Students to Discuss Second Gulf Coast Cleanup Trip

Over winter break, Carleton students, faculty and staff traveled to New Orleans, La., and Biloxi, Miss. to help residents rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Art gallery assistant Wendy Nordquist and studio art technician Gerald Krause joined economics professor Mike Hemesath and 13 students in rebuilding a home in Biloxi; Assistant professor of philosophy Angela Curran and 29 students traveled to New Orleans to help Common Ground gut houses in the lower Ninth Ward.

In the immediate aftermath of Katrina in 2005, another group of Carleton students and faculty members traveled to Biloxi. “The message last year was ‘don’t forget us,’ ” says Hemesath, who organized and led both trips. “It was a powerful message.” Last year the Biloxi group removed mud from homes and did cleanup work. This winter they helped a local family rebuild their home.

Justin Smith ’09 (Crossville, Tenn.) traveled to Biloxi both years. “I felt some sort of responsibility to go back,” he says. “And I’m glad that I did—I saw the status of Biloxi now, what it has done, and what is has left to do.”

The situation in New Orleans was quite different. “The conditions in the Ninth Ward were shocking,” says Olivia Killeen ’10 (Mendota Heights, Minn.). “I read the paper, I watch the news, and yet I had no idea that there are places in the United States that look like war zones.”

Killeen and others in New Orleans spent the week gutting houses and learning more about the political situation by attending a public hearing and a housing protest and hearing local residents speak. They worked with volunteers from across the country, gaining “a very different perspective from the one the media portrays” about Katrina and the rebuilding in New Orleans.

Trip participants will speak about their experiences and the current situation on the Gulf Coast at a panel discussion Tuesday, March 6 at noon in the Gould Library Athenaeum.