23 Law Students Spend Spring Break Assisting Disaster Victims in New Orleans

Group Service Trip to New Orleans is the Law School’s Fourth

On Friday, March 13, 23 law students traveled by van from Iowa City to New Orleans to spend their spring breaks helping hurricane victims living on the Gulf Coast. This is the fourth annual such trip sponsored by the Equal Justice Foundation, a law-student organization that supports students pursuing public interest careers. This year, in addition to the New Orleans group, students also helped disaster victims in Cedar Rapids over spring break.

Third-year law student Lauren Hansen noted that, although the areas that Hurricane Katrina struck receive less national attention than they used to, there is much work to do. “Years after hurricanes devastated the Gulf Coast, the people of New Orleans and the surrounding areas still need our help to rebuild,” she said.

Even four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, New Orleans is desperately in need of energetic volunteers and has come to rely on a yearly influx of “voluntourists” from colleges and universities across the country to help the city recover. The storm left behind 64.3 million cubic yards of debris in Louisiana alone, creating an asbestos and lead contamination problem throughout the area that is overwhelming government resources. Much of this debris is toxic and remains to be cleaned. In addition, thousands of people throughout the city are still displaced from their homes and struggling to reclaim their lives.

EJF’s volunteers were split into two groups. About 15 students spent the week doing lead remediation and painting a house from start to finish with ACORN, a nationwide organization that advocates for low- and moderate-income families.

In addition, on the last day, students doing manual labor built rain gardens for the community in the lower ninth ward.  A rain garden is a planted depression that allows rainwater runoff from impervious urban areas like roofs, driveways, walkways, and compacted lawn areas the opportunity to be absorbed. This reduces rain runoff by allowing stormwater to soak into the ground (as opposed to flowing into storm drains and surface waters which causes erosion, water pollution, flooding, and diminished groundwater).  Rain gardens can cut down on the amount of pollution reaching creeks and streams by up to 30%.  Below, law students pose in front of a completed rain garden they constructed.

Another group of 10 students worked with New Orleans Legal Aid (NOLAC), preparing legal documents and performing client intake. NOLAC helps displaced locals recover wrongfully withheld damage deposits, fight consumer fraud, resist foreclosure, obtain public benefits, and more.

Over the past three years, Iowa Law students have donated over 5,000 hours to rebuilding New Orleans and providing legal services. This amounts to dozens of gutted homes, saving the owners thousands of dollars each.

“As a Louisiana native, the opportunity to go to New Orleans to help with the rebuilding effort is especially meaningful for me,” said third-year law student Daniel Zeno.  “Although many families in the state, including mine were not directly impacted by the storm, all Louisianans, whether in Louisiana or not, feel the loss our state has suffered.  Rebuilding has been a lengthy and difficult process, but with the help of many, like the Iowa law students, we are sure we will succeed. I know the people of New Orleans, and the people of Louisiana appreciate our help.”

Despite the flagging economy and the equally critical demands for resources in Iowa’s flooded towns and cities, service-trip volunteers still managed to raise over $16,000 to defray the costs of safety gear, lodging, and transportation. While the law school community contributed a considerable amount to the effort, many other donations came from in-state Iowans who, despite all the state has been through, still saw the value in helping others in need as well. EJF also received generous support from the Iowa Law School Foundation in addition to ECGPS and UISG, the two student governments at the University of Iowa.