MALE SPEAKER #1: George and Dyane Gravely Are Not Professional Do It Yourselfers

Chapter 5 – Section 2 1 Citizens and the Community HARRY SMITH: George and Diane Gravely are not professional-do-it yourselfers. He was an engineer, she a school librarian. DIANE: Well, if you’d asked me 10 years ago if I’d be building houses, I’ll tell you, you are insane. HARRY SMITH: But a few years back George and Diane sold their home moved into an RV and dedicated their retirement years to volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. DIANE: This is our eighty-fifth project we’ve stopped for, and we worked on…I don’t know over 120 houses. HARRY SMITH: Just last year the Gravely’s were right here in Slidell, Louisiana building a habitat home for Sabrina Dupree and her three kids. The home was raised off the ground it was well inland from Lake Pontchartrain as Katrina approached. SABRINA: I felt very safe; if it wasn’t for watching TV during the night I would’ve stayed here. HARRY SMITH: But the flood water swallowed up their home like so many others. SABRINA: Just threw away basically everything, the mold and mildew had taken over everything. HARRY SMITH: With few contractors and bureaucratic delays, Sabrina felt alone, but she was not forgotten. GEORGE: We just felt we needed to come back and help these folks. HARRY SMITH: And that’s what they did returning, to rebuild Sabrina’s house and five other neighborhood homes. SABRINA: It’s exciting to know you’re coming home, everything is getting close to normal, but as normal as normal could get. HARRY SMITH: But normalcy is still a long way off in most of Slidell, so wide spread was the damage, so overwhelming the loss, that many home owners left and never returned. At this home next to where Diane is working, an indelible image, it appears that Katrina bore down as a family prepared to eat. DIANE: It’s somebody’s life that’s been stopped in midstream I think that’s what hits me.

Content Provided by BBC Motion Gallery 1 Chapter 5 – Section 2 2 Citizens and the Community HARRY SMITH: One of so many lives turned upside down and raising so many unanswered questions. DIANE: Where did they go? What are they doing? Why haven’t they come back? How quick did they have to go? How many kids lived here? It’s a life to me that has just been put on hold and how do they get that back together? I don’t know. GEORGE: Think about the number of houses that were lost in this storm. I can't put my hands around that, but you know beside here are five houses on Washington we can fix those, we can bring that part of them of a neighborhood back. HARRY SMITH: So with each cut and each nail. GEORGE: You feel good, I mean you know, you look back and see, or hope you’ve made a difference in the family. HARRY SMITH: They are making a difference to many families. SHARON RANDAZZO: This is their retirement, and they have other things to do, but they choose to come here and sacrifice for us to come and help us, and it’s greatly appreciated. HARRY SMITH: Diane and George say they wouldn’t live their retirement years any other way. DIANE: Nothing wrong with playing golf and playing bridge and doing all those things. I just don’t see any fulfillment out of that. GEORGE: We got this talent and we should use it for now. *****

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