travel

Up to the Mountain

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment
Yesterday, I went up to The Mountain; the mountain that has inspired this blog – 6,684 Feet. Mount Mitchell tops the Black Mountain rangein central Western North Carolina. Sitting near the eastern edge of the Appalachian Mountains, the Black Mountains rise boldly from the North Carolina Piedmont with 14 peaks over 6,000 feet in elevation. And, Mitchell is the tallest at 6,684 feet.

Approaching the summit of Mount Mitchell.
The top of the Black Mountain range is rugged and sharp giving way to spectacular views on clear days. As you climb from the lower elevations to the upper reaches of the Black Mountains, the air turns cool and the hardwood forest transitions to a blanket of spruce and fir trees that give the range its name. It is a different world, a place of beauty and inspiration, a place to pause and reflect and a place to look out to what lies ahead.

It was a beautiful day, not perfectly clear, but the clouds against the blue sky made it it easy to reflect on the beauty our world has to offer. Check it out.

View looking north from the observation deck on the top of Mount Mitchell. Upper slopes of Mount Craig are peaking through the clouds on the right edge.

NNW View from the parking lot near the Mount Mitchell summit.
Forest floor beneath some evergreens near the summit of Mount Mitchell.

Hands and Feet – Reflections on a Weekend of Service

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment

I will provide for you and I’ll stand by your side

You’ll need a good companion now for this part of the ride

Yeah, leave behind your sorrows, let this day be the last

Well, tomorrow there’ll be sunshine and all this darkness past

– Land of Hope and Dreams, Bruce Spingsteen 
On the last Wednesday of summer, our group pulls out of the parking lot of Galilee United Methodist Church in Sterling, Virginia, towing a trailer full of tools, building supplies and luggage. Our mission is to help rebuild a home that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy in October of 2012. With six able bodies on board, our destination is Bethel United Methodist Church on the southern tip of Staten Island. Bethel will be our bunk house for the next four nights.
Galilee UMC Staten Island mission team, summer, 2014.
We will be working a few miles north of Bethel in the Midland Beach section of Staten Island. Midland Beach is part of what the New York City (NYC) Catholic Archdiocese considers the poorest parish on Staten Island and, Midland Beach was hit hard by Sandy. Nearly two years after the storm, this part of Staten Island is a mix of repaired homes with well-kept gardens alongside boarded up houses with overgrown yards.
The human costs of Sandy were higher than necessary because many people did not evacuate. Staten Island residents evacuated during Irene, which did little damage, only to have their homes looted while they were away. So, many residents decided to stay put during Sandy. According to the NY Times, Sandy took the lives of 43 people in New York City; 24 died on Staten Island with eight of those deaths in Midland Beach.
The people we met on Staten Island tell us of how rapidly their lives changed on October 29, 2012. Conditions went from heavy rain to waist-deep water pouring down the street in a matter of minutes. People ran for their lives. One person told us how the water rose from ankle deep to almost chest high in the short amount of time it took to reach her generator after her power went out. With water up to her car’s windows, she and her elderly father made it out by backing out of their neighborhood, which somehow kept water from being sucked into their engine’s intake and stalling the car. We heard another story of a man who went to get his computer from his basement and was trapped when water held his basement door shut. He did not make it out alive. Yet another person we met tells us of how he had to quit his job because he suffers from PTSD due to the trauma of the storm. He has thrown himself into doing volunteer work to help with recovery from the storm. He hopes to someday to be able to go back to work.
When our group arrives at the project site, we find a 275 square foot house on a 40 foot by 81 foot family-lot. The house was built in 1931 when people came to this section of Staten Island for summer getaways. The house has three rooms plus two small bathrooms. What was once a summer cottage came to be home to an older woman and her nine-year-old granddaughter.
Our project house on the corner of Patterson Avenue.
The homeowner, we will call her Connie, meets us when we arrive. She has been next door at a slightly larger home that sits on the same lot as her house. She owns this home too. It has been restored to livable condition and one of Connie’s grandchildren lives in the second home with her infant and the baby’s father. We learn that Connie bought the two homes in 2001 when she decided it was time to move out of Brooklyn.
Connie and her family were displaced when Sandy’s surge brought ashore enough water to almost cover the homes on their street. Since the storm, Connie has moved around from relative to relative while she waits for her home to be rebuilt. Connie’s family consists of her daughter and five grandchildren. Connie’s daughter lies in a NYC hospital suffering from the effects of a lifetime of drug abuse. She was recently taken off life support and we were told that she is probably only days away from dying. Connie has to choose between paying for her daughter’s funeral and hiring a contractor to finish the work on her house. Without us here, it is unclear what work might be done, if any at all. A few days after we return to Northern Virginia, we learned that Connie’s daughter has passed away. We can feel her and her grandchildren’s pain and wish them peace and a brighter future.
