Marking the 5th Anniversary of Katrina with Accomplishments
The St. Bernard Project is helping community residents like Angel Melerine.
While BP’s runaway oil well in the Gulf of Mexico this year has created widespread hardships among the people of New Orleans and southern Louisiana, nothing has left lasting emotional and physical scars like 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.
In St. Bernard Parish, east of downtown New Orleans, all 27,000 homes in the parish were deemed uninhabitable after Katrina, flooded for days for filthy water four to 20 feet deep. Homes, clothes, furniture, pictures, keepsakes, cars and tools were destroyed.
Zack Rosenburg (L), co-founder and director of the St. Bernard Project, exchanges a friendly fist bump with a fellow worker.
Widespread swaths of St. Bernard Parish and many houses stand empty and ruined even today.
People in the greater New Orleans area and the many who came to help have learned that the road to recovery after such a massive disaster is long, exhaustive and expensive. Many have invented new ways to get results – learning from the lessons of Katrina – because traditional systems are often not fully responsive or effective. Katrina’s aftermath is far from over.
Zack Rosenburg and his partner, Liz McCartney, came to New Orleans shortly after the storm in 2005, looking for a way to help. He was a criminal defense attorney in Washington, D.C.; she a teacher. What they soon realized was the desperate need to get families back in their homes and to get a good roof over their heads.
A volunteer from Washington State works on rebuilding a home in St. Bernard Parish.
Rosenburg and McCartney made a life-changing decision – they gave up their jobs in the nation’s capital, moved permanently to the New Orleans area and founded the St. Bernard Project, a not-for-profit organization focused on rebuilding homes and providing mental health counseling to area residents whose lives were upended by Katrina.
With absolutely no experience in the construction field, they rallied donors, volunteers from around America and sponsors to rebuild homes in about 12 weeks for the low average cost of $20,000 each. Today, AmeriCorps is a major partner, team members from three of their branches: NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps), AmeriCorps State and Vista. These members are the lifeblood of St. Bernard Project; they supervise volunteers, recruit volunteers and deftly handle logistical necessities so that the 200+ volunteers each week have the tools and supplies that they need.
To date, the St. Bernard Project has rebuilt 306 homes in Orleans and St. Bernard Parishes.
Marking the 5th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina slamming into the area – August 29 – the team of the St. Bernard Project is hosting a 50-hour build on two homes, an event that will attract a live telecast by CNN’s Anderson Cooper, a fan of St. Bernard Project. The group will also recruit more than 250 new volunteers to help rebuild 50 homes and host special celebrations for the residents of houses that have been recently finished.
To learn more about the St. Bernard Project, click here.
Category: News
