Hurricane Katrina - Looking Back 17 Years Later
By Lemuel Tjardes, CADD Technician
When Hurricane Katrina ravaged areas along the Gulf states in August 2005, TREKK headed to New Orleans, Louisiana’s Ninth Ward to help with the cleanup. I was one of seven or eight TREKK employees who responded to FEMA’s request for assistance. We drove down in several jet vac trucks to help with cleanup.
Upon arrival, one of the things that stuck out to me were the streets and the bridges. Most New Orleans streets are elevated, and some are four to six lanes wide. If you have ever spent much time in New Orleans, you would understand that most of the time if you are on a highway, you’re probably also on a bridge. In some of the flooded areas all of the silt and mud made it difficult to stay in your lane. It was such a muddy, slippery mess that your truck would slide to the curb and all you could do was slide down the road, bumping off curbs.
Removal of the debris and waste was a major concern as drinking water and sewage treatment plants were damaged and sewers were filled with debris. Day after day, for three months from October through December, we would vacuum up tons and tons of seashells, mud, building materials and hundreds of bricks during our 12-hour days.
The city was entirely shut down. A few fast-food restaurants and gas stations were open during the day, but not much else. After 5 p.m. everything shut down for the day.
Every damaged building had an X or cross spray painted on it in red, most with flood stain marks that indicated how high the water rose. It seemed like nearly every building had an X marked on it.
We stayed in a local church. They set up some makeshift shower rooms in the parking lot so we could clean up from the day’s work and we’d sleep on the sanctuary floor at night. The Red Cross set up food tents for the relief workers and the few residents that were still there. We were grateful for a hot meal.
Katrina left tens of thousands of people who needed their lives improved. Meeting this need was a huge gamble that paid off, the start of huge growth for TREKK, and my most memorable project.