The drugs not only shortened Connie’s daughter’s life; each of her children suffers from the effects of her drug use. Because of her daughter’s condition, Connie looks after her five grandchildren, including her nine-year-old granddaughter who has rage issues. These complicated family issues make it impossible for the family to live together in the completed house on the family lot. So, until Connie and her granddaughter can move back into their house in Midland Beach, they sleep on the couches of one relative or another until they wear out their welcome and move on.
After Connie finishes showing us around the property, we begin to take stock of the condition of the house. Our first glance into the front bathroom raises doubt that this house is anywhere close to being in a livable condition. The bathroom is dark and there are openings in the floor that give a clear view of the crawl space beneath the house. There is missing dry wall. There is no flooring, no toilet, no sink, no running water and no electricity.
Once we get past the front bath, we find things in a bit better shape but covered with building supplies and lawn furniture. Once we clear out the rooms, we get a clearer picture of what needs to be done. It is a lot of work, but it is the kind of work we came to do. We know we can help; we just are not sure how much we can get done in the few days we are here. Undaunted, we divide into teams and get to work.
The living room covered with building supplies and lawn furniture.
Over the course of the next three days, we install two windows; case out half a dozen windows; drywall a roughed-in doorway; install kitchen cabinets, counter tops, and sink; and install two floors. We spend over 30 hours on the job site. Outside of one or two small items, we do almost all that is asked of us. In addition to this, one of our team members spends a couple of hours at a second house doing some tile work. We are told that the elderly homeowner feels abandoned and neglected by his community and church. He has lost faith and lost hope. For this brief time, while a stranger tiles his bathroom, the normally withdrawn and reticent man becomes talkative and shows a glimmer of happiness. For a moment, his faith is restored.
The garden window installed in the kitchen.
The completed kitchen. Our team installed the cabinets, counter tops and new garden window.
The new floor our team installed in the bedroom.
Around midday on Saturday, Connie shows up at her home. She is clearly pleased with our progress and comments more than once about how she wants to get in her kitchen and start cooking. We made enough progress for her to be able to start imagining moving back into her home and restarting her life on Staten Island. Her spirits are clearly high and she goes out of her way to thank us for all that we have done. As the sun begins to set and we work to finish a few last things, Connie asks if she can buy us dinner. We accept her offer and a bit later dive into to a small feast of local Italian and Chinese food under the light of a nearby streetlight. Connie and her brother, who helped her pick up the food, beam as they give us each a box of fresh baked Italian cookies.
After dinner, we clean up the work site and pack away our tools one last time. With the glow of Brooklyn and Manhattan behind us, we pull away from the Connie’s house and head south to Bethel UMC for one last night in the fellowship hall. We feel good that we accomplished what we came to do, but at the same time, we wish we could have done more. Connie’s front bath still needs to be finished. Her entry way floor needs to be installed. A couple of doors need to be installed. One last window needs to go in. And, licensed plumbers and electricians have to finish their respective pieces of work. The foundation that originally committed to funding this work has run out of money. It is unclear if they will do the work or not. And the next volunteer group is not scheduled to arrive until the second weekend in November. Despite all our progress, no one can give Connie a move-in date. We wish we could do more to get her off her relative’s couch and back into her own home
Sunday morning, we gather for bagels and muffins in the kitchen of Bethel. We are all tired and ready to go home. What will happen next and how Connie will get her house finished gnaws at us all. We talk about what it will take to get her into her home and what more we can do to help her and others on the island. Judging by the boarded up houses, there is much to do, and the foundation that was supposed to handle much of the rebuilding is out of money.  What our small team has accomplished and can accomplish seems inadequate in the context of the task at hand.
Eventually, it all comes into focus for us. We came as the hands and feet of Christ to provide our labor and use our skills to help rebuild a stranger’s house. We did this, but more importantly, we delivered hope. Hope to a grandmother that one day soon she will be back in her home with her granddaughter. Hope to those who toil to rebuild. Hope that they are not alone and that the help their community needs will be provided. Hope to an elderly man that he is not forgotten and that he can rely on his faith despite what his local church has not done for him. And hope to everyone affected by Sandy that we are all in this together and that when any of them are weary, someone will be there to be a good companion. And yes, we will stand by their side and provide for them because this is what our faith calls us to do.

