Janet's trip to Louisiana to help with hurricane relief.

From September 30 to October 14, 2005, Janet was in Louisiana working with the Red Cross helping the survivors of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.   

Here are a few photos from her experience.  Out of respect for the privacy of others, and consistent with the commitment of the Red Cross, we have not posted any pictures on this site of the volunteers Janet worked with or the people she assisted.   

First traveling to Baton Rouge by way of Atlanta, Janet was ultimately assigned to work at the Red Cross shelter in Alexandria, Louisiana, which is in the central part of the state, well away from the Gulf Coast.

To the right is a picture of Janet in her Red Cross uniform.

The shelter was set up at the Alexandria coliseum.   At the height of its occupancy, some 1,300 evacuees were being cared for at this shelter.   By the end of Janet's assignment, that number was down to about 250.

The next picture is of the coliseum itself.   This, of course, is Alexandria's largest public building.  

Many survivors were brought to this shelter after Hurricane Katrina, and then were living at this shelter during the subsequent effects of Hurricane Rita.  During this time, the power went out to the coliseum and from all accounts it was a very scary experience.  

Some of the evacuees that Janet met had been uprooted several times before being assigned to the shelter in Alexandria.   In a few cases, some people had been moved five times, being evacuated for Katrina and then re-evacuated to get out of the way of Hurricane Rita.

There were of course many moving stories that Janet heard from people who had lost everything.  At the same time, she met many resilient people and many cute kids.

All in all, she came back with very positive impressions of the people of Louisiana, who despite all of what they went through were very warm and hospitable.

Some of you have asked what Janet's accommodations were like.   The Red Cross volunteers did not sleep at the shelter, but instead were housed dormitory style in a nearby Roman Catholic retreat center.   This next picture gives you a sense of the place.  Essentially, this was where the volunteers would come to sleep after completing a 13 hour shift, and so it served no other function than to provide for that.

Janet's bed is the one farthest to the right with the pink purse on it.

The next picture, to the left, gives you a sense of the devastation of Hurricane Rita.   

This is a picture taken by Janet in Cameron, Louisiana on Sunday, October 9, 2005.   Janet got one day off to recoup during her deployment so she and a group of her fellow volunteers used their time off to visit the disaster zone and to check up on some folks they had assisted earlier in the week.   

Cameron was particularly devastated.   Where a home used to exist, one can see duct work, a garden hose and a truck flipped over.  Everything else has been ripped away by the storm.

The other city that Janet visited was Lake Charles, Louisiana,  where many homes, though damaged, had survived and to which some of the evacuees had returned.  They were very pleased and moved to meet Janet and the other Red Cross volunteers, and were surprised they had made good on their intention to check up on them.

In some of the areas that were most devastated, Janet reported two sights that gave her pause.  

One was the number of alligator carcasses that she saw.  Many of these huge reptiles had been killed by the effects of the hurricane, and one would have thought if anything could survive, they could.

The other significant sight was the large number of oak trees that had been uprooted.   Many of these majestic trees were 200 years of age, and as such, had been through rough weather many times before.   However, they were no match for Hurricane Rita.   To the right is a picture of one such tree.

Finally, we end on a hopeful picture.  This is a shot of one of the spectacular sunsets that Janet saw while she was in Louisiana.   

Although there was much devastation and heartache to be found there, Janet gained a strong sense that these people would make it through, and would have many better days ahead.

Page was last updated October 18, 2005

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