"Kicking Katrina's ass"

2005 Ochberg Fellow Mike Walter -- a Washington, D.C., broadcast journalist -- shot video during his weekend in New Orleans that the society hopes to use for a documentary about the project ...

Mike Walter (WUSA-TV)

Friday morning starts early: We are on the road at 8 a.m.

We are to meet at a house behind a church on State Street. We spot the group on the porch and know that we have found the right place.

I walk up and introduce myself to the leader, a guy named Will. Where there's a Will there's a way! This Will is young, earnest and knows he's making a difference. He confides in me later in the day that he also needs a break. Ten months ago he answered the call and moved here from North Carolina. In that time he's probably gutted more homes than he can count. He'll be leaving soon, and there will be another one just like him to take his place.

Today he's very much in charge, and deftly assigns the eager volunteers to their appointed tasks. It's a patchwork group of volunteers. Most are college students who will work hard during the day and party hard at night. I can tell this largely by the enthusiasm they exude as they talk about the pub crawl in the Quarter tonight. They are pliable, reliable and ready to work.

Once they jump into the job there is no resting, no talking, just action. It's just hard physical labor.

All of it is impressive to watch and to take part in. But the most impressive part of the day is watching Will talk to the homeowner. He is treated with respect. These are battered people. So much has been taken from them by Katrina. Will will do all he can to make sure that their dignity isn't taken as well.

Will asks the homeowner if it's OK if a videographer and I shoot video of the work effort. Will also asks what the homeowner wants to save, although all of us here know that there is nothing worth saving.

No judgments are made when the homeowner asks that we save his moldy sofa and love seat.

It is easy to forget why we are here. We think we are here for the experience, or, as journalists, for the story. We are here to witness the wrath of Katrina. We are here to see firsthand the damage and the recovery effort.

But as you stand inside this house -- what's left of it -- and watch Will talking to this elderly man you see the real story. You see a man whose hopes and dreams and life played out in this home.

Suddenly you recognize why we are all coming here: It's the people. It's about the people who care enough to come here and contribute, the people who care so deeply about a city that they refuse to leave or give up.

This is a story about the human condition. It's a story about Hope. I see it on this day and I see it throughout the weekend. I hear it in the voices of the people from the Times-Picayune.

Editor Dan Shea tells me that a lot of weekends he'll go out and gut homes and take his 10-year-old son with him. Before they leave he asks his son, "What are we doing today?" His son replies with a smile, "We are kicking Katrina's ass!"

Dan's wife will work alongside me on Sunday. She's mighty tough with a crowbar. I can see that spirit is alive in every member of the Shea family. It's alive in all the people from the newspaper whom I met and worked with all weekend long.

I'm getting ready to board a flight back to Washington, and while I know I didn't kick Katrina's ass, at least I helped people like Dan Shea, his wife and 10-year-old son. I know that Katrina tried to kick their asses, but in the end it's hope and not the hurricane that's prevailing in the Crescent City.

--Mike Walter