they don't even own.
It is a mess, but a man made one.
Thousands and thousands of blue tarps were put on peoples private property to protect it from the rain, and the owners have allowed the tarps to deteriorate. It's as if they wanted the rain to total their property while they wait for contractors who cannot come because of the total lack of available places to stay.
It's a disaster alright, but not one that the federal government made. The sheer size and scope of the damage could easily swallow up a 100,000 roofing contractors and it would still look like nothing was being done. They can't go because there is NO place to even park a temporary trailer. They won't let you set up on roadsides. I saw telephone contractors sleeping in their trucks.
Just my observations while traveling through Mississippi and South Louisiana a couple weeks back. It's a mess alright.
Our Church sent two crews recently to south MS to to repair and rebuild work. THEY phoned ahead, get a realistic idea of the situation, brought what they needed, did the work, slept well, ate OK, worked hard and came home.
Good intentions + common sense planning = REAL help delivered.
I live in Metaire, adjacent to New Orleans. No doubt the majority of whiners are the liberals voting block. There is (was) a subclass kept down by Liberal policies. That being said, there are many hardworking conservative people in and around New Orleans. The devastation is beyond comprehension. You really need to see it first hand to understand the magnitude of the problem. Almost everyone I know, relatives and friends are struggling to recover. Some lost everything, some just a few feet of water. For many their place of work was destroyed. Where I worked in East New Orleans was destroyed by winds and flooding. It has been a horrible mess trying to revive the business, move it, deal with half the employees not returning. Everything is compounded beyond belief. Since the storm, I dare say, I had about 3 days where I did nothing. We work late, and weekends and many evenings of spent gutting houses, fixing roofs, helping to piece back things so we can feel normal. It isn't easy. So many elderly are bearing the brunt of this added stress. I can't tell you how many people (me included) who have parents that have gone downhill in health. So while there is a segment of citizenry that are products of Liberal socialist policies, I would say a majority us here are hard working conservative people who just want too feel normal again. We are so grateful for anyone who can volunteer their help. The scope of this is amazing. You can drive two hours east and see nothing but destruction and lives in disarray.
Imagine! People actually helping each other, and the government isn't involved! Unbelieveable! I didn't think people could do anything without the government telling them what to do.
just a quick note about the tarps. Many people I know here in the disaster area can't understand "why" it is the Feds responsibility to tarps peoples roofs. It isn't proper in a free society. I wanted to say the tarp is made of material that doesn't last long. Another feel good act by supposedly well intended bureaucrats that is for the most part useless. The Shaw group got the mother load of contracts and it is headed by the ex head of the demo party in Louisiana (and he is a friend of Blanco's husband). The demo party is the major reason this state is so screwed up. I pray it changes.
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So this is what the coyote girls do on spring break. |
(It's a joke. A joke!!!!)
"We are so grateful for anyone who can volunteer their help. The scope of this is amazing. You can drive two hours east and see nothing but destruction and lives in disarray."
Indeed, and kudos to everyone who has gone down there on a volunteer basis to help any way they can.
There is, however, a group of posters here on Free Republic who take some strange pleasure in making the assumption that everyone in that part of the country is on welfare, is underserving of any assistance, and should be grateful that America even noticed that something happened.
There are ugly stories coming out of this disaster, for sure, and New Orleans and its surrounding communities have their share of criminals and other riff raff. But...that does not justify denigrating the entire population of the area, nor does it justify withholding of aid for those who need it.
I am sometimes disgusted by what I read on Free Republic.
I don't understand home OWNERS who haven't even been back to SEE their property, much less work on it, since August 29th. There are MANY homes that haven't been touched. Those who have the financial means to travel back and forth from a ruined city to where they have evacuated, have.
The problem is, just because you OWN a home doesn't mean you have the $$ to leave, say Atlanta, and return to N.O. to deal with your property. There is NO place to live. You also have to realize that N.O. was a very provincial city. Many people had their entire families here, and no relatives living elsewhere; so extended family members aren't in any better position to help.
Then there are the renters- who comprised about half of the city. These were people who might have had some savings, but many lived paycheck to paycheck. Evacuation cost $$, living where they landed cost $$. They just don't have the financial ability to come back, or the interest if everything their rental home contained is black and moldy. Even then- wanting to return is impossible if there is NO place to live.
The Thing wiped out many people financially. They find themselves in other states with property here that has been ruined. It's taking all they have to live where they are, and the fate of property here is in limbo.
Ask yourself what you would do if your home was destroyed, along with your place of employment, and you are a thousand miles away with whatever you took with you. What if you couldn't afford to return, your insurance company wouldn't pay for your loss, and the city government can't assure you of the safety of your property if you wanted to repair it?
Also- those who ARE returning to clean out or repair their homes are finding their work undone. Looters are taking tools, light fixtures, even copper piping. So you drive in for the weekend to try to fix your home and come back the next weekend to find looters have taken what you have left, and what you have repaired. How disheartening is that?
I found a lot of private property that was under repair, and I also found many private businesses that had reopened. However, many were not due to lack of insurance and money to do the job at hand, whether it was debris removal or remodeling. But the government cannot be expected to do that, which was my point.
In New Orleans the story is as I described. I spoke with some locals who asked me if I was down there to fix their homes, I then asked if they owned the home and they said no. They then started into a long rant about how the government was ignoring them. I asked where the owner was, they said they had not seen him and it did not make any difference who owned the property.
This is the sort of thing they are dealing with there, and it pitiful.
I saw every possible dry spot of ground in use by people sleeping in homemade lean-to's and tents. They were offered shelter by the government but turned it down to be closer to their neighborhoods and or property.
My assessment is that it will be a number of years before all existing salvageable structures can be repaired, and the others leveled and cleared away.....Years....
My off the cuff estimate was that there were only about ten percent of the structures that were salvageable in the areas I looked at.
The problem is just so massive that it will surely take 2-3 years at best and another two years to replace all the totaled homes as money, labor and materials come together, in addition to the infrastructure needed to support a large contracting workforce.
Also, much of the labor crews were Mexicans. The equipment rental places were loaded with rental equipment and it appeared to me to be largely unused do to lack of people to do the work. This is largely due to a lack of places to put them up. This is why Mississippi is moving along much faster.
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