Escape from Northern Virginia – Day 3

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment

Just a few quick photos for today. We worked long and hard on days two and three. We finished we what came to do and a bit more. The homeowner expressed thanks for all we did and showed real appreciation for us being here. We are all tired, but feel good that we made a difference for this one family here on Staten Island.

Mike cuts a piece of casing for one of the windows.

Mike nails in some casing on the bedroom window.
Jeff inspects the opening in the front bath room where the homeowner wants to install a casement window.

Don shows off the opening we created for the bathroom casement window.

Jeff checks out the garden window that was stored in the bedroom.
The bedroom floor installed/

Bruce plans out the kitchen.
The finished result of  Bruce’s long three days of work (with help from the team) – new garden window, cabinets installed, counter tops, sink in and all trimmed out.

Olivia marks a window in the bedroom in preparation for casing the window out.

Olivia shows off our finished casing work on the bedroom window.
Don and Olivia prepare the living room floor for flooring to be installed.
The living room floor going in.

On the Corner of Patterson Avenue – Escape from Northern Virginia, Day 2

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment
Day two was a long one. We got started a bit after 9:00 AM but did not stop until sometime after 8:00 PM. Good progress was made. We finished casing out the windows, leveled out the living room sub-floor, installed most of the flooring in the living room, finished the doorway between the kitchen and bedroom, finished hanging the kitchen cabinets, finished the new wall area that we created when we installed the garden window in the kitchen and prepped the garden window to be cased. Plus, Bruce, our skilled carpenter, took a couple of hours to help do some tile work at another house on the island.

Everyone worked hard and remained in high spirits throughout the day. We did not take an excursion into Manhattan, but we did treat ourselves to afternoon pastries from an Italian Bakery and New York Pizza for dinner. The food is a fine reward for the hard work.

The house on the corner of Patterson Avenue was probably built as a summer vacation home. As such, it seems like it must have been built with whatever materials were available. The original structural elements, which were not replaced after the storm like floor joists and studs, are an odd mix of sizes and types. One floor joist appears to be an ancient piece of tongue and grove flooring. This odd mix of materials makes for some challenging work.  With a lot of guidance from Bruce, we manage to overcome most of the challenges. 

