July 2006
Well, the big event for July was our trip to Slidell, LA with the youth group from our church. This was a trip back to our home town to help out with Hurricane Katrina relief. It was a great trip. We helped out at several houses in the Slidell area, saw how much there still was to do, and got to see a bit of New Orleans where almost nothing has been done in the year since Katrina. It also really affected the youth on the trip, who are organizing a trip to go back over Spring break to help out more. Pictures below are from the trip. Be sure to check out the pictures of both of our crews as well.
On the way down, we managed to talk D.C. into driving through Auburn, and though we didn't get to stop, it was good to see familiar sites like Samford Hall.
On the way down, we decided to drive down Highway 90 along the Mississippi gulf coast to see if we could see any effects from the storm 11 months earlier. We got as far as the Biloxi area before discovering that we couldn't go any further. Yes, this bridge was basically lifted up and moved by the hurricane, and hasn't been repaired yet.
We looked around New Orleans East, where much of the devastation has not been touched since the storm. The house pictured here was originally on the other side of the canal, and was picked up and dropped on the truck next to another house.
Here's a look at the inside of this house. Everything was still there - furniture, clothes, etc.
We saw the repaired levee.
We also got to see the progress on my (Chad's) parent's house. It's coming along, slowly but surely.
The trip was pretty long (total of 20 hours on the road over two days each way), and I got to drive the whole way since Jen wasn't up for driving the big van. At times, the youth were a little on the active side, but more often than not they looked like this picture.
Thankfully, we did have some entertainment on the stop of the last night.
