Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Dan's 2nd Trip
This will be rather short. In early November I returned to the area. I had two goals in mind. The first was to make further contact with the volunteer fire and EMS personnel of east Cameron Parish and supply them with clothing. My second goal was to work on cleaning up my own hurricane ravaged home.
I will start with my own property. I was lucky enough to have a nephew who had recently returned from two tours of duty in Iraq. Tray was looking to start up his own handyman business. It was perfect timing. I needed help in a bad way. My house had filled with over six feet of water during hurricane Rita. The water had left the house after the flood, but it left behind over two inches of mud. There were other problems as well. The house was almost off of its foundation.
We decided to start on the adjoining garage. It was a much smaller project. One-half of the roof had been blown off off by the storm and the "outdoor kitchen" portion of the building was torn up by the wind and water. There was also the everpresent mud problem.
For the first few days Tray and I gutted the garage/kitchen. We started by ripping out the cabinets, range, sink, and dishwasher. I found some five gallon buckets around the place and started to fill them with a mixture of mud and insulation. We filled up the truck and drove the half mile to the main road, where we dumped about twenty loads of trash before the place was clean enough to work. We worked from about 7:30 AM til' 5. After that I stopped by Lowe's and resupplied for the next day (it was a two hour trip to the hardware store).
In the end of two weeks we had completely rebuilt the garage and outdoor kitchen. All we needed were cabinets, appliances and new furniture.
For my other project I started with several phone calls. Cameron Parish was closed to outsiders so it was dificult to get in. I met with a volunteer who had made the effort to contact other volunteers who had lost their homes (to hurricane Rita) and collect their clothing sizes. We still had a few thousand dollars to spend. I wanted to at buy them warm (safe, water resistant and reflective) coats for the winter. As I write this that project is in the works. We are going to get them
I will start with my own property. I was lucky enough to have a nephew who had recently returned from two tours of duty in Iraq. Tray was looking to start up his own handyman business. It was perfect timing. I needed help in a bad way. My house had filled with over six feet of water during hurricane Rita. The water had left the house after the flood, but it left behind over two inches of mud. There were other problems as well. The house was almost off of its foundation.
We decided to start on the adjoining garage. It was a much smaller project. One-half of the roof had been blown off off by the storm and the "outdoor kitchen" portion of the building was torn up by the wind and water. There was also the everpresent mud problem.
For the first few days Tray and I gutted the garage/kitchen. We started by ripping out the cabinets, range, sink, and dishwasher. I found some five gallon buckets around the place and started to fill them with a mixture of mud and insulation. We filled up the truck and drove the half mile to the main road, where we dumped about twenty loads of trash before the place was clean enough to work. We worked from about 7:30 AM til' 5. After that I stopped by Lowe's and resupplied for the next day (it was a two hour trip to the hardware store).
In the end of two weeks we had completely rebuilt the garage and outdoor kitchen. All we needed were cabinets, appliances and new furniture.
For my other project I started with several phone calls. Cameron Parish was closed to outsiders so it was dificult to get in. I met with a volunteer who had made the effort to contact other volunteers who had lost their homes (to hurricane Rita) and collect their clothing sizes. We still had a few thousand dollars to spend. I wanted to at buy them warm (safe, water resistant and reflective) coats for the winter. As I write this that project is in the works. We are going to get them
posted by nevadadan | 7:43 PM
