Friday, January 13, 2006
 Anna Maria Badyoczek, School of Engineering and Applied Science
I initially took this class not only because of my background in structural engineering and architecture, but also because I considered taking the spring semester off in order to work and help rebuild New Orleans. After this week, I can now say that I have a vague notion of the devastation of Hurricane Katrina secondhand - not having witnessed the storm, I began to see the aftermath in a way other than the news had presented it.
Initially, as I saw the damage to the homes, I immediately began to think in engineering terms - on how to rebuild them structurally in order to prevent this from happening again. I thought back to all my lectures and compiled them in my head, forming a rough draft of a structurally resilient home. My second immediate thought went to my studies in architecture, and I thought about how to incorporate design in trying to preserve the essence the city had possessed pre-storm. I thought back to famous architects and revolutionary ways of thinking in design, and I decided that New Orleans was unique; the special circumstances with respect to location, weather, and most importantly culture, would demand revolutionary new designs in order to prevent future disasters. These demands provoked the question of acceptance by the public, and it revealed to me the complexity of this process of rebuilding - not everyone is going to agree on how or where to rebuild.
Today our group traveled to the lower Ninth Ward and resumed in gutting houses. Having done it for a couple of days already, the group became cohesive and worked quickly and efficiently. As I worked, it was clear to me that the efficiency of our group was greatly due to the lack of emotion in the work — most days, I looked at the houses we were gutting and saw no reason to even leave the skeleton behind — it seemed worthless, and I thought it would be better to bulldoze the whole house. The second house we worked on had not been flagged previously, but had been chosen on the spot - we came across three men gutting their family member’s home, and decided to help out. Working with someone who was emotionally tied to the place, although the men seemed to have left their emotions outside their work, was different than before. It seemed more real when I was joking around and working with one of these men in shoveling a bathroom, and the reality of it all struck me even harder with the gratefulness we received.
Being exhausted after gutting the houses all morning, I kept thinking that this was not my everyday life. After all, tomorrow morning I will be heading home by train, and my small contribution seemed like not enough when I compared it to the life the residents of New Orleans now lead. They do not have a home to go back to where they can sleep in a real bed, take long, warm showers, and lay around watching TV. I can’t help being happy to go home, but as I was driving through the devastated neighborhoods for the last time, where the number of deaths in each home is spray-painted on the front of each house, I also feel as though I could have helped more, and that I wish I could stay longer. Hopefully the contribution of this group can supercede the grunt work we did for only a couple of days — I would hope that other schools can see this class as a new type of learning and incorporate it in their programs; together, a bigger contribution can be made. All I know is that at this moment I feel as though New Orleans has changed me more than I have changed it, and I leave feeling slightly guilty because of this. |
