The sheer number of the dead confronted Sean Backe (SFS ‘08) on the first day of his spring break trip. Driving through New Orleans, Backe witnessed “x” after “x” marked in paint onto the outside of what was left of people’s homes. Each “x,” Bache said, was left by the Coast Guard to indicate how many dead had been found inside the building.
“A few of the other guys saw houses with no “x”s, but as for me, I didn’t see one. This utter, never-ending death was constantly in front of me,” Backe said.
Backe did not travel alone. Over spring break, 11 Georgetown students from the Knights of Columbus traveled the 1100 miles from D.C. to the Big Easy. According to Darwin Young (NHS ‘08), the Georgetown Knights’ president, the Knights spent six days clearing out gutted houses and council halls, tearing down everything inside except for structural supports.
The lower half of their faces covered by donated masks, the students rummaged through the remains of the homeowners’ lives, most of which were now either tattered or destroyed, some covered completely in mold. Cleaning out the home of one resident, Young said he came across a flag which had been given to the homeowner at the funeral of his father.
Sometimes the homeowners would be overwhelmed, as they watched the remnants be placed in a pile to be carted away, Young said. One day, when the Knights were tossing some such items onto the curb, he said he saw the homeowner, who was working with them, sit down on the curb looking like he was about to weep.
“I realized that to us it’s all broken stuff, but to him, it’s his whole life—everything he had materially built up—and it was just being thrown out. I can’t imagine how hard that was for him, to just see it all thrown out,” Young said.
Though the people of the area are remarkably resilient, Backe said, rebuilding has not even begun.
“They aren’t ready to rebuild. They haven’t even been able to clean up yet,” Backe said.
A man who worked in shipping, who exported barrels of rubble everyday, told Backe he expected the rebuilding would take at least five or six more years.
The work itself was not only psychologically difficult, but also physically demanding. The stench, for one, was overwhelming.
“Inside the houses, it smelled like rotting, even with the masks on,” Young said. “Not only was there mold covering the dry wall, but you were normally stepping in a half a foot of mud, almost like fecal matter.”
The Knights spent most of their days chipping away at tiles, duct taping refrigerators left filled with months-old food and depositing waste on the curbside, where FEMA trucks pick up trash to dispose.
All of the families helped by the Knights were affiliated with the Knights of Columbus of St. Dominic’s Parish, whose members’ average age is about 80 years. All of the families were white and most were upper-middle-class. Young said he was initially surprised and disappointed by their race and class, but he said he later discovered the reason behind the situation.
“After a while, I realized why,” Young said. “Most of the poor had moved out, and houses that had been less well-made were out in the middle of the street, and they had to be demolished. These guys [whom the Knights assisted] could salvage their houses, but only with help. They were needy too, but in another sense. Some of them were old, and they needed youth, and we could be that youth.”
Some of the residents were in poor health, with illnesses ranging from depression to cardiac problems.
Mr. Zimmer, a town resident who lived alone, was in his mid-40s and had recently undergone a quadruple-heart bypass. Young said that Zimmer’s friends had told the Knights that they worried that the stress of cleaning up what was left of his house had led to his heart attack.
Though the homeowners returned to their damaged homes to clean up, the neighborhood itself, Young said, was deserted.
“It was like a ghost town,” Young said. “Most people had moved into temporary housing or in with family members miles, sometimes towns, away.”
The community suddenly reappeared, to Young’s surprise, however, on Sunday.
“People were coming out of the woodwork to come back and come to church. Random people even came up and told us thanks, including some Georgetown alums,” Young said.
During their five nights in the town, the Knights stayed with fellow elderly Knight Marcel Farnet, whom they did not know previously but who, Young said, basically gave them the keys to his house.
Farnet is currently living in a trailer on the outskirts of the city, Young said, like many others whose houses had been damaged or destroyed.
The first floor of his old residence had been gutted by the hurricane. The top floor, however, remained intact.
“It was a bit eerie,” Backe said. “The bottom floor was destroyed, but when you went to the second level, it was like a normal Southern home. There were even little jars of perfumes in the bathroom.”
