University of Virginia, New Orleans Journals\r\n\r\nFriday, January 13, 2006\r\n\r\nAnna Maria Badyoczek, School of Engineering and Applied \r\n\r\nScience\r\n\r\nI initially took this class not only because of my background in \r\n\r\nstructural engineering and architecture, but also because I \r\n\r\nconsidered taking the spring semester off in order to work and \r\n\r\nhelp rebuild New Orleans. After this week, I can now say that I \r\n\r\nhave a vague notion of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina \r\n\r\nsecondhand - not having witnessed the storm, I began to see \r\n\r\nthe aftermath in a way other than the news had presented it.\r\n\r\nInitially, as I saw the damage to the homes, I immediately \r\n\r\nbegan to think in engineering terms - on how to rebuild them \r\n\r\nstructurally in order to prevent this from happening again. I \r\n\r\nthought back to all my lectures and compiled them in my head, \r\n\r\nforming a rough draft of a structurally resilient home. My \r\n\r\nsecond immediate thought went to my studies in architecture, \r\n\r\nand I thought about how to incorporate design in trying to \r\n\r\npreserve the essence the city had possessed pre-storm. I \r\n\r\nthought back to famous architects and revolutionary ways of \r\n\r\nthinking in design, and I decided that New Orleans was unique; \r\n\r\nthe special circumstances with respect to location, weather, \r\n\r\nand most importantly culture, would demand revolutionary new \r\n\r\ndesigns in order to prevent future disasters. These demands \r\n\r\nprovoked the question of acceptance by the public, and it \r\n\r\nrevealed to me the complexity of this process of rebuilding - not \r\n\r\neveryone is going to agree on how or where to rebuild.\r\n\r\nToday our group traveled to the lower Ninth Ward and resumed \r\n\r\nin gutting houses. Having done it for a couple of days already, \r\n\r\nthe group became cohesive and worked quickly and efficiently. \r\n\r\nAs I worked, it was clear to me that the efficiency of our group \r\n\r\nwas greatly due to the lack of emotion in the work -- most \r\n\r\ndays, I looked at the houses we were gutting and saw no \r\n\r\nreason to even leave the skeleton behind -- it seemed \r\n\r\nworthless, and I thought it would be better to bulldoze the whole \r\n\r\nhouse. The second house we worked on had not been flagged \r\n\r\npreviously, but had been chosen on the spot - we came across \r\n\r\nthree men gutting their family member\'s home, and decided to \r\n\r\nhelp out. Working with someone who was emotionally tied to \r\n\r\nthe place, although the men seemed to have left their emotions \r\n\r\noutside their work, was different than before. It seemed more \r\n\r\nreal when I was joking around and working with one of these \r\n\r\nmen in shoveling a bathroom, and the reality of it all struck me \r\n\r\neven harder with the gratefulness we received.\r\n\r\nBeing exhausted after gutting the houses all morning, I kept \r\n\r\nthinking that this was not my everyday life. After all, tomorrow \r\n\r\nmorning I will be heading home by train, and my small \r\n\r\ncontribution seemed like not enough when I compared it to the \r\n\r\nlife the residents of New Orleans now lead. They do not have a \r\n\r\nhome to go back to where they can sleep in a real bed, take \r\n\r\nlong, warm showers, and lay around watching TV. I can\'t help \r\n\r\nbeing happy to go home, but as I was driving through the \r\n\r\ndevastated neighborhoods for the last time, where the number \r\n\r\nof deaths in each home is spray-painted on the front of each \r\n\r\nhouse, I also feel as though I could have helped more, and that \r\n\r\nI wish I could stay longer. Hopefully the contribution of this \r\n\r\ngroup can supercede the grunt work we did for only a couple of \r\n\r\ndays -- I would hope that other schools can see this class as a \r\n\r\nnew type of learning and incorporate it in their programs; \r\n\r\ntogether, a bigger contribution can be made. All I know is that \r\n\r\nat this moment I feel as though New Orleans has changed me \r\n\r\nmore than I have changed it, and I leave feeling slightly guilty \r\n\r\nbecause of this.\r\n\r\nOriginal URL: \r\n\r\nhttp://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2006/NewOrleansJourn\r\n\r\nal14.html