The Elliotts are Finally Home!
Aloma Elliott and her husband Lewellyn have been desperately trying to rebuild their home on Pasteur Boulevard, lost to the floodwaters of Hurricane Katrina.
The Elliott’s evacuated to Atlanta with four of their children and stayed with Mrs. Elliott’s family. This was an extremely stressful time for the Elliott’s. Mrs. Elliott was hospitalized while in Georgia. She has arthritis and vertigo. She has diabetes and almost had a stroke because her sugar was so high while she was in Georgia.
Mr. Elliott also had medical problems while living in Georgia. Both of them were both so worried about their house. The Red Cross showed them their house online and all that you could see was the roof. It was devastating! They didn’t even recognize the neighborhood. They stayed in Georgia for two years until they moved to Kenner to try and begin rebuilding their home.
She loves her house on Pasteur—it’s is in a nice neighborhood with friendly people and they were very happy there. She is very anxious to move back home.
The Elliott’s have four biological and three adopted children. Since returning home, Mrs. Elliott’s medical problems have continued. During this period, her father passed away.
The Elliotts got Road Home money, but were swindled by an unscrupulous contractor and faced a gap in funding. She told OHH that even if we can restore one room and a bathroom they would move in there to get out of the area they are in now.
With the help of OHH volunteers from around the country and those from Crossroads Church in Ruston, Louisiana, the Elliott’s are now back home!
Four U.S. congressmen volunteered with Operation Helping Hands and helped to paint a house in Lakeview. This is Rep. Steve Scalise’s district and he got fellow representatives Steve King of Iowa, bottom left, Anh “Joseph “ Cao of Louisiana, bottom right, and top left, representative Adrian King of Nebraska, along with Rep. Scalise to spend a hot afternoon painting the home. Others in the photo are volunteers from Scalise’s office and OHH volunteers from the University of Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns.
We’ll be saying good-bye to 14 of our long term volunteers who are leaving OHH to return to their homes or jobs or further their education. They have worked very hard while here and the staff and our homeowners appreciate all that you have done. A big thank you to: Caitlyn DeCastro, Daniel Cleffi, Eric DeHate, Rich Donahue, Vince Fiedler-Ross, Kyle Fischler, Joseph Fontenberry, Ashley Green, Whitney Huver, Kristen Impastato, Pamela Kopsky, Alex Lilly, Andrew Ryan, Alex Steward, and Chelsea Williams.
