Area volunteers travel to Gulf
by ELIZABETH TAUFA Reporter

Rev. Shawn Duncan, back row left, and Ed Hill, third row, third from left, were among 17 volunteers from the Episcopal Diocese of WNY who traveled to New Orleans to volunteer their services.

Two years after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans, the stream of volunteers to the area is still flowing strongly from throughout the country, including Western New York.

The Episcopal Diocese of Western New York, which has been part of the national Episcopal Church's efforts to send aid to New Orleans, recently organized a group of 17 volunteers to travel to the area to lend their services.

"This was exciting because we hadn't been able to go primarily because of the conditions in New Orleans," said Rev. Shawn Duncan, coordinator of the WNY Diocese's Katrina relief efforts and rector at Trinity Episcopal Church in Hamburg. "(It is) only within the last nine months to a year that they've had a facility to house volunteers."

The group of Western New Yorkers spent the last week of August in New Orleans working in the Ninth Ward, one of the most devastated areas, and in Lakeview, which is an upper middle class, suburban area.

They worked on the deconstruction and reconstruction of homes, mainly knocking down damaged drywall and putting up new, and distributing food, toiletries and supplies to residents.

One of the volunteers traveling to New Orleans was Ed Hill, a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Eggertsville.

"No matter what you read or see on TV, you can't imagine what it's like," Hill said. "Whole towns are completely gone."

Both Duncan and Hill noted the determination of the residents to rebuild their lives and homes.

"The Lakeview area we were in call it 'Back in Three,'" Duncan said. "They want to be fully restored in three years."

"A lot of people are determined to rebuild to some form of what it used to be," Hill added, noting that the area will never look as it did before the storm. "But nothing is being done with the Ninth Ward."

He noted that where there were once houses and communities, there are now open fields, and any structures that still exist are empty, damaged and neglected.

Because the volunteers were in New Orleans on the two-year anniversary of the hurricane, they attended a service in commemoration.

Hill recounted meeting a woman who was in the process of rebuilding her home.

"She and her husband had bought a home (in Lakeview) two months before the storm," he said. "The Wednesday before the storm hit, all of their brand-new furniture was moved in. She never got to sleep in her bed or use her dining room furniture because everything was destroyed."

Hill noted that after two years, the woman and her husband are still waiting for financial aid promised from the government, as are many left in New Orleans. Instead of retiring, the couple has borrowed money and used savings to begin to rebuild their house.

"Some people got paid, but then the banks took all of the money for their mortgages," he said. "So they owned the house free and clear, but it was just a shell."

Duncan and Hill both expressed interest in returning to New Orleans to continue to help.

"It was a growth-producing experience," Duncan said.

"We have to keep bringing it to the forefront," Hill said. "The government is ignoring New Orleans, but people down there are living like they're in a Third-World country."