design, build, learn. repeat.

KaBOOM Chicka Boom

Edit [12/26/08]: See these photos and more at my Flickr page. If you haven’t heard of the fine folks at KaBOOM!, they travel the country building playgrounds for neighborhoods that need them. Their goal: a place to play within walking distance of every child in America. Friday and Saturday, I helped prepare and lead the construction of a shade structure as part of a KaBOOM! build at the Isiah Fredericks Community Center in North Gulfport. The shade structure was designed by Jessie Zenor and built by Hands On and the North Gulfport Community Land Trust; it incorporated hundreds of tiles …

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Ike Brings High Water to Biloxi

Biking to work this morning, I thought the low-lying area near our office looked especially swampy. I soon found out that this was no backed-up storm drain but in fact a very high tide due to water being pushed by Hurricane Ike. The water has receded a little for now, but this morning I estimate it peaked at 5 1/2 to 6 feet above normal sea level. High enough to cover the beach all the way up to the seawall, close parts of US 90 and other streets around Biloxi. NORTHEAST TO EAST WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 25 TO 35 …

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1 Year in Biloxi

Meant to post this yesterday, but didn’t have internet access. Today marks my one-year anniversary in Biloxi! On September 4th last year, I was pulling my fully loaded (and since deceased) Hyundai Accent into the parking lot of the Salvation Army Volunteer Village. One year, two cars, five-plus completed houses, 120 blog posts, and 2080 work hours later, what have I learned? What are the most memorable experiences? Conquered my fear of heights. Learned how to drive a stick shift. Started judo. Six months so far! Visited the Doo-Nanny and the Museum of Wonder in Seale, Alabama. Sang along to …

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Goodbye to Gustav, Part 2

(Above) The first band of rain from Hurricane Gustav quickly approaches the Hands On base. As I mentioned earlier, I rode out Hurricane Gustav volunteering with Hands On in a Red Cross shelter at Stennis Space Center. Here are a few pictures and key moments.

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Goodbye to Gustav

Back home after two days in a Red Cross shelter, I’m fine, and so is everyone that I’ve heard from. The damage, luckily, seems to be minimal here in Biloxi. I’m too spaced out to write much now, but here are the basics: I stayed with about half of Hands On Gulf Coast at a Red Cross shelter in Stennis Space Center, a huge complex on the west end of the Mississippi Gulf Coast (Stennis is where they build space shuttle engines and parts). I’m ready for some hot food that doesn’t come in a little can. The Red Cross …

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Bracing for the storm

The approach of Hurricane Gustav made the mood yesterday — the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina — especially tense. No one’s sure how severely the hurricane will affect Biloxi; although it’s tracking towards west Louisiana, it could be a Category 4 or 5 when it arrives, bringing high winds and rain, although a Katrina-like storm surge is less likely. Many residents and businesses are boarding up windows and preparing to evacuate if necessary. I helped Patty board up her windows (no small undertaking from a single 25′ ladder). Yesterday and today, at the suggestion of David Perkes, he and I …

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Packin’ Up Is Hard to Do

Hurricane preparations here are well under way. Unless the storm changes course, an evacuation order will probably come tomorrow, but the Coordination Center isn’t waiting around. Everything valuable is being packed up and taken to safer places inland. It’s a big and messy operation, but in a way it’s also a chance to clean house a little bit. There’s nothing like an evacuation to force you to take stock of what is important to you.

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Hurricane Gustav

It developed a couple of days ago and now everyone’s talking about Hurricane Gustav! The storm is still in the Caribbean, where it has killed at least 22 people, but if it continues on its current course it could land pretty directly on New Orleans and/or the Mississippi Gulf Coast as a Category 3 or higher storm. We should know by Saturday or Sunday whether we need to leave. Hands On has a fairly well-developed evacuation plan and if they evacuate I’ll go with them to a shelter near Jackson. Since Tropical Storm Fay barely affected us, this would be …

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Looking back: A Blitz Build for Ruth

Ruth has been a resident of East Biloxi all her life. Hurricane Katrina brought 8 feet of water into her home and shifted it off its foundation. Returning after the hurricane, Ruth stayed in the flooded home until she received a trailer from the First Presbyterian Church. Over two years later, her house was finally ready to build. Through the collaboration of volunteer organizations including Hope Force, Hands On Gulf Coast, and the East Biloxi Coordination Center, the house was blitz-built in approximately one week. The new house is handicap-accessible and features two bedrooms, an open living and dining room, …

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A House for Carmen

Carmen’s house is a complex solution to a complex situation, and it’s been my primary house project over the past couple of months; new projects have been slow to come in, so I’ve had the opportunity to develop this one in detail, working in partnership with Jessie. Carmen’s husband, Clarence, has been living on this property since the 1960s, and he seems to have been tirelessly at work during that time; at its pre-Katrina peak, the property accommodated a house at the front (since torn down), a second, two-story house (torn down to the concrete foundation visible below), a rear …

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