Katrina still touching lives-Aspergillus to Anthrax bacteria had been found in t

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Katrina still touching lives

University - Buies Creek,NC

http://www.campbell.edu/news/releases/sp07/ns_rel.0009.html

Members of University School of Pharmacy's Christian

Pharmacists Fellowship International (CPFI) spent a week in New

Orleans' St. Bernard's Parrish this Christmas helping to rebuild

homes in connection with Samaritans Purse ministries. Many reported

that the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with the residents was an

experience that changed their lives forever.

" Having been to New Orleans twice before Hurricane Katrina, I had

many previously formed opinions about the city, " said

Whiddon, fourth-year pharmacy student from Cary, N.C. " Yet five days

changed everything I thought I knew. "

Whiddon and a team of students worked on two homes, one

less than a mile north of the levy that had been completely

submerged during the storm. In an effort to repair the house for

rebuilding, the students tore out every wall, ceiling and floor.

They cleaned mold from under every surface and were informed by

members of Samaritans Purse that everything from Aspergillus to

Anthrax bacteria had been found in these houses, including two

strains of mold that no lab could identify.

" As we tore through the layers of this house, we saw neighbors up

and down the street living in houses in the same condition, " Whiddon

said. " They were living in these hazardous conditions due to a lack

of alternatives. "

Almost one and one-half years have passed since Hurricane Katrina

slammed into New Orleans and not even a Walmart is open in St.

Bernard's Parrish. On their way to one of the building sites, the

students drove past the Chalmette Hospital which still bore signs of

the brutality of the storm. Whole walls were missing and IV poles,

drug carts and beds hung from the resulting holes.