Volunteers involved with the project surveyed the area and color-coded houses according to their state of repair, according to The New Orleans Times-Picayune. The color red was assigned to homes that had yet to be gutted, yellow to those in the process of being rebuilt, blue to those inhabited or nearly rebuilt and green for empty lots.
The event was jointly organized by Jett and the Lower Ninth Network Empowerment Neighborhood Association. Nilima Mwendo, community liaison for NENA, selected Saturday as the ideal day to map and sought student volunteers from several institutions, Jett said. This included Washington University in St. Louis, East Texas Baptist University, Tulane University, Loyola University and St. Martin's Episcopal High School.
The information gathered from the project will help the community continue its efforts to rebuild, Mwendo told The Times-Picayune on Saturday, explaining that a clearer assessment of what still needs to be repaired will make it easier to ask for funding from the federal government.
Jett said that the key to creating a detailed map of the area -- about two square miles -- in only two days was delegating responsibility to student volunteers.
"I look to bring students quickly from the field aspects of mapping into the management that goes on behind it," he said.
This includes taking responsibility over project operations, such as seeking volunteers, preparing mapping assignments, assigning volunteers to particular areas and managing the data once it is captured in the field.
"It's not uncommon for a student to be introduced to mapping one day and become a leader the next," Jett said.
Amanda Norris, a law student at WashU who volunteered with the mapping initiative, said that working with community members on the project gave her a better idea about the state of the post-hurricane city.
"I think the thing that stuck out to me the most was how much hope was in the community," Norris said. "It's easy to drive down the street and see how much damage is still there. What you don't see is the people in the community working to fix up the neighborhoods."
Norris also said that Jett's project will show the public that most of the houses in the Lower Ninth Ward aren't completely abandoned.
"We talked to so many people who were working on their houses, but still needed additional resources to get things finished," she said.
In spreading the word about NENA, the mapping project will help Lower Ninth Ward residents apply for these resources.
This weekend's effort marked Jett's third mapping experience in New Orleans since Katrina ravaged the city. He and volunteers from Dartmouth mapped sections of Gentilly, another New Orleans neighborhood, twice last year.
Jett said that he hopes the project will spark his next goal of a sustainable mapping program, which would enable community members to update maps bimonthly or quarterly, as more homes are repaired.
Melissa Zolkeply, another law student at WashU, said that by walking around the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood and seeing the residents' efforts to rebuild she gained a sense of the pride of their community.
"As we were finishing up mapping on Saturday, I met a young man who was working on his house," Zolkeply said. "I explained what we were doing, and he said, 'Thank you for helping us rebuild our community. You have wings on your back; you are an angel.'"
