It’s been nearly eight years since Hurricane Katrina washed away large swaths of New Orleans, La., but many homeowners are still trying to get back to normal.
Though the world’s attention was fixated on the city in 2005, in the years that followed the spotlight shifted elsewhere. But for Ashley Hartman, a sophomore studying communication sciences and disorders at The College of St. Rose, out of sight does not necessarily mean out of mind.
“People are still living there. They’re determined to live where they grew up. Some of the houses when you would drive by were completely gone … we saw a staircase leading up to nothing,” she said.
Hartman, a Colonie Central High School graduate, spent her entire spring break from March 3 through 9 with a group of 13 other students from St. Rose helping to rebuild damaged homes in New Orleans. The group volunteered with lowernine.org, an organization dedicated to training volunteers to help fix up the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, one of the most impacted areas of the city. A group of St. Rose students have traveled down to Louisiana each year since the hurricane hit.
The students worked from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day and were split into groups to work on several homes. Hartman said her group worked on one side of a woman’s duplex. The other side of the home needed to be torn down because it contained “Chinese drywall” – a faulty drywall distributed after the hurricane hit that contained toxic materials.
Hartman’s group cleaned out the duplex and repainted it orange upon the owner’s request.
“She walked into the room when it was almost finished and her face lit up. The color brightened her day,” Hartman said. “I think that’s when it hit us. Just the smallest thing – the color of paint – could make someone’s day like that.”
The students stayed at Camp Restore, a “home away from home” for volunteers helping in the Ninth Ward. They were also able to explore New Orleans, visiting where the levy broke during the hurricane, seeing the Hurricane Katrina memorial and meeting the mayor.
Talking to the people of New Orleans turned out to be the most inspiring experience for Hartman, though. She said one worker from lowernine.org had lost everything in the hurricane but was determined to help others rebuild their homes. She said she has already started talking to other students from the trip to raise money to rebuild the man’s home, since he is living in a tiny trailer at the moment. Yet Hartman said she thinks he’ll still use the money to keep helping others, instead.
“The people down there are the strongest people you could ever meet,” she said. “They have every right to be upset and discouraged, not knowing what to do. Especially after eight years of not getting the help they should receive. They’re just so strong, so happy.”
The St. Rose group wasn’t able to finish their projects in the short week they were there, but Hartman said she hopes the homes they worked on get completed.
Laura Paul, executive director of lowernine.org, said several groups finish the projects over the course of four or five months. Since officially starting the organization in 2008, lowernine.org has rebuilt more than 60 homes and worked on hundreds of smaller projects. Since the hurricane hit, 30 percent of the homes in the Ninth Ward have been reconstructed.
“The people who we’re dealing with now … they really have no other options. These people didn’t get a lot of breaks,” Paul said. “It’s a really great service to the community.”
Only days after returning to New York, Hartman said she’s already thinking about going back to New Orleans.
“It’s weird not waking up there. I can’t even put into words what it was like. It was just very touching,” she said. “It made me think that I want to do something like this for the rest of my life.”
After seeing how much work still needs to be done in the Ninth Ward, Hartman said she hopes others will find their way down there and volunteer. Hartman said she also wants to try to find more organizations around the Capital District to help out her local community.
“It’s very sad … they need so much help,” she said. “That one extra hand can be more than anything to them. That one swipe of paint, or taking that one board out for them, it’s so touching to them. I think that’s what made it such an amazing experience.”