NAVIGATION BAR
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IOCC's "Volunteer in the Gulf Coast"
April 29 - May 5, Jim and Brenda Nelson
Photo Journal, Page 1
We spent a week in Mandeville, Louisiana, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain, helping
to build Habitat for Humanity houses. We volunteered with International Orthodox Christian
Charities (IOCC), who has partnered with the St. Tammany West Affiliate of Habitat for Humanity.
This photo journal is designed to be a photo suplement to the journal.
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| Jim and Brenda Nelson in their dorm room. |
The IOCC team: Jeff, Jim, Brenda, Penny, and Pascallis, the IOCC staff coordinator. |
On Monday we toured the destruction in New Orleans. We went to St. Bernard Ave, on the north
side of New Orleans, near Lake Pontchartrain, both the Lower and Upper Ninth Ward, and finally
visited the French Quarter. Pascallis told us that it's important to see the destruction first
hand to get a sense of its vastness, but it's just as important to support the tourist industry
and help New Orleans get back on its feet financially.
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| This is the iconostasis at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church on St. Bernard Ave in New
Orleans. Just prior to the hurricane they installed a new marble floor underneath the
altar. |
The new floor (circled) was installed on top of the old one and raised everything an
inch. At the peak of the flood, the water came to the bottom of the new floor. Without the
floor the altar and other furniturewould have been ruined, but the new floor saved the
furniture. |
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| This is a house on St. Bernard Ave. that is waiting to be refurbished. That is a
FEMA trailer out front. This scene (like many) turns grisly when you look closely. |
This is a close-up of the writing on the wall: This house was inspected by the 6th New
Jersey National Guard Unit on Sep 25 (9/25). The only body they found was a dead dog. |
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| This is a house that some Presbyterian volunteers are gutting. They still had a lot of
garbage to remove from inside the house. |
Musician's Village is a Habitat for Humanity housing development funded by Brandford
Marsalis and Harry Conick, Jr. It is in the 9th Ward. |
The Lower 9th Ward is sort of like Ground Zero for the New Orleans disaster. This is where
the levee broke. The water gushing through the breech washed away a whole neighborhood. Pascallis
has been in war torn regions around the world, including the West Bank, the former Soviet Republics,
and Africa. He says he has never seen such total destruction anywhere else that he has been.
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| The Lower 9th Ward razed by flood waters. The levee can be seen to the far left. |
A picture of the levee. The water level in the canal is well above our heads. |
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| This is St Timothy United Methodist Church East Campus. It is where we stayed
while in St. Tammany Parish. |
NAVIGATION BAR
- Written Journal - Page 1 -
Page 2 - Page 3 -