A message from New Orleans

Here is a message from my buddy Kev who lives in New Orleans...I thought this as a sad but interesting story. We need to keep helping them out (and others in the gulf), there is still so much distruction!

WHERE YAT?!

Who would have thought that being a fat piece of shit could pay

dividends? Well it's true.

As many of you know, I have been volunteering with Habitat for

Humanity, musicians village,helping build houses for the last week.

(I'm a doctor, not a engineer, damn it!) Yesterday we were

filling in dirt so water doesn't accumulate. (stagnant water =

mosquitoes, mosquitoes bad) Anyway, being the fat bastard that I

am, I got tired shoveling dirt. It was only in the low 90's with

80% humidity. So I leaned against the column of concrete blocks

that the house was going to sit on. Very sturdy; or so you would

think. The column started to lean. I may not know anything about

construction, but I would want my house to be able to tolerate

someone leaning on it. Even a fatass like me. Apparently they

only filled in the top block with concrete, not the entire column.

To make matters worse, this step was preformed by contractors, not

volunteers. Our krewe chief got an uneasy look as he checked the

other columns. All hollow! He went to the other off-site house

these contractors had worked on. Last week we had erected the

foundation, bracings, and the floor. He returned. All hollow.

These hollow blocks would have supported the weight of the house,

but one good wind likely would have toppled them. Why did this

happen, who knows. The contractors had hired subcontractors. They

may have saved a little money on concrete? It must have taken just

as long to block the column and fill only the top block as to fill

the entire column. Anyway, they're coming back to fix the problem,

and say they can do it without removing the work we had already

finished. Luckily these contractors were hired only for the off

site houses, not any of the 30 houses in the musicians village that

were dedicated last saturday.

Everywhere I go, people are always asking me, how is new orleans?

After spending the last week in the upper ninth ward (not as

devastated as the lower ninth ward) I can easily say we have a

long way to go. It may not be too bad by me or the quarters, but

most areas have a long way to go.

I know, right now you're saying, what can I do. Easy. Next week,

august 29, is the one year anniversary of the greatest man-made

catastrophe (non-military anyway). thank you army corps of

engineers. Visit www.strength.org for a list of restaurants

donating a portion of their proceeds to help rebuild the gulf

coast. Eat plenty, that extra weight just might save the day.

WORD!