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A message posted on the Wegener Media Website noted:
"We hope to help encourage the folks in New Orleans thru this weekend of community service, as they rebuild their city."
Via email, Wegener Media's president, David Wegener, just returned from New Orleans, commented:
The damage in New Orleans is mind-boggling.
Thousands and thousands of homes which are entirely uninhabitable. Thousands of people still living in campers, their cars, street corners, etc. It is tragic. Even though it's been 20 months, the conditions are very much 3rd world. Electricity is up around 90% of the city, but water and gas and sewage are around 50-60% of the city, and even though some people are back (about 30% of the population), many of them don't have basic necessities (refrigerators, showers, etc)..
Honestly it's going to be a decade before they're in gear again. Sunday afternoon I walked an entire subdivision in the lower 9th ward, meeting the residents. There were 4 of them, out of (probably) 200 houses. One elderly gentleman was out reading his paper, and told me he had survived the '65 hurricane, and that most people rebuilt immediately then, but he was surprised that so few had come back this time. Some folks from a Baptist church in Kentucky had rebuilt his home for him, and he had erected a plaque on the wall thanking them.
We gave out food for around 1200 meals to people who were rebuilding their homes, we cut some yards for folks and a church yard...
It's really pathetic.. The city (St Bernards Parish) is now setting a fine of $100/day for people who's grass is over 18" tall, and they're confiscating property after assessing the fines.. People (who now have no job, no insurance, no help) simply cannot afford to pay these fines. So some of them are losing the only thing they have--their family property...
Several churches have organized lawn teams who do nothing but chop down grass to keep people's lawns within regulation, so they don't lose their homes while they try to rebuild. One church (Celebration Church - a large inter-racial church there ( http://www.celebrationchurch.org/ ) has 100+ people doing nothing but free lawn care for homeowners who are attempting to rebuild. We helped one of these teams on Tuesday. It was really neat to meet kids and adults from all over the US who have come to donate their summer for people in need, and it's quite a testament to the churches there who are doing a hard job for free.
Unfortunately, this won't make your evening news as it doesn't fit the politically-correct goals of mass-media, but it is happening all the same, and I was really moved by the generosity happening there.
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Charles W. Moore
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