Help Among the Ruins

Volunteers in Katrina recovery show they are "men and women for others."

Story and photos by Karaline Jackson

Beads of sweat drip from Merridi Stokes’ forehead, and labored breaths can be heard through the mask protecting his nose and mouth from dust and mold.

     After a brief pause, he raises a crowbar above his head and bangs it into the wall, causing damp and moldy drywall to crumble to the ground. The dusty remains of the walls fall among once-treasured possessions of the family who lived there: a box of trophies, framed photographs, finance textbooks, and plastic bags overflowing with Mardi Gras beads. When the walls have come down and the debris is removed, all that will remain of the house are its studs, and the New Orleans family members who once lived there, whom Stokes has never met, will take the next step in the long process of returning to the city and rebuilding their home.

      Stokes, along with 15 other volunteers, has been doing this work for the past four days; gutting houses that, since Hurricane Katrina, have been vacant except for the rampant mold festering where storm water sat for weeks.

      Sponsored by the Mission and Renewal Office of the Maryland Province Jesuits, the weeklong service trip attracted volunteers from various parishes in the province. Their mission: to gut five houses in the Gentilly neighborhood of New Orleans so that owners could then begin the arduous task of rebuilding. For reasons as varied as they are, the volunteers traveled to New Orleans to lend a hand and perhaps make a difference.

      “The idea was to sponsor a parish-to-parish outreach,” says Kevin O’Brien, director of Ignatian Partnerships for the Maryland Province. “The participants were either parishioners of a Jesuit parish in the Maryland Province, or heard of the trip through someone at a parish.”

Mud and Silence

     More than a year after Hurricane Katrina, wreckage from the storm is widespread. Many neighborhoods are eerily silent. Water lines still visible on vacant houses mark the heights to which floodwaters rose, a sobering reminder of what New Orleans must have looked like at the height of its devastation. Volunteers who travel to the region to help are astonished by how little progress appears to have been made. While much has been done since Katrina, the work left to do seems overwhelming.

      The residents of New Orleans are grateful for volunteers; they know that volunteers are essential if New Orleans is going to rebuild its population and famous character.

      “It is amazing to think just how the city of New Orleans and the Gulf Cost will be recovered by an overwhelming amount of volunteers,” says Jocelyn Sideco, pastoral associate for relief ministries for the New Orleans Province Jesuits. “I thought seeing more than 400 college students over their spring break was incredible. Now I realize the work of partnering, witnessing, working side by side, and listening is the work of all sorts of people who have the desire, the time, the energy, and the persistence.”

      Several Jesuit provinces in the United States have partnered with St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish in Gentilly, which has provided volunteers with lodging in return for labor in their parishioners’ homes. Fr. Doug Doussan, pastor, and Sr. Kathleen Pittman, CSJ, pastoral associate, are New Orleans natives and have worked tirelessly since the storm to locate St. Gabriel the Archangel parishioners who were displaced throughout the United States when they were forced to evacuate. Through phone calls and the parish’s website, more than half of the parishioners have been located, and several families have returned to Gentilly.

      Doussan recalls that for three weeks after the storm, there was eight feet of floodwater inside St. Gabriel Church and in and around the homes in Gentilly.

      “Whatever the water didn’t destroy, the mold did,” he says. “We were not allowed back into the city until five weeks after the hurricane. When we came back, we saw a thick gray film of dried mud covering everything: the grass, cars that were left behind, furniture in homes. We also found complete silence. No children playing, no adults talking, no cars driving through the neighborhood, no birds, squirrels, cats or dogs. Mud and silence.”


Putting Faith into Action

     Each member of the group from the Maryland Province had a different reason for spending a week in New Orleans.

      “I had been wanting to do something more than give money ever since the events of September 2005,” says Camille Fallon, a parishioner at Old St. Joseph’s Church in Philadelphia. “The Maryland Province Jesuits gave me the opportunity to do that something more — to put my faith into action. I was happy that I was given the opportunity to have a direct impact on the people of New Orleans.”

      For Doug Murison, whose wife, Carol, is a parishioner at St. Therese Church in Mooresville, N.C., it was an opportunity to return home. Murison was born and raised in New Orleans, and despite leaving the region as a young man, returned for several years in the 1980s. His mother, stepfather, and brother are still residents of the city.

      “Carol and I read about the trip in the church bulletin, and the fact that it mentioned Gentilly caught my attention,” Murision says. “My last residence in New Orleans was on Drew Avenue, only about 10 or 12 blocks from St. Gabriel’s. Carol and I recently retired, and are looking for ways to use our time now to give back to the world; this just seems to be a good start.”

      The trip was Murison’s third back to the region since Hurricane Katrina. One month after the storm, he helped his brother, whose home suffered relatively little damage.

      “There was terrible destruction everywhere at that time, but that was to be expected,” he says.

      His second trip was in May 2006 for his daughter’s wedding in City Park. “That time, I was very disappointed to see the obvious lack of progress.”

      Murison says this most recent trip gave him a personal feeling of satisfaction in being able to help, but he admits the lack of progress leaves him rather numb. “The inability of the local, state, and federal governments to help the citizens of the area is absolutely disgraceful,” he says.

