Beyond the Storm

Day 3 – April 3rd, 2006

Today we spent finishing up mucking out a home in the St Bernard parish in a small community called Meruax. This area was one of the hardest hit as a 12’ storm surge swept into the community in less than 3 minutes according to eye witness reports.

Shortly after we arrived at the home, we noticed a woman next door sitting on the steps of her small FEMA trailer right in front of her home and went to ask her directions. Her name was Penny. We spent a delightful hour-hour ½ talking with her. She took us proudly through her gutted home telling us how she and her husband had mucked out her home shortly after they were allowed to return to the parish, how she had saved many of her family photos but only because she was in the process of decorating a nursery for her soon-to-be grandson. Unfortunately, the items she had purchased (food, gifts, nursery items, etc) for her daughter’s baby shower which was destroyed by the storm surge a week before the event.
Penny is a woman of great strength, family and hope. A witness to the dexterity and perseverance of the people of this area. It was a privilege to listen to her and pray for her and her family.

Mucking out a home (Keith & Debbie Randall) sounds just like it sounds. The 12’ ft storm surge also carried with it 2 feet of muck – a mixure of mud, oil, gas, sewage and other disgusting articles. As this muck traveled through the homes, it carried with it furniture, clothing, toys, pictures, kitchen utensils, books, important documents, essentially your life. While the hurricane actually hit on 8/31/05, some of these homes have not yet been opened up and cleaned.

Going into each house you have to clear away a path from all the house contents which had shifted from room to room, ceiling materials which had fallen from the moisture and other debris that had come in from other homes from the surge.

In order to muck out a home, each one of us had to be fitted with boots, hazmat suits, 3 layers of gloves, googles, respirators and a hard hat almost all duck tapped to our bodies. Key to this cleaning for the volunteers are to keep a barrier between us and the mold with has permeated everything.