University of Virginia, New Orleans Journals\r\n\r\nMonday, January 9, 2006\r\n\r\nElizabeth Dykes, School of Engineering and Applied Science\r\n\r\nToday was, needless to say, a very eye-opening first day. After \r\n\r\ncountless hours in Charlottesville learning about New Orleans, \r\n\r\nnothing could have prepared me for what we saw today. You \r\n\r\nsee it in the pictures and it looks horrible, but to stand next to a \r\n\r\nwater line that is above your head is a feeling that I will never \r\n\r\nforget.\r\n\r\nAfter eating breakfast at the school [Xavier Prep], we hopped in \r\n\r\nthe vans and started our drive through the city. Driving past \r\n\r\nhouses where the water line varied from about the middle of the \r\n\r\nfirst floor to the top of the first floor, it really starts to hit home. I \r\n\r\nthink through the entire drive I only saw the water lines and \r\n\r\nbecame fixated on the giant Xs spray painted on the houses \r\n\r\nfrom where the inspectors had checked them. Often times \r\n\r\nyou\'d see in giant letters \"1 DEAD DOG\" or something similar. \r\n\r\nLuckily, we didn\'t pass by any houses where the bottom \r\n\r\nnumber, which represents the number of bodies found, was \r\n\r\nanything other than zero. Seeing houses that ranged from \r\n\r\nfixable to ones literally removed from their foundations and \r\n\r\nsmashed into the house next door gave me a feeling that no \r\n\r\nnumber of pictures could ever do. It was really shocking.\r\n\r\nWe then ended up in the Ninth Ward around 2 p.m. to start \r\n\r\nhelping. I was helping an elderly couple, which, I believe, had \r\n\r\nreturned that morning and just started cleaning out their house. \r\n\r\nI was mainly in the kitchen helping the woman clean out her \r\n\r\ncabinets after the refrigerator and stove were removed. Let me \r\n\r\ntell you, if you have never smelled five-month old food that has \r\n\r\nbeen soaked in the flooding and then stored in New Orleans \r\n\r\nheat, there are no words that I can use to describe this. And, to \r\n\r\nmake matters a little worse, even after the refrigerator was \r\n\r\nremoved, the juices that leaked out still covered the floor and \r\n\r\nmany of the things that had to be taken out. We were told to \r\n\r\ntrash everything, and, as we put her china into one of the \r\n\r\nwheelbarrows, it was said by someone that if it wasn\'t broken \r\n\r\nwe should save it. It was then that I realized that we were \r\n\r\nliterally taking this couple\'s whole life and dumping it on the \r\n\r\nstreet for FEMA to come and pick up. Of course, you\'d want to \r\n\r\nsalvage anything if possible -- it was all they had left! The \r\n\r\nglasses that were in the cabinets above her sink had water in \r\n\r\nthem from the flooding and as we were dumping the water out \r\n\r\nand putting them in what was left of her pans, she started telling \r\n\r\nme stories, little by little. After a few hours, I learned that she \r\n\r\nand her husband were married in 1950 and moved into this \r\n\r\nhouse. They were in New Orleans for Betsy and got water only \r\n\r\nup to about the middle of the cabinets on the ground. She said \r\n\r\nshe didn\'t understand how the water got into the cups on the top \r\n\r\nshelves. I wasn\'t quite sure how to respond to all of this, so I \r\n\r\nbasically just attempted to retain a sense of normalcy about the \r\n\r\nwhole thing. She was telling me of parties that they would have \r\n\r\n(I assume taking down the cups reminded her) and how \"oh \r\n\r\nboy did they ate!\" I couldn\'t help but chuckle at this, because if \r\n\r\nI know one thing about New Orleans, I know that they take their \r\n\r\nfood pretty seriously. She sort of laughed and said she had \r\n\r\nway too many glasses and that she probably didn\'t have much \r\n\r\nuse for them. However, I assured her that I saw a few parties in \r\n\r\nher future. Again she laughed.\r\n\r\nIn the midst of all the destruction, two things about today stick \r\n\r\nout in my mind and, not surprisingly, both of them come from \r\n\r\nmaybe two hours with this elderly woman. At one point, as we \r\n\r\nwere working to keep the glasses from falling out of the \r\n\r\ncabinets as we opened them, she turned to me and said, \"You \r\n\r\nknow, it really is a blessing. It really is.\" The second thing was, \r\n\r\nas we were leaving she said how she wished she had some \r\n\r\ncold soft drinks to give us and how she felt bad. She said she\'d \r\n\r\nbuy some for tomorrow. I, of course, assured her that we are \r\n\r\nwell taken care of and that we really appreciate the offering. I \r\n\r\nwas so touched to hear her say both of things. This woman \r\n\r\nattempted to offer us something when literally, almost every \r\n\r\nsingle one of her belongings was destroyed. She was, to me, in \r\n\r\nno place to give and yet there she was. It truly makes you take \r\n\r\na good look at yourself and where your values lie. I know that I \r\n\r\nwill be forever changed as a result of not only today but also \r\n\r\nwhat lies ahead in the next days. After such a moving first day, \r\n\r\nI am looking forward to the opportunity to provide more \r\n\r\nassistance to people who desperately need the help.\r\n\r\n Original URL: \r\n\r\nhttp://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2006/NewOrleansJourn\r\n\r\nal03.html