Chad Thatcher

Chad Thatcher is a NASA aerospace engineer who had finished remodeling the home he bought in Slidell just a month ago. The whole neighborhood caught a six-foot storm surge that remained as a four-foot lake for several days.

When we arrived, Chad had already removed the bottom four feet of drywall and insulation in most of the rooms. The bathrooms were still “intact,” with black mold all the way to the ceilings. It smelled nastier than words can describe, forcing us to wear filters all day.

Today was relatively comfortable—80 degrees and 80% humidity. We still sweated about a gallon, as measured by our water intake and the fact that no one needed to use the porta-potty.

In three and a half hours, fourteen of us removed all drywall, insulation and the remaining possessions. By the time we left, you could see clear through the rooms, with only the skeleton of studs remaining.

Chad said, “I can’t find words to tell you all how grateful I am. This would have taken me forever to complete.”

We came to be a blessing to others and left blessed ourselves.

Tonight we are invited to eat with the next door neighbor. The neighbor has many trees on the back end of his property. Many of those trees were either blown down or snapped off halfway to the top. A FEMA-approved contractor bid on the tree removal job--$50,000. That same day, Rich (King of Chainsaws) walked over to ask the neighbor, as a favor to the Hilltop organization, could we please use his damaged trees for practice in training chainsaw apprentices? Heh. Our crews have been "practicing" there ever since. The menu includes Gator Sausage, some crawfish dish, and I heard the word Etoufee in the list of a dozen or more items. Yummy! I believe the dish with Nutria in it was intended as a joke. Nutrias look like a rat on steroids, probably containing plenty of meat, but rodents are not normally my style.

Jack [filthy but happy]