At Howard; Katrina

Tick. Tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick. You're always worn at the big ones coming. I didn't think it would be. This is such a big devastation. The big one goes to the left that goes to the right. Sometimes it seems that you get sort of desensitized this false sense of security thinking that no matter what happens you'll be OK. We have hurricanes thunderstorms all the time. Some way somehow restoring with change course in the city would be spared. Bear Bear never ever ever could have imagined this kind of catastrophe time and I was

on. The set of a week of relaxing at the beach. Over 250 Howard University students headed towards hurricane striking New Orleans.

Some of our students have taken this opportunity not to go for words on and from the order of the day but to go into communities and try to do some work and in this regard. They spent their spring break that week in New Orleans and we're very very excited and pleased with what they did. The attention that did deservedly received and the good work that they did about 10 years ago. The University. Of the chapel. Created a tentative spring break program. It's opportunity for students to use their spring break in a positive way serving the community. And also having the opportunity to learn about different cultures and having life experiences that will. Benefit them in their chosen. Yes. After hearing about the storm and the people and the families that were affected by the storm. When I when I found out that that's where we were going. I was so excited because I knew that this is what I was

supposed to do. I knew that this was my opportunity to get outside of myself and to go help someone else. I wanted to go down there whenever I was going to get a chance. I was going to go down the anti-something go down there check on my friends buy them some new things whatever I could do. But with this whole effort to help. With the houses. I knew that was what I was supposed to do. Do I really want to do. All the time. It's help my people outside this is for opportunity to go down there and help. We're supposed to help those in need. And there are so many people African-Americans minorities who need help who don't have help. And who won't be helped. Until people like us decide to go and help them. Well a lot of our students want to do something to help out. They want to get out of this during spring break they just don't know how. And once the mother lost and they learn about the terror the spring break I think I just got really involved because it was home it was personal and I want to make sure that was done right by row basic with the law school was helping to organize the volunteers making sure they understood what was

happening from main campus in terms of the logistics to play the dates which you need to bring what we would be doing get them in the loop and also make sure I was a good liaison between the law school and main campus as to what the last two needed what they were going to do and who was coming in from New Orleans when the storm came. You know I encourage parents to evacuation as possible. They want it to last May of course but they did leave but our home was pretty damaged. Luckily the majority of my family has moved out. You know we're not really connected to New Orleans. As much as we were before. And I have a lot of friends that go their college friends who are still there. I couldn't talk to my family all those phone lines in Louisiana with them. So I can't speak to anybody from my family for about the first two or three days. I wasn't in class. I was on the phone. All day set up sundown. I stayed on the news. I mean I was very worried. I was glued to the air and that you know I slept maybe two or three hours at night constantly getting updates

constantly watching live broadcast from CNN or from other news networks about what was happening. But what happened next. Was beyond belief. To be true. For. Me. It. To. You. Yes. Howard University was in the vanguard of those offering help. It began its

relief efforts right after Katrina struck. What we've tried to do a number of things here at Howard University to respond to this national tragedy which was. Hurricane Katrina the first thing we tried to do is to accommodate the display students themselves. We've admitted. First semester we is about 115 students. I know that number more than 40 remain at Howard this spring semester the second semester. So we try to reach out to the students. The second thing we tried to do was in our own way raise dollars and goods and some other resources for the victims who were still in the New Orleans area. Many in New Orleans area others in Mississippi and Alabama and those who made their way to Baton Rouge and Houston and other cities of refuge. When I found out that we had the opportunity to head to New Orleans I was extremely excited. It was almost my duty. I didn't see it as a choice really I had to go.

This is the one that was the most meaningful. So that's why I decided to go. Over 250 students boarded buses and headed towards New Orleans. Going It was about 23 hours. It was supposed to be 18 but we left it for like two hours. It was not fun at all. Everyone was happy at birth we just kept watching movies like a movie and people were talking and getting to know each other and stuff. But after a while you just go to sleep and. Try to think about what can happen when you get there. When they arrived students found that things were a lot worse than they had expected. A first reaction will they back up I was in the Army for four years and my last year in the Army had deployed to Iraq. That was my swansong. And when I was in Iraq I saw death and destruction. I saw towns which were devastated. My question

was war. I just feel as though the storm came yesterday. It just seemed devastating to me. There were no birds. It was almost like. A scene from a movie where some you couldn't believe that this was actually where people live because things were so bad. It was. Very surreal because. To see a ghost town really. All day. And that was the first thing that just really just me like this city is not what I know. I never imagined that my own city would suffer such destruction that look really like it was literally a war. So walking through neighborhoods where destroyed buildings and homes just totally wrecked them. It looks as if nothing had been touched since the war. You see it six seven months ago.

