Bring Miracle

Kellie Joseph's Lower 9th Ward home has been lost....again.

Joseph’s home of more than a decade destroyed for the second time in two years. Hurricane Katrina swallowed up her home with ten feet of water and then, this past weekend, a fire finished it off.

Joseph, a mother of six, raced down from her temporary residence in Baton Rouge to find her home destroyed by fire. “The firefighters found a picture of my grandmother and a picture of my youngest daughter and that's all they found,” Joseph said.

Investigators said the fire was started with a stolen car, which had been stripped and dumped in Joseph’s driveway before being lit on fire. The flames spread to her nearby home, which she had been rebuilding.      

Joseph said she’d managed to repair 80 percent of her home through Road Home money. She had plans to turn on the electricity there for the first time since Katrina on Monday.

But it was not to be.

SNIP

Part of the problem, according to neighbors, was no one saw anything due to lack of streetlights in an area struggling to rebuild.

Now some medical students at Tulane who heard of the devastating news, have decided to help the family rebuild again. They have started a website called Hope in Grace for what is called Project: Bring Miracle. From the website..

On a fresh late-summer's afternoon of the 22nd of September, 2007, Miracle Lewis came down to New Orleans to see her newly restored room. Miracle's family was rebuilding the home after the house had been filled with ten feet of water and damaged by a massive tree. After being forced out by the storm to Port Allen, LA, and on to Houston, TX, her family had made it a little closer to their goal of returning to their roots by finding temporary-stay housing in Baton Rouge. The gleeful approval in Miracle's eyes after seeing her room on this day, however, was truly a milestone on the soon-to-be-realized path of bringing the family back home.

(Miracle in front of what was her home)

[...]
After losing their home originally in Hurricane Katrina the Joseph family put $138,000 which they received from a Road Home grant towards rebuilding their home and life. This investment was tragically lost in the fire, and unfortunately the maximum they can receive from their insurance to rebuild their home a second time is $12,000. As a consequence, the Joseph family will not have the means to rebuild their house.

A rebuilding fund has been established by State Representative Charmaine Marchand at Capital One that is specifically restricted for use only in reconstruction.

You can read more AND make a Donation at  Hope in Grace.

If it is not possible to donate may I suggest taking a moment to leave a personal message of hope for the Joseph family at the website LINK HERE. I would think at such a time it would bring hope to receive messages of care from people near and far.

So how about taking a moment and go over there.

UPDATE: 1:45am--appears the site is having some problems. Hopefully it will be resolved by tomorrow.

Links are Working Now

Comments

[lb0313]

We should get them hooked up with the Brad Pitt project

[Elspeth R]

Only $12K to re-rebuild?!?!?! WTF is that??? That 'might' get a contractor to give you a quote. That would barely cover clearing the site and laying new footings...if that, let alone permits. I am LIVID! The gov't LOLLY-freakin'-GAGGED for two years and is STILL barely giving a nod in Nola's direction...residents trying to rebuild, return, renew are being 'treated' to this B.S.?!?! After having to claw their way up from the destruction and relocation?!?!? Blessings on Miracle and those helping her. I will check out my balance and see if I can donate right now, worst case, by next paycheck. This is bullsh*t of the first order! Had there been streetlights back up and functioning, the car may never have been stolen from where it was, let alone dumped and torched. (why the emm-effers TORCHED it when they were trying to 'hide' it in the darkness is beyond me...hello/?! my guess is drugs were in use...bad decision made even worse...jeebus on toast points!!!)
Why is it my inner-cynic is thinking "well, here's a way to slip in a no-bid contract for Blackwater to be back patrolling the neighborhood - thus scaring the rebuilding, returning residents off by sheer intimidation - thereby allowing developers to pick up the lots for a sliver of their value and 'voila' gated, high-dollar enclave w/personal putting greens"?!?!?
Auuugghhh...
Healing (again) energies to Miracle and her family/friends/neighbors - I hope the thugs are caught, and made to clean up their act and help rebuild her home (learning valuable trade skills in the process and moving away from crime).
Elspeth

[scout]

lb...my read of Brad's project is that it is for the area between Claiborne and Flood Ave. Joseph's home is in Holy Cross neighborhood. Maybe it wouldn't make a difference.

[MapleStreet]

One thing I see missing from the recovery plan is the ability to make rebuilding an inviting proposition. Imagine I ask you to drop your life savings into building a modest house in the middle of several square miles of debris / trashed buildings; no streetlights; questionable on the timing of when water will get to you; questionable on the outcome of the new flood-zone maps; questionable on the steps that anyone is going to do to even rebuild the levees (much less improve them).

This is why I am a liberal on social issues. For such things to happen, it takes something bigger than one person.

[Rayne]

Can't make a sizable donation, but I can throw something in the pot.

I wonder if one of Lowe's Cusato Cottages would work; the 1807 sq. ft. model, based on Lowe's early estimate of $55/sf might work. I generally use a higher number, like $100/sf, should help with cost of lot cleanup since the foundation work is simpler than it is here in the great white north.