Shortly after leaving for the Upper Ninth Ward, 250 University of Maryland band members drove past the Circle Food Store downtown.
It stands on relatively high ground in the city, but sat flooded in 8 feet of water in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The College Park students soon recognized the spray-painted “X” marks on hundreds of evacuated buildings from the tragic television scenes of 16 months ago.
The mark indicated that the building had been checked by rescue teams looking for survivors ? or bodies ? in the wake of the worst natural catastrophe in U.S. history.
As the students headed toward the new Musicians? Village being built by Habitat for Humanity, their chatter quieted Saturday morning as FEMA trailers were seen in the yards of gutted houses.
Then the band got off the buses, stepped through the mud and went to work.
Check out Chris Ammann’s photo blog of the entire trip.
“There was a little confusion at first, but we got into the swing of things,” said Sean Laverty, an alto saxophone player and Hammond High School graduate from Howard County.
Covered in dirt and sweat and wielding a pick and sledge hammer, Laverty broke apart concrete that had dribbled around the steps of a recently framed house.
Andrea Wilson, a Bel Air High School graduate from Harford County, hammered in awkward ceiling joists.
Other band members hung plywood and stick-framed walls that will house low-income residents in the community where Fats Domino was born 79 years ago.
The Musicians? Village project started last January with New Orleans natives Wynton Marsalis and Harry Connick Jr. It is part of a plan to bring musicians back to the birthplace of jazz.
However, the majority of the three-bedroom bungalows will be sold to low-income Crescent City residents, not necessarily musicians.
Some, like Natalie Williams, lost everything to the hurricane and the busted levees. A lab technician at Charity Hospital, she?s been laid off since Katrina.
“My son, his grandmother and I were air-lifted out by the Coast Guard, from Mid-City,” Williams said. “The three of us were in a rowboat, paddling down the street. People found boats everywhere, trying to help each other survive.”
“Everybody was crying ? my mom, my grandma, my cousins. Everybody except me,” said her son, Warren, 10.
The family was evacuated to the Houston Astrodome for 10 days, then a hotel and later an apartment in Houston. Williams had started in a Habitat program just before Katrina hit and had put in exactly one weekend of sweat equity prior to the hurricane.
Now, she?s spent the last three months working next to students like the band members and other volunteers. She?s helping build neighbors? houses until she accumulates 350 hours to pay off the down payment on her $75,000 house.
Williams expects to return to the hospital soon and the $550-a-month mortgage should be manageable.
She?s more worried about Warren, who gets upset during thunderstorms, telling his mom they?d better leave.
“He?s in therapy,” Williams said. “He?s getting better, too.”
“I never thought I?d see this day,” Williams continued, placing a potted plant on the porch. Not when I was in that Astrodome in Houston.
“This is more than a dream come true. I?d given up on this ever happening. You tellthose college kids what they?re doing means a lot to the people in this city.”
BY THE NUMBERS
On march to New Orleans:
» 248 band, color, dance team members and staff from University of Maryland, College Park
» Five buses on their way to New Orleans
» 1,099 miles, each way
» 20 1/2 hours on the road, each way
» 134 bunk beds
» 18 showers
» Four bathrooms
» Five days of volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity
» Three performances
» One parade
