The Campbell Family Archive

Katrina Relief Trip
New Orleans, June 2007

In June, Shawn had the opportunity to travel to New Orleans and join in the continued relief and recovery effort for Hurricane Katrina. With the support of her employer, ECCU, she joined a team of 15 from Mariner’s Church for five days.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Photographs taken by Shawn Campbell

This was mainly a travel day with our flight leaving Orange County at 8 am. After a layover in Houston, we arrived in New Orleans mid-afternoon. We were guided through the Lower 9th Ward which is the area that was most devastated by a levy break. Imagine a pretty tight-spaced neighborhood where now approximately one house in ten still remains.

Our first night’s dinner was at Deanie’s Seafood with piles of Crawfish. Our lodging was at one of Celebration Church’s campuses in Metairie. This facility is still in disrepair from the hurricane and it is used as their hub for recovery efforts supplying volunteers with cots, showers, and a dining area. It is part of a strip mall which is being renovated and also contains a warehouse stocked with food for distribution which we did on Friday.

Superdome	Lower 9th – plea for help	A semi remains overturned on a car	Three houses that probably floated together
A porch leading to nothing now	Old levy and new levy	New levy, close to 15 feet	Old levy, maybe 6 feet?
Recovery effort – “sunflowers removing lead from soil”	Common Ground Relief Center		The first story looks like cardboard!
Half the gang at Deanie’s	The other half	YAY Crawfish! (I couldn’t watch)	Celebration Church
Our sleeping quarters	Dining hall	Kitchen

Thursday, June 7, 2007
Photographs taken by Shawn Campbell

Our first day of work was to clean up a yard in Violet, LA. The house is completely gutted inside and the weeds were taller than our team. The owner was being charged $80 for every day the yard was not cleared. The backyard was filled with debris which we learned was not from the flood, but simply left from the residents. There was a sizable boat, lawnmowers, a dryer, and many tires among the mess which had to be cleared before we could chop down the brush. Four of our crew spent the day helping with kids at the church’s Kids Camp.

Front yard upon arrival	The flipped boat	Backyard (those are all weeds)	FEMA trailer – still home for many residents
"Rails" laid to move boat	Heave!	Ho!	Inside of the house
From inside the house	Front yard is cleared	The debris pile grows	We almost got the backyard done
Our crew – ready for showers and naps	Corky’s BBQ	Corky’s BBQ	Outside Corky’s BBQ

Friday, June 8, 2007
Photographs taken by Shawn Campbell

Friday was a bit of a mixed bag. After our teams’ assigned chores at the church, we loaded up the vans to hand out free groceries. We found a beautifully shady spot in Arabi and team members would stand out on the street with signs simply reading “Free Food”. Immediately people started turning in and each household would receive a bag full of groceries and several bottles of water. We tried to make sure every one was prayed for before they left. They could also sign up for any other potential needs they may have such as the yard clean up we did the day before. In the afternoon we packed more groceries in preparation for another team to pass out another day.

Our set-up	The sign-in table	Our patrons	Lunch for the crew
Packing more groceries	We filled six crates	Each crate with about 30 bags	More group photos (there’s always food!)

Saturday, June 9, 2007
Photographs taken by Shawn Campbell

Saturday was a full and amazing day. We spent the morning cleaning the Center and preparing it for a large crew of 150 expected the next week. We were then unexpectedly asked to help serve food at the homeless shelter. Everyone was touched by this experience as we interacted and prayed with the men that came through. Lunch was followed by a time of worship in song and scripture reading. We all felt the Holy Spirit in that place as many people, including members of our team, shared.

That evening we journeyed to the French Quarter and Bourbon Street. We walked along the Mississippi a little ways and watched street performers. After dinner at the Gumbo shop, we wound our way to Bourbon Street.

Inside the homeless shelter	Our team getting prepped	Kurt listening to the stories	Monika
Christy	Lindy in the clothing area	Chapel inside the shelter with murals	Murals in chapel
Murals in chapel	Murals in chapel	Worship after lunch	Those that remained for worship
Alison sharing bible verses	A homeless man with an awesome voice	Outside the shelter	Group photo!
Monika found the wet paint!	The Natchez on the Mississippi River	Street performers in front of Jackson Square	Jackson Square
Café du Monde – yum, yum!	Dinner at the Gumbo Shop	Such cool architecture	What more can I say?
Bourbon Street	…shrimp creole…shrimpkabob …shrimp gumbo…

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