There's still so much to be done there's still so many houses and homes that are destroyed. And people lost. You literally have a quarter of a million people still displaced. The largest population displacement since the Civil War over forty years ago. And there's no end in sight. In terms of the recovery in terms of when these people will be able to come back. Are issues both political economic as well as just simple day living that have to be addressed. If people are going to be able to afford a contractor of FEMA or other agencies won't be able to rebuild the homes then houses to other schools will come down and rebuild the homes and they'll make it happen. Howard University students found themselves sharing the same accommodations as some of the hurricane Katrina victims. But to actually be in the tents ourselves actually sleeping in the same camp as residents to have to use portable showers and toilets. To be displaced. That experience. Helped us. Gain a better better understanding of what those who are affected by the

storm. Many. Of the students who came down were split up. Some went to the combination out Raceland Louisiana others were uptown and was working with what's called the Mac school. It's a consolidated school of law students familiar with the high school and then the sheriffs to work with Habitat for Humanity in a town called Chalmette white on the line from New Orleans. Most the students stayed intensity in Chalmette. When we got there it turned out we were at St. Bernard Parish. That was a suburb area. That's where FEMA was helping out most. Students initially with a work in the St. Bernard's Parish passu decided to go into the Ninth Ward. And the plan was to stay there for the whole time and help that happen in St. Bernard Parish. Once the students found out that. Where we were we weren't really where the help. Was needed the most. They came to me and I remember a Coplestone and said you know what we're not in the right area. We thought that we were going to come down here. We're going to work with our people to where

the people need help the most. I went to our leader again Richard said and I mean he felt their hearts and we went and talked to the FEMA to the Habitat for Humanity. And. Through some sort of miracle so that we could go into the war and they were actually very happy to have us go because it's my understanding that they and for some reason they couldn't go. Norman's Ninth Ward saw the most devastation due to Hurricane Katrina. I. Really got a sense of how how they're living and how people who were affected by this storm exactly what they have to endure. And I believe that sort of soften our hearts just to know that or to experience for ourselves

you know more than just TV more than just the front page of the newspaper. You know. It's been 40 years since we really had a hurricane. Most the people you talk to the left with three days worth of clothes because we thought we just can't go on a vacation and come back home. When I lost James one weekend it's a big production. I mean you have to realize that a lot of these homes not only with a flood was maybe four feet to eight feet to 10 feet in the house but once the water receded. These homes were locked up basically in the greenhouse for weeks before the city allowed them to come back. So the mold just went up the wall as it went all through the walls and this black mold is actually harmful to your health. So you have to wear a protective suit to cover your clothes that never gets on your clothes and can spread to you. My group actually worked on houses all the time we work our houses in the Lower Ninth Ward. All through our work day. Some young ladies from Lewisham University. Came and assisted us in taking and getting out a house. And

they were nice. We welcome them right on in and they were ready to work and they were surprised that we were able to do so much. In my group we did two houses in four days and it was 10 young ladies who did the first house and the next day. I group got split in half and. We had about six young ladies with the help of one man. You have to gear up as if you know you're working on this dangerous site which it is in a lot of ways it's a hazardous material site. It's a biohazard site. I hate it when we wore it because it was high. But. We were covering it and we had to be covered at the same time. We had to completely screwed up with Tyvek suits. JEAN. Work Boots. Boots that came up to me knees this respirator masks and we had goggles and a hard hat and gloves of course and those gloves I hate those gloves. And it got really hot humid. And you were doing hard work you know moving couches molded couches and a flooded mattresses and

refrigerator and oven and you had all this stuff on. And this. House smelled horrible. And it got really hot in the suit. And it's really hard to get a lot of work done when people wearing all these suits to these hazmat suits to go into homes under normal circumstances with temperatures would range in the 80s or maybe the 90s with 100 percent humidity. It could be really unbearable. You know a little uncomfortable but it makes you that much more moderate to like. Begin gutting homes and residences. Along the way. They met some of the people most affected by Hurricane Katrina. Once you do meet the homeowner and the home comes alive because I remember one instance when the homeowner came and she began to explain to us what the meaning was in the value to some of the things that we were tearing out. And you know we're literally taking her life out of her home and throwing it on the side of the street. And as she began to tell us you know how hard you work for this and you know how how important she was to the community

and then the passion to work harder became stronger. And now I had to help this lady because there was no one else to help or there was no one else to give her to assist her. And we were all that they had. Everything. Down to the cause in all. The files here. They. Are. 20. Feet away. Without fail. I don't know how to make it. He. Died. It. Might get sick. From. It. Crazy is it. Yes. Because. People. My age even know my college students they. Need to stay. Young.