We are driven by a desire to get as much done as we can but also conscience of the fact that this is someone’s home; someone who has been through a lot and is still facing big challenges. So, we want to do quality work in addition to helping get her back in her home as soon as possible. 
Today, we also have reflected a bit on why we are here. A couple of us admit that we came along with some doubt. Now that we are here and we are talking to those who lived through Sandy or who have come to help with the recovery, we realize that our few days here fixing one person’s home are small in comparison to magnitude of the need. Our efforts are certainly not enough, but do they make a difference?
We have learned that people stayed on the island for Sandy instead of evacuating because when the evacuated for Irene their homes were looted. Irene did not do much in the way of storm damage, but she set the stage for what would happen when Sandy arrived. We are told that Sandy turned suddenly on many. Conditions went from heavy rain to waist deep water in a matter of minutes as the storm surge pushed on to the island. With little time to respond, people ran for their lives and some did not make it.
Of those who did survive, they were left to deal with the trauma of the storm and the overwhelming task of cleaning up and rebuilding. We have heard about people living in cars, living with friends and moving from relative to relative while they wait for their homes to be rebuilt. We talk to one person who spent a large part of his retirement savings repairing his home only to have the city condemn it and tear it down. And, we hear of a person who is living in house where he has no hot water. To keep from taking a cold shower, he uses the water from his hose that is heated by the sun over the course of the day.
The impacts and effects of the storm on human lives go deep. There are people with PTSD and other stress related conditions. We hear of some people’s hope fading as help has not come or not been enough to get them back on their feet. We cannot help but think that the difference we are making is small and feel sadness that we cannot do more. For the few people we meet and hear their stories, we hope that our being here and listening helps them move closer to healing. And, for the one or two homes we work on, we hope that getting these families back into their homes might somehow bring them a bit more peace.

Escape from Northern Virgina – Day 1

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment

Wednesday night a small team of folks from Galilee United Methodist church in Sterling Virginia piled into an SUV towing a small trailer and drove north for an early start to the final weekend of the summer. Our Labor Day destination was the New York City burough of Staten Island. Shortly before midnight, we arrived on the Southern tip of Staten Island and settled in at Bethel United Methodist Church for the night.

We are not in NYC for a last summer vacation. We are here to help in the work of recovering from Hurricane Sandy. On Thursday, we headed to our work site near the eastern most edge of the island. The area was hit hard by Hurricane Sandy in 2012. On the surface, things look pretty normal, but we learned that for many recovery is still somewhere off in the distance. Sandy may be fading in terms of attention, especially when compared to Katrina, but the human costs of Sandy are just as real today as they were two years ago.

The home we are working on is small. The home owner moved to Staten Island from Brooklyn a few years before Sandy hit. She lost a gazebo and a car in the flooding that covered most of her home. Although, the gazebo may have saved her house from being totally destroyed. She is raising five grandchildren and dealing with the ill health of the grandchildren’s mother.

She commutes three hours from Long Island to meet us at her home. She has endured having rebuilding materials stolen including some that were donated and some she bought. She now has to buy much of what is needed to finish rebuilding her home.

Major structural work is mostly done. Finish work like kitchen cabinets, bathrooms, floors, trim, and final painting remains. Once all this work is done, she will have to have licensed plumbers and electricians take care of their respective pieces.We had to clear out the many building materials stored in the home to even figure out what was jobs we could tackle.

On day one, we got a garden window installed in the kitchen, trimmed out some of the windows and pulled together a good plan for day 2. We wrapped up the day with an evening excursion to Manhatten via the Staten Island Ferry…. more on all this latter.

A Curiosity That Was Once Familiar

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment
My wife, my daughter and I wandered into the Curious Iguana as we explored downtown Frederick, MD this past Saturday afternoon. My response to being in the Curious Iguana, a small independent bookstore, took me off guard. I felt like I imagine a former smoker might feel walking into a smoke filled room, but in a good way. I was reminded of a past addiction and cherished the brief reminder of the happiness it used to bring.

The smell of the books and the well laid out displays put me into a state of mind that was familiar, but almost forgotten. It’s a state where time slows, a keenness of mind and spirit ensues and nothing matters except searching for just the right book. I have been in that state of mind many times before, but I don’t know that I have ever been as acutely aware of it. For the most part, the kind of bookstores I used to spend hours in has left the retail landscape and I get my books online or as eBooks. 

