Last month, a federal judge ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to resume making payments for housing for people who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Dennis Curran, who works as a subcontractor at HSPH in Operations, has seen first-hand the ongoing need for housing in the hurricane-devastated region. A trained plumber, he spent a week this fall in the Ninth Ward of New Orleans helping to rebuild homes there. (His employer, Maguire Plumbing, participates in a partnership by the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors and Rebuilding Together to help repair the homes of low-income homeowners around the country). What Curran saw during his trip he describes as "kind of heartbreaking." His photos, shown below, tell the story.
Dennis Curran shows where the water line was on this house.
The removable roof of a truck left in a street has become a depository for debris.
A memorial in the form of a cross and a wreath has been erected next to this home.
Some residents live in trailers outside of their damaged homes.
Copyright, 2007, President and Fellows of Harvard College
