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Friday August 26, 2016
Bald Eagle Drive, Lafayette, LA
9:00 AM
A pastor opens meeting with a prayer asking the Almighty help us to find those in need and give us energy to do today’s work. The prayers are one part Jesus and three parts encouragement, statistics that show what a difference we're making, and at least one anecdote that brings it all home.
Pastor Jacob Aranza brightens our spirits (already pretty high in my opinion); he reports that last week we did 25 houses...as of this morning we’ve done 42!...calls us heroes, says it is likely that we are the only organization that is giving direct relief to so many people right now.
PT from Boston gets a shout out...Ken Myers, one of the prime movers of the Our Savior's Church recovery effort says, "I walked in here this morning and one of my favorite teams is the Boston Red Sox because I played semi-pro baseball up there. I introduced myself to a guy with a Boston Red Sox hat, he says I’m PT from Boston. I say I used to live in Wareham, MA, what are you doing down here? He says I came down here once, fell in love with the people and when I saw what happened I had to come down and help…You hear in church about the five gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John… and you!"
"I guess you could call me St Paul now!” says I, a lovely moment which I savored.
Crew chief Rob Babineaux talks over today's work with Bryan Rhinehart
Our Savior's Church is organized...all we have to do is show up ready to work...everything we need to get the job of mucking out flooded homes. The equipment is here. We've got the spirit pitch in and make a bunch of people's lives brighter.
Rob reviews today's assignment with the crew. Really specific details are printed on our work sheets, name of owner, address, jobs to be done, equipment needed, likely obstacles to deal with, length of time estimated for the job.
This house is a bear to clean up. Looking at it from outside, you wouldn't know it had taken on several inches of water since it is quite elevated from the road and there are no streams or creeks or rivers nearby. The drainage ditches that run along Bald Eagle Drive and every house in Lafayette were overwhelmed with a surge of water that started in Denham Springs from the north and like an enormous tsunami rolled into neighboring parishes.
Stealth mold: at casual glance, house looks intact. Close inspection shows that standing water inside for a period of days meant that anything that had been soaked had to be removed.
Sheetrock and insulation, all of it; time for lunch.
Homeowner and mom; crew before we leave first house on Breton Road in Lafayette.
The garage was holding area for salvageable items: when a moisture meter detected water behind this kitchen cabinet it had to be removed, a task that took several hours.
same thing in the bathroom...
and a bedroom...
and parts of the garage...
determining the most efficient way to remove kitchen cabinets took most of the day
so the cabinets are now piled in the street
and the debris needs to be cleaned up
standard procedure: cut away sheetrock at the 4 foot seams and remove insulation if its an outer wall
Fast effective method to remove wet sheetrock...
There's satisfaction of getting the job done but still...it's such a huge stress on everyone in Lafayette and the parishes surrounding it.
Many say there were plans to mitigate such flooding. Cities and towns got the message now. One hopes that late is better than normal. Deep down, everyone wonders if this is the new normal.
Photos and videos by Paul A. Tamburello, Jr.
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