Twenty-four of us spent a week rebuilding a home in New Orleans. The owner, Verna Mae Martin, stands in the center in a red shirt. She has lived in this neighborhood all her life and wishes to stay here.
An elementary school in New Orleans is boarded shut, with no indication of ever re-opening. Very few of the original neighborhood residents have returned to the area, so schools and stores are still closed, too.
Many of the low-income neighborhoods in New Orleans are still in bad shape. About 90% of the houses are abandoned and there are still a lot of trash piles all over.
It rained heavily on Monday in New Orleans. The newspaper said they got 8 inches of rain in one day. The brand new city water pumps could not keep up with the rainwater, so many of the streets flooded. The residents were a little uneasy…no doubt.