I think. It's just that. It's. Really. You know to come and the media and help them build a. Very. Very. Healing. And you know it is what a lot of guts to do. All. Right. Everyone we talked to was just so happy that we were down there. I think there's a sense that you've been kind of abandoned by the nation at large for a lot more lenient and that there was a lot of concern at first when the storm hit. But now attention is shifting elsewhere. And so is the effort to help people out. Just like I thought they forgot about us to see so many students come down so many young people willing to help out and

do whatever it took to help them get back on their feet. And a lot of the residents we didn't forget that we entered a restaurant a colleague and I went just to have a cup of coffee and the waitress a white woman asked us why we were in New Orleans. And we told her that me 250 students to help in the relief efforts and she started to cry and she said to us. That she thought. That. Everyone had forgotten about them. We had the opportunity to hear from a guy who came up and spoke to us we were gathered around the school and in New Orleans getting ready to work and this random guy just sort of showed up and he was very passionate. Were angry and he began to tell us a little bit about what he had been through and he was telling us about how his family come with his family still lost and how they didn't care about him and how you know FEMA and and the administration

and the government didn't do anything. How how babies were in the water how the family and alligators were eating people in the water. He wasn't there actually he was on top of his roof and he lost everything and he gave up hope he was he got to the point where he started to cry and he kept on saying you know. I don't know you I'll do something because I can't do it. And that's all. We we all that we can do about it. And that you had it. Hit us hard. The students. Who had come to how to prepare for careers in science and medicine now found that even their most basic skills. Were desperately needed. And their compassion. Seemed to matter most. Mrs. Mary honoree. She's 81 years looks to be 82.

She's. One of the most. Sweetest. Ladies I have ever met in my life. When we drove up to her house she was sitting outside on her driveway. Waiting for us. And very calm and collected. Then we went into her house and you know we started to take you know bring the heavy furniture out and things like that. She got up from her seat. She went inside of that house. And started helping. 81. Years old. Up. Trying to pick up big pieces of furniture and cleaning it out and tearing down walls things like that. She was still only one time. Throughout the entire process. And that was when I had her speak to a young lady from Howard University on camera. I. Know I need help but. I'm. Having. No one.

The only time she ever showed me who. I looked to meant as a rock. She's so strong she's got through a whole lot. That was her second. Again she's my the second one the first one we know we saw the out the line where the water hit on her number from the house strong. She lost her husband. She was so great that we came down to help. Somebody. And she was actually saying you know we all need help and I'm just so grateful that these young ladies came out here to help me. Because we're on the one day. And she lost everything. And I told her we love you gave us a chance to just touch your life you make my life that much better and that much more meaningful just to know that at 81 I can still put my life back together. What.

Like. Even though they came to change the landscapes. What they didn't realize is how they themselves would be changed. You go out to spring break and you park your vacation somewhere you have some memories for what you did during the week you go out to New Orleans or to the Gulf Coast and help rebuild homes and rebuild lives. That's something that will stay with those people for the rest of their lives. I along with many of the students we talked to about how difficult the experience had been to come back and to see such devastation and to be so aware of how fleeting life can be and how quickly our possessions can be taken away. And how important it is to to really reach out and help people with a sense that. You know we have to do something that as students as members of our community that we truly have an obligation to help those who were devastated by. Katrina. And as I often say

devastated by Katrina and also by neglect is nothing compared to what those people went through. I have nothing to complain about. And it made me understand how the world really works and. How lucky I was and blessed to. Have all that I have. I learned that it's hard to complain when you know for a fact that there is somebody out there worse than you or somebody out there who doesn't have a roof over their head or. You don't have their home anymore. I always have people to all my clothes are still intact. Everything I own is still there. And just a little thing to appreciate the little things because sometimes you get so caught up in your own life that you don't really take the time to consider how we were fortunate. After I went down there. And just help one person out and just helped two people. It's just so much that we can do as a camp is so much so we can do as a people. If we all just take one day I realized and go and help someone in

need. And that's my goal. That is if nothing else I can get as many people as I can to go and just help one person one person. Joy that they were able to do something and also real concern in some cases deep sadness as to how much remains to be done. It was a great feeling for me and you feeling of tremendous pride for our young people here in our university who stepped up again who matched their actions with my rhetoric. And they've made me and my generation all three of the. Proudest