When Hurricane Katrina descended upon New Orleans, smashing the levees, more than 215,000 homes were devastated.

Not Yet Done…

Today, because of the shortage of housing, the average price of a house is $225,000, well beyond the range of most of the city’s former population. A year after the disaster, two-thirds of the pre- Katrina population is still living elsewhere. Less than 200,000 have returned. It’s estimated that only about half the city’s former residents will have returned by the time of the second anniversary, August 29, 2008.

But as insurance claims are increasingly settled—for those fortunate enough to have had flood insurance, that is—the trickle of returnees is turning into a steady flow. Tens of thousands long to come home. It’s where they’ve lived all their lives, and generations before them.

The problem is, there is nowhere to house returning residents during the months it takes to restore a ruined dwelling. FEMA trailers, delivered in unprecedented numbers, are still hard to come by.

Life for the average person returning to the Crescent City is akin to America’s frontier days. In most cases, you come back to a street that’s desolate, with few or no neighbors, no stores nearby, no gas station, no police, no fire coverage. In vast areas there’s no electricity either.

Rebuilding is a do-it-yourself enterprise. Despite the influx of Latinos and laborers from as far away as Romania, you can’t find a contractor—and if you are lucky enough to have a contact, the process of restoring your home will take months.

Can you imagine entering a house that has stood empty for a year, after being flooded up to the roof for a month or more with filthy lake water, sewage, chemicals? Gutting it of sheetrock is a task that can only be accomplished with masks and other protective clothing. And all this time later, tens of thousands of homes still stand waiting to be gutted.

Building Better Communities is a part of this process. Teamed with Crossroads, we average the gutting of nine houses a week–thanks to the thousands of volunteers who have come here to help during the past twelve months. But the task of rebuilding has barely begun. Who will replace the electric wiring? Who will put up the new sheetrock?

The Big Easy is destined for years of hard times. It’s not just the rebuilding that’s going to be difficult—a task that’s predicted to take ten to fifteen years. It’s coping with the pervasive feeling of desolation.

It’s tough to come back to a street in which every home is uninhabitable, move into a trailer if you can get one, and begin the lonely work—in intense heat and humidity—of restoring the rooms in which your children and perhaps grandchildren once slept and played.

Yet despite the psychological frailty of people, the pioneering spirit is alive and thriving here in the Crescent City. And soon, in a video BBC is producing and hopes to bring to your church, we’re going to introduce you to some of the people whose lives you have helped restore through your gifts of money and time. You’ll see firsthand the difference you have made. You’ll also meet some of our staff and hear of their dedication to this city in which so many feel lost.

BBC not only enables people to begin repairing their homes. We help them rebuild their lives. The emotional and spiritual support that a vital experience of Christ supplies is central to the rebuilding effort. And BBC is at the forefront of providing people with the listening ear and caring heart that makes the difference. Ministers and counselors are on hand to coach people through the process, lifting their spirits and linking them together in community.

Exiled from their pre-Katrina lives, residents returning to New Orleans are more open to the wholeness that comes through Christ than at any other time. Catastrophe has become God’s opportunity.

We invite you to become a part of this heroic, pioneering effort. We are not asking for charity on behalf of the people of New Orleans, we are asking for solidarity. We are asking you to stand shoulder- to-shoulder with your sisters and brothers who have suffered a catastrophe unparalleled on American shores.

You can make a difference by coming here for a week of vacation. While you volunteer your time in service, we’ll house and feed you. It doesn’t matter whether you are skilled or unskilled. Our team leaders are organized and equipped to put you to work in productive, safe ways. You won’t sit around wasting time. We’ll keep you serving, alongside people from all over the nation, all through your week’s vacation– and make it fun, too.

Billions have been poured into New Orleans by government. These huge sums have been needed to repair the levees, as well as to add floodgates to key canals. But this means that returning residents are not the beneficiaries of this relief. That’s why we need single, large donations, and ongoing support in accordance with your financial ability from month to month and year to year. We’ll keep you updated in videos, and via our website, on exactly what your gifts are accomplishing.

As you commit to giving generously in a sustained way, you’ll be planting seeds of hope in a city that’s been broken.

Sincerely,
David Ord Director of Communications, BBCBuilding Better Communities

email: office@bbcnola.com

web: http://bbcnola.com