New Orleans

so a little while ack i went down to New Orleans. these are my comments/ thoughts about it.:

           On April 26^th, I went down to New Orleans and I got to help rebuild a house. While rebuilding this house I started to realize how things are different down in New Orleans. One of the things I found out is that people down there are actually nice. It was weird at first but after the first day I was used to it. Another thing that was different was the houses. Almost every house that we went by in the area had a red “x” on the doors or the walls. Some of the houses hadn’t even been changed since hurricane Katrina.

            The house we worked on had a lot of termite damage done to the studs, the window frame, and the floor joist. It took us three days to just fix these three problems, and had we stayed longer we would have done much more. However, through what we did do, I was able to learn how to: take out studs one at a time, to sister on new floor joist to the old, which gives more strength. I also learned how to frame a window.

            During our last day down in New Orleans we were given the opportunity to go to the levees that broke. When we arrived at the levees we saw these houses that were new, but definitely seemed out of place. They were the houses that Brad Pitt had paid for. They are designed to float, if there is ever another flood. One would think this a good thing, but this means that they are basically weapons that float and go with the water, and crash into other houses in the path of the flood. Besides these houses, there is nothing else down there, except for grass that has become over grown.

            Overall I had a great time down there, and would love to go back down and help out more. This was a good experience and I learned a lot, and got to see first hand the devastation left behind.