Restoring My Faith...

The flood waters are quickly receding, and the citizens are rapidly commencing with cleaning up our community. As soon as I found out that people were being allowed back into their own homes, I grabbed my work gloves, jumped on my bicycle, and headed to a friend's parents' house.

That in and of itself is kind of funny. They hadn't seen me for so long, that they didn't recognize me. Even after I sat and talked to them for a bit, they didn't realize who I was until I came out and told them. (They didn't recognize me because of my beard.) Once we got past the "Holy cow, I didn't recognize you," I offered my assistance, which they gratefully accepted.

We started out with me taking pictures of the house for insurance purposes. They bought some disposable cameras, but I offered to take pics with my digital camera and burn the photos to CD for their insurance. We took about 30 shots through the day.

Their house has an unfinished basement (which the family patriarch affectionately calls "the dungeon"), and there was no damage to the first or second floors. So basically they only lost a few appliances there... water heater, washer and dryer, deep freezer...

Their garage didn't fare so well, and they had two cars that were mostly submerged. We spent the next several hours dumping shit on the curb. They profusely thanked me several times during the process, saying that if I hadn't been there, they'd still be looking at the garage wondering where to begin. With my assistance, we cleared out the garage in a few hours.

The highlight of my day was that some of the memorabilia survived the flood. Their wedding photo and his military records were wet, but looked good. There were a lot of photos and old clothes that didn't make it, but most of the pictures were duplicates. Overall, they didn't lose nearly as much as others.

After finishing up there, I drove around some, taking more pictures, which will be posted in a couple of days. I have a few more shots to take. Walking around and observing was beyond words, but I will try to describe it anyway.

One thing that can't be photographed or explained is the smell. The odor is a combination of swamp water and garbage dump. And there's a constant haze of putrid dirt that you can see, smell and taste. My immune system has been working overtime in attempting to keep me healthy.

People are going into their houses as soon as they're allowed, and they all seem to finish the first phase of clean-up the same day. If one family finishes early, they help their neighbors. It's an unspoken agreement. The recipients are thankful, and the helpers are glad to assist.

The streets are cleared of debris (dirt, driftwood and so forth) almost as quickly as the streets are accessible. The trash is being picked up at an incredible rate. Everyone -- EVERYONE -- is working like nothing I've ever seen. Those who have lost their homes are tolerant of photographers, understanding that we're not doing this just out of some sick sense of voyeurism, but it's our way of recording it.

The trash, despite the pace of clean-up, still lines streets, several feet high, as far as you can see on some streets. As I drove around town, I saw semi trailers full of food, water and clothing, trucked in from across the nation. It's humbling and emotional to see the support we've received -- from the nation and from the neighbors.

I'm going to paraphrase something my neighbor heard from a reporter...
Nobody needed to be rescued from the rooftops. Nobody was on TV crying, saying 'The Federal Government needs to bail us out.' Things were calm and orderly. The only signs of anger and disorder were from people who were not allowed into their homes quickly enough. They want to start putting their lives together themselves.

We're willing to accept assistance, but we don't expect it. What I'm witnessing today is restoring my faith in humanity... at least in part of it. It's so changed my perspective, that I will continue offering my assistance to my community for as long as I can. This weekend, I plan to help at that corner store I mentioned in a post the other day.