Doing Our Part

By Andrew Kauffman, M.S. degree student

This past Thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to be a part of a team of volunteers from State College taking part in the clean up and restoration of a library in Long Beach, MS. Long Beach is located on the Gulf Coast and, although the library sits several blocks away from the coastline, it suffered severe damage from the flood surge caused by the fierce winds of Hurricane Katrina.

At the beginning of this past semester, as I watched the tragic events of Katrina unfold on the news, I was gripped with the desire to do something, anything, to help. I am currently in my sixth year as a student in the AE program. As an aspiring professional engineer and member of the Penn State community, I felt a responsibility to do whatever I could to bring hope to those who suffered loss in this tragedy. I was eager to respond to this disaster and gave little thought to giving up my Thanksgiving break for a chance to help out.

All the news footage that I had watched during the hurricane did little to prepare me for the devastation that I witnessed following the grueling 24 hour drive down to Long Beach. I have been part of reconstruction and humanitarian teams to Honduras, Guatemala, and parts of China, but I have never witnessed destruction as widespread as what I saw on the Gulf Coast. Even two months following the hurricane, demolished cars, collapsed buildings, and piles of debris were everywhere.

The purpose of our team was to bring hope to the Long Beach community by cleaning out the public library, which had been subjected to sustained flooding reaching levels of four to five feet in the main floor of the building. The water entered the building through a gaping hole in the brick masonry curtain wall facade created by the force of the storm surge. It was determined that the overall structural integrity of the building was still sound, and the goal was to save as many of the books as possible and clean out the library in preparation for mold treatment and restoration.

The team had to wear ventilator masks to avoid breathing in the toxic air as we worked. In two and half days of work we were able to box up over 6,000 books, which we transported back to State College in a rented truck to be stored until the library is completely restored. In addition, all of the moldy books and destroyed furniture from the main floor of the library were removed in preparation for the mold treatment. A follow up team from State College went back to Long Beach over winter break to finish cleaning out the library. The new Schlow Centre Region Library in State College will be donating furniture from the old Schlow library to replace the furniture destroyed in the hurricane. The team that I accompanied to Long Beach over Thanksgiving is part of an ongoing effort from the State College community called “Doing Our Part.” This group is comprised of a committee of business leaders, engineers, and contractors from the Centre Region whose purpose is to implement a central Pennsylvania response to the reconstruction needs of the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina. Professor Kevin Parfitt from the AE department is part of this effort and provides engineering expertise to the committee. The Long Beach Public Library restoration is one of several projects that have been targeted by the committee. We are currently planning a trip back to the Long Beach community over spring break to provide AE and other Penn State students with the same opportunity that I had to take part in the Katrina relief efforts. If you are interested in learning more and would like to find out how you can support this effort please visit www.statecollege.com and click on the link for “Doing Our Part.”