Guest Editor: John
Matthew Parry and I took off on 26th of September to help finish off the clean up of Hurricane Gustav. We made it to Houma, Louisiana that afternoon. If you ever want to know how to get there take I-55 south till it runs out and then keep going south. When you see the ocean turn right:
Now we were in the Bayou for sure.
We set up the tent right in the middle of the front yard at the local church.
That evening we found out that the local Bishop was not exactly happy for us being there. His daughter was getting married that Saturday and the reception would be at the building. Matthew and I looked at her and said “Great! We will have refreshments!”. The lady started telling us that they would not be amused and preceded to tell us we were not welcome – ha ha ha imagine that!
The next day we got to our first job, I now know what they mean by “Wealth Distribution”. It means to take your neighbors junk and shove it in your yard. The water where we were at got up about 10-15 feet. Everything was covered with stink and MUD, not just mud but nasty stinky ocean mud.
The Red Cross came by and handed out lunch to us, so we took a break. The only clean place was a boat in the yard so Bishop Mobley recreated ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’.
We finished that job and moved on to a few more. Everything looked the same, MUD MUD MUD!!!
So we hit a house to remove sheetrock from the floor and up 4 feet. 3 weeks of stinky mud and water in a house. At least they had the mud out. We worked that job and as we removed some sheetrock and pulled the insulation out I found a friend:
So I let Mr. Crabs go in the water out front. Oh, then there was the NASTY! Mathew and I decided to go next-door and checkout the grossest thing on earth. 3 weeks of no power and nobody home allowed the freezer to defrost and ROT! The rotting juice ran out and into the floorboards. They needed someone to pull the baseboard and linoleum back. Mathew said, “I have a weak stomach” so I was like “Cool, two for one show – lets go!”
I don’t have a picture but let me tell you it was NASTY!
After that we went back to town and a nice meal at IHOP and off to the cold showers (a tent with 8-10 stalls with a water hose and shower heads). Cold but after all that it felt great. The mosquitoes where bad, so we got some tikki torches and off the bugs went!
The next day we had sacrament meeting in an uncompleted building, during which the local Young Men’s President related a story about the people we were helping. He said that due to being sparsely populated, consequentially with little political pull, and after 3 weeks of waiting while FEMA and local authorities promised, “help was coming” - No one was showing up. He went to the City Council and told them the ”Mormons are coming – be ready”. He was right, 1,400 of us swooped down and took care of business! For most of them we were the first form of help they have yet to see. It felt pretty good beating our own federal government to the punch – but that is not really saying much!
Afterwards we set off to finish a few work orders and head home. After we loaded up with more meals and cleaning kits.
On the way to a destination Matthew and I took a detour and ran into a cool family with a pet raccoon. He said it tasted funny!
Well we pushed mud, moved stuff (couldn't tell what half of it was), ripped out sheetrock, and nailed tarps on top of houses. When we left it still looked like it needed more, but a lot of the people where grateful we came.
Looking north on “Shrimper’s Row”
Looking South
And that is how I spent my weekend in Houma, LA.
*What John failed to mention is that this was his second trip to Louisiana in September! He had gone to Baton Rouge, with Brother Meeker, a couple of weeks before to help clean up. Baton Rouge wasn't as bad as Houma!
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