Spring break travels: Student says New Orleans relief effort not forgotten

Erica Terrini

News Editor

Each house is marked with an “x” in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, Louisiana. The marking’s four quadrants are used to specify the last date the house was searched, which organization it was searched by, the number of human deaths and the number of animal deaths.

Images of the remnants and wreckage still left over from Hurricane Katrina were described as devastating by Eric James Hallal, a sophomore elementary education major and Inter-fraternity Council vice president for public relations. Hallal traveled to New Orleans with his fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, last week for the fraternity’s first annual alternative spring break trip. He is the eminent treasurer for SAE.

Hallal said he and eleven other SAE members want people to know about the conditions “in our own backyard.”

The Commonwealth Times: What motivated SAE to travel to New Orleans and assist the ongoing relief effort?

Eric Hallal: We had decided to do this a few months back so some of our families donated some money to our trip. A lot of our parents donated food for the trip down there. Most of us paid out of pocket. We decided that New Orleans would probably be the best area because we had seen a lot of pictures that (New Orleans) was still devastated in most of the areas.

The CT: Why did you decide to volunteer through the Camp Restore organization?

Hallal: We looked online to look up New Orleans volunteer opportunities and we found this place called Camp Restore, which is a Lutheran restoration camp in New Orleans. They put you at projects everyday to help restore New Orleans. It was hard to find a place that we really wanted. As college students, we don’t have as many funds as we would like so we found that this place was only $175.

The CT: What types of projects did you and the other SAE members do?

Hallal: The first day, half of our group was at a New Orleans mission building replanting around the building. The other half of the group, what I was in, we went to a local elementary school and helped mentor young kids. Then the second, third and fourth day, we actually worked on a home in the Lower Ninth Ward, which was the most devastated area that was hit. This whole neighborhood, just like most of New Orleans, was under 12 to 20 feet of water. We helped scrape houses for painting, we put up sheetrock in a house, we painted a house … in the Lower Ninth Ward.

The CT: What is the significance of the projects and of the relief efforts?

Hallal: The significance of that, which is the most heart-wrenching to me and most of the group, is that 80 percent of the houses are still completely boarded up—not been touched since the storm. They’re all just sitting there because the federal government, the city of New Orleans, the citizens—they don’t have the money. So, they’re just waiting for groups like us to come down and volunteer with these nonprofits to help rebuild New Orleans and it was devastating.

The CT: Can you describe some of the conditions of the area?

Hallal: On each of the houses they have these “x’s” and it says the date it was searched, the organization it was searched by (like the Department of Homeland Security, Marines … ) and then there’s a lower-right quadrant which is how many deaths of humans and the bottom is how many deaths of animals. So you can just drive by, up and down, the Lower Ninth Ward and the St. Bernard Parish, which are the most devastated areas and you would see these “x’s” everywhere. Even the schools haven’t even been touched. We passed one school that on their marquee it says, “Register new students by August 15, 2005” and that was right before the storm. So the school hasn’t been touched because the funding is not there.

The CT: What other experiences affected you and the SAE members?

Hallal: (The condition of the area) was probably one of the most heart-wrenching things and also to hear the stories of these people like: the water rose and rose and rose so they had to stay on their roofs and a lot of these people didn’t know if they were going to survive.

The CT: Are there any specific stories that impacted you?

Hallal: There were stories of a lady that worked at the camp. She’s one of the managers at the camp, and she said in her neighborhood there would be people on their roofs. They would see alligators and snakes go by. The last day we worked at a local battlefield. This was another area that there was 12 to 20 feet of water in. So we went in and we pulled out all this stuff that had swept through (during) the storm on the battlefield. The park ranger had actually stayed (during the storm) and he said the people that were searching his neighborhood couldn’t get to them. So he actually had 14 people, his neighbors, actually staying in his house because his house was only under 7 feet of water. So his second floor was available. Because of the snakes and alligators swimming around, he actually had to bleach all of his windows and the entrances, the stairs—everything that was dry he had to bleach because that actually turns away animals. That was pretty mind boggling, like, how did someone deal with this? They didn’t get picked up by search and rescue until four days later so they had to stay like this for four days and he had 10 people in a room probably the size of (a smaller classroom).

The CT: How did residents react to the volunteers?

Hallal: We spent our whole week down there, it was in the mid-upper 80s. We all got sunburned but it was really worthwhile because you just take for granted what you have in Richmond. You have it nice here – you really do. You go down there and you see how devastated people are. They’re so gracious to have you down there helping, they’re so excited and I really would hope more people will make an effort to go down there and help them out because they need it.

The CT: Do you think people are aware of the conditions in New Orleans?

Hallal: I definitely think a lot of people forgot about it, but the place we stayed at they have a big map of where each group has come from to help volunteer. All 50 states, Canada and countries over the world—people are still coming. People still know about it but I feel that there are instances right now that people are more worried about and want to help but New Orleans is just as bad and that’s in our own backyard. I’m not saying that people completely forgot about it, like while we were there three other college groups from Connecticut and a (group) from Wisconsin and just different places, so you know people are thinking about it. But as the general U.S. population, they are probably more considered with the aid to Haiti, of Chile and maybe Southern California. But (New Orleans residents) still need help.

The CT: What is the damage and when can residents expect restoration?

Hallal: These people cannot live in their homes. There’s 50,000 people that still live in FEMA trailers down there and it’s been five years. The restoration for New Orleans won’t be finished till close to 2020 – 15 years later is how long it’s going to take. That’s on the low end, it might be close to 2025. These people lost everything. It’s about them getting back on their feet, getting jobs, getting help from people like you and I.

The CT: Does SAE plan to return to New Orleans next year?

Hallal: They still need help … houses, businesses, whole communities are still boarded up. I know next year, if we go back, we’re definitely going to do some big fundraisers so we can actually donate to the families when we’re down there. It was tough to leave – you wanted to stay around. If we could have, we probably would have stayed a few more weeks because there was just so much left to do. In the week we were there we did a lot and it was just hard, I think, on all of us to not be able to do more because of the time constraint. That’s why we’re ready to start planning to go back next year. Some people are intimate about going that didn’t get to go this year. We’re hoping to spread it around to try to get other organizations to go with us.