I like the convenience of buying books online and enjoy reading eBooks, but a day like Saturday makes me long for the days of browsing the shelves of a well-stocked book store, thumbing the pages of books that catch my eye and leaving the store with something new and unexpected to read. Searching for books in store is a process of discovery. It is like following a new road or trail and finding an undiscovered  place or view. And, it is an experience that cannot be matched by a sophisticated database or program that makes suggestions as to what I should read next. 
We left the store with a new book for my daughter’s summer reading. She began to read it as soon as we got in the car. As we drove out of town, I commented on how nice it was go to a book store. My daughter took a break from her reading and interjected, “It felt great!” Yes, indeed it felt great, and because of that, I hope that places like the Curious Iguana are with us for many years to come.

World Cup Connections

N. Scott Emery, P.E.Leave a comment
With the 2014 World Cup beginning tomorrow, I am reminded of my own World Cup experience. Eight years ago I spent the better part of June in Germany for work, which coincided with the 2006 World Cup. All of Germany had World Cup fever. Just being in Germany at the same time as the World Cup was a great experience, but my experience did not end there.
It was nearly impossible not to be drawn into the excitement. Every restaurant, bar, beer hall and hotel lobby had a brand new HDTV tuned to the action. On the day the Brits were in Nuremberg to play Trinidad and Tobago, I happened to be in town. The British fans overran the city. By mid-morning, Nuremberg’s historic Hauptmarkt was packed with Brits in pre-match, drunken revelry. It was later reported that there were more Brits outside Nuremberg’s Frankenstadion than there were in the stadium for the match. I was told that there was an official list of British hooligans whose passports were confiscated to keep them from showing up in Germany for the Cup and raising too much hell. Those Brits are serious about their football.
I actually got to attend the World Cup knockout stage match between Portugal and the Netherlands in Nuremburg. When we got inside the stadium and to our seats, I was overwhelmed by the dynamic, energized feel of the stadium fueled by screaming groups of orange clad Dutch and burgundy clad Portuguese fans scattered around Frankenstadion. As I surveyed the stadium, I also noticed heavy duty fences between the sections of the stadium. I asked one of my German colleagues about the fences. He explained to me that the fences keep the visitor and home team fans separated from one another to keep riots from breaking out during hotly contested matches. I scanned our section again, noting groups of orange and burgundy clad fans sitting side by side.
The match was intense and was later nicknamed The Battle of Nuremberg. Portugal won 1-0, but not before a record number of red and yellow cards were issued. Late in the match, Portugal pushed the ball out of bounds to allow an injured Dutch player to get off the pitch. When the Netherlands brought the ball back in bounds, they kept the ball instead of passing it back to Portugal as is expected in a case like this. This sent the tension level in the stadium through the roof and because it was the World Cup those fences were not separating the fans of the two teams. It got a bit scary and I took note of the shortest route to the exit. In the end, I suppose I can thank Budweiser for being the exclusive World Cup beer vendor which kept the drinking down and the fans’ tempers just in check.
While going to a World Cup elimination match was an incredible experience, my favorite World Cup experience came when I spent a weekend in Southern Bavaria’s Füssen. After a day exploring Schloss Neuschwanstein and Schloss Hohenschwangua, I went to the hotel bar for a beer and to take in some World Cup action on the HDTV. It was a small place and I ended up at a table with a mixed group of locals and tourist. I managed to make conversation with the folks at the table using the little bit of German I knew and giving them a chance to practice their English. The US was playing Italy. And, as I recall, it seemed like everyone was cheering for the USA. It was really a fun night with the US playing the Italians to a 1-1 draw.

As I look back on that night, I realize that this is what the World Cup gives us. There we sat; a group of strangers, having a few beers, communicating as best we could through language barriers, collectively cheering for team USA. And, just for a couple hours, we connected with one another. So, now it begins again as it does once every four years. For a few weeks, people around the world will focus their attention on Brazil and the World Cup. The level of play will be superb, the competition will be fierce and the end result will be a true world champion. And, many times over in bars, coffee shops, and restaurants around the world, strangers will gather to watch and cheer. And, just maybe, they too will connect.