Thomas Kaisen
New Orleans: May Break 2014
During my time at JMU, I had the opportunity to spend a week in New Orleans, Louisiana as part of the Alternative Break Program. JMU has been working with Camp Hope and Project Homecoming in New Orleans since November 2005 after Hurricane Katrina hit in the Golf of Mexico. JMU takes about 50 students and 10 faculty members to New Orleans on a 17-hour bus ride. About 15 stayed in a single room, it was like being in a college dorm all over again. We made our own food, cleaned, and entertained ourselves when we were not working.
To the right are pictures taken during a disaster tour of the Lower Ninth Ward. This was the most devastated region of the city. We had a site leader from Project Homecoming share stories of what happened at different locations in the Lower Ninth. The upper right shows the industrial canal whose wall broke during the storm, giving those behind it only 12 seconds to find safety. To the left is our guide from Project Homecoming pointing to the height the water reached on a home. The lower right shows a home that a family escaped from using an axe to get through the roof.
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Photos by E. Strauss.
Photos by A. Knudson.
Everyone was split into smaller groups and dispersed throughout the Ninth Ward of New Orleans. Each group had their own site to work on for the week. Pictured to the left is my 7-student group. In just a week, we demolished the interior of a house until it was just framework (shown at the top) and painted an entire house (shown at the bottom).