Advice for Other Volunteers

If you or your group is considering volunteering for hurricane recovery work, you should definitely do it. For me and most of my students it was one of the most rewarding times in our lives. Here is some simple advice to make your trip go smoothly

If you're fit and healthy, you should be fine Many people worry about the health effects, but nobody in our group had any illness. If you are asthmatic or have mold allergies bring some meds and your own high-quality respirator. The dust masks we got were pretty basic. Nevertheless, our volunteers only had mild scratches and pokes from nails. There is a medical building at Camp Algiers. Get a tetanus shot if you haven't had one in awhile--they are free at the camp.

Work with a reliable agency. Volunteers more than anything want to do helpful, meaningful work. We worked with ACORN --a great organization. They are well-organized, are doing house gutting for needy homeowners, and they provide everything you need except a few items in italics in the packing list.

Arrange for room and board. You don't want to come home from an exhausting day gutting houses to peanut butter and jelly and a pup tent. We stayed in a well-run FEMA camp in Algiers, just across the river from downtown. I cannot say enough about the great job that Deployed Resources does running this camp. It's like summer camp but better, with hot meals, wifi internet access, packed lunches, free laundry, and air-conditioned dorm tents. The only limitation is a restriction against minors in the camp. It's strictly 18 and over.

A packing listPack lightly in a single bag.

• work clothes
  
• heavy boots
  
• toiletries in a small bag
  
• stuff sack for clean clothes on trips to showers
  
• flip flops
  
• sunscreen
  
• bug repellent
  
• leather work gloves
  
• laptop and digital camera
  
• play clothes
  
• a first aid kit

A tool list If you are providing your own tools (we did not need to) here what you need to gut houses in a team of 15-20 people:

• 6 claw hammers (straight and curved claws)
  
• 3 large crowbars
  
• 1 large sledgehammer
  
• 4 solid-tire heavy wheelbarrows
  
• 2 household brooms
  
• 2 large shop brooms
  
• 1 pair lock cutters for cutting copper pipe, wiring, and water supply tubing.