Earlier this month, we returned to St. Bernard Parish in Louisiana with 28 others from our church to help the St. Bernard Project. Our group was split up to work on four homes in the towns of Violet, Meraux, and Chalmette to mud and sand the walls and get them ready for texturing and painting. These communities were flooded by up to 15 feet of water when Katrina-generated waves breached the surrounding levees on August 29, 2005.My team was assigned to the home of "Chalmettian" Ms. Karen, a former cop on disability from an aneurysm that struck her a few days before The Storm. When Katrina roared through town, despite her impairment, Ms. Karen joined her husband and son in rescuing countless neighbors from drowning by shuttling them by boat to the 2nd floor of a nearby school when floodwaters rushed down their streets. I still can't -- and don't really want to -- shake the stories that she shared with us while sitting on the aluminum steps of her trailer, where she still lives with her family adjacent to her house. Horrifying and sobering stories of the utter chaos and ugliness of human nature during a major time of crisis, and heart-warming stories of neighbors who reached out with a helping hand when no one else would.
I've certainly grown and matured -- and been jaded by -- our hurricane recovery trips these past couple of years. The memories I cherish most are from enriching interactions with the locals and long-term volunteers. Brave, resilient, gracious, inspiring, heroes. That's how I will always remember them.
