MIDDLETOWN — Refrigerators with old food still inside. Broken children's bicycles. Water-stained photos of friends, family.
A group of students and faculty from Brookdale Community College's chapter of New Jersey Clean Water Watch saw it all when they visited New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward during their spring break to clean up the damage left from Hurricane Katrina.
"A lot, honestly, hasn't been touched since the storm," said Katie Feeney, Brookdale's campus organizer for Water Watch.
Feeney headed to Bywater, La., on March 10 with a dozen Brookdale students and two staff members to help gut and clean out storm-ravaged houses in one of the poorest areas of the city. They returned to New Jersey March 18.
Although many of the families who lived in the houses have been displaced and relocated all over the country, the ongoing goal is to get them back in their former homes, said Feeney, 22, of Sea Bright.
"A lot of them are paying mortgages on houses that are no longer standing," she said. "It is such a horrible situation."
The group met up with the Water Watch group from Stockton College in Pomona and spent nighttime and meal time in Bywater Church of Christ, which housed volunteers.
"Overall, it was a life-changing experience," said Alex Holodak, 19, of Old Bridge, a trip participant. "We were going into houses that had been neglected since the storm. You could tell that the water was up so high that it was only a foot from the roof . . . and you could just see where everything landed after the water receded."
Shane Evans, 19, of Middletown, said one of the first things he noticed when he walked into one of the houses was a chair hanging from a chandelier on the ceiling.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "I remember thinking "How is it that this place still looks like this?' "
Evans said what made him the most disgusted was that the federal government has made so little progress with cleanup efforts in the 1 1/2 years since the storm.
But one of the most heartening parts of the trip was the outpouring of gratitude from those working to rebuild their lives.
"They were so appreciative of our help," Evans said. "The people that were down there were so glad that we were there."