From Drug Rehab to Home Rehab

     For Merridi Stokes, born and raised in West Philadelphia, the trip to New Orleans was a chance to come full circle. It was about paying back good deeds that were done for him. Stokes looked at the trip as an opportunity to help someone else in their time of despair. It wasn’t too long ago that he needed help, and the Jesuits and parishioners of Old St. Joseph’s Church answered the call.

      From a young age, Stokes was drawn to the Catholic faith, but his path to that goal was anything but straight. Stokes attended the Community College of Philadelphia, took several trade classes and eventually enlisted in the Marines, where he served for four years. He knew the value of work and the importance of being employed, and after his service in the Marines, he became interested in electronics and spent three years assisting the curator of the African American Historical and Cultural Museum in Philadelphia. Stokes got married and had three sons, but by his own admission, he “was never a Fred McMurray kind of dad.” The marriage fell apart after several years.

      Stokes’ life began to spin out of control in 1989 when his stepmother died. “She taught me to do the right thing,” recalls Stokes. “She instilled in me an understanding of Christ and what that meant.”

      In an effort to deal with the loss of his stepmother and his failed marriage he turned to drugs and alcohol — and soon was addicted to both. It wasn’t long before his addiction to crack cocaine rendered him homeless and living on the streets.

      After two years, Stokes heard about a program for homeless men at Old St. Joseph’s Church, and one day while walking down Walnut Street, decided to knock on the door. The nun who was running the parish outreach program at the time said he could be admitted to the program after enrolling in addiction recovery. Stokes attended an outpatient clinic and began to fight his addictions.

      In the fall of 2000, after periods of sobriety and lapses of addiction, Stokes was ready to make a serious commitment to the outreach program at Old St. Joseph’s. He also joined a recovery program for veterans.

      “The outreach program gave me a sense of self-worth,” Stokes says. “The recovery program gave me one thing, and the experience of

      church gave me something else. Things started working out. God had pegged me to be at a certain place at a certain time.”

      Stokes also began performing odd jobs at the homes of Old St. Joe’s parishioners. He painted and carpeted and soon gained a reputation for being trustworthy and reliable.

      In 2003, Stokes was offered a job working at the front desk of the parish on Sunday mornings. Sometimes during his shift, Stokes would climb up to the choir loft and listen to the Mass. One Sunday morning, the homily given by Fr. Mark Horak, SJ, particularly touched Stokes. Horak must have noticed, because he invited Stokes to Mass and encouraged him to join the RCIA program to become Catholic.

      Today, Stokes has been drug-free for more than five years. He became a Catholic last Easter. He knows that a life of recovery is a work in progress, and he documents his achievements and reflections on his website, www.smallempires.com. “Walking down the road with God is a work in progress, too,” he says.

      For Stokes, the trip to New Orleans provided a way to build on his own recovery by helping someone else. At first, Stokes wasn’t sure what he could offer the people in New Orleans who had lost so much. But then he met the woman whose house he was gutting.

      “She just took it in stride and was working through it,” he recalls. “I realized that the little work I was able to do was really helping people. I was able to accomplish something down there.”

Each Drop Helps

     The Maryland Province volunteers will not soon forget the week they spent in New Orleans. They will remember the long days and hard work they put in to clear homes of debris, but more importantly, they will remember the reaction they received from residents of the city.
“I was surprised by how grateful the people of New Orleans were,” says Camille Fallon. “People who did not even know us would approach us just to thank us. It reminded me of the phrase, ‘You have been sent by God to tell us we are not forgotten.’”

      For Doug and Carol Murison, their third trip to post-Katrina New Orleans certainly won’t be their last.

      “Carol and I intend to return to help again,” Murison says. “It was very satisfying to be able to help, even if it was only the proverbial drop in the bucket; but each drop helps.”

      While hundreds of volunteers dedicate their time to the rebuilding of New Orleans, there is still much to be done. Crystal Jacquot Coleman and her husband own one of the homes in Gentilly that the Maryland Province volunteers helped gut.

      “I would love to say that we are well on the way to rebuilding, but that is not the case,” says Coleman, who is currently living in Baton Rouge. She is waiting to hear from the Louisiana Road Home Program, which provides grants and loans to residents affected by the hurricane. Once the gutting is completed, work on the Colemans’ house will proceed in three stages: mold remediation, removal of fallen trees and other dangerous debris, and then the actual rebuilding of the home.
For many other homeowners in Gentilly, progress is also slow. Coleman reports that in her neighborhood she is starting to see a few more houses being gutted, and three families have moved back in to their original homes. She admits that even with the many volunteers helping throughout the city, it is still difficult for some residents to return.

      “For some people there is a financial struggle,” says Coleman. “Others don’t have the manpower to get the work done. Let us not forget the elderly residents who have no finances, no manpower, and no family. Many people feel that Louisiana does not want them to return home because of the lack of — or the slowness of the process for — help. I think if it were not for volunteers, many more people would feel left out and abandoned. Thank you to all of you who came to New Orleans to support the rebuilding process. Thanks for caring.”

Related Links

Small Empires

New Orleans Province Katrina Relief Efforts

St. Gabriel the Archangel Parish

Karaline Jackson is a communications specialist for the Maryland Province Jesuits
and was one of the volunteers on the trip to New Orleans.