As many students look forward to a week off classes for spring break, three students from Winona State anticipate a trip to New Orleans to learn about the recovery efforts after a natural disaster.
Juniors Annie Stadstad and Amanda Kaufman and graduate student Karen Smith will spend five days helping with Hurricane Katrina relief in New Orleans.
They also plan to network with people who might be able to help with flood relief in Winona County.
Both Stadstad and Kaufman are making the trip for the third time, this time with some financial backing from the Student Senate’s flood relief fund.
Stadstad said they’re thankful for part of their cost to be offset by the fund.
“They gave us funding they had set aside at the beginning of the year for flood relief,” Stadstad said. “It was going to disappear if they didn’t use it this year, so they gave it to us to help get rid of some of our cost.”
Stadstad added that whatever isn’t covered by the fund will be paid out of pocket and they had planned on going with or without any financial support.
On their past two trips, Stadstad and Kaufman spent their time helping people with the recovery process.
This time around they want to find people further along in the recovery process to get tips for the recovery around the Winona area.
ge at different points in time,” Stadstad said. “The woman whose house we gutted the very first year we went is almost to the point where she can move back into her house.”
As co-coordinators for some of the flood relief at WSU, Kaufman and Stadstad organized flood recovery weekends where students helped with relief in Goodview, Minnesota City, Rushford and Stockton.
They have also worked with AmeriCorps and Lutheran Disaster Services.
One of the problems Stadstad said they’re facing is figuring out the next phase of recovery because the work needed is more stuff that not everyone can do.
“At the beginning it’s a lot of mudding, gutting and yard work, stuff anyone can do,” Stadstad said. “The next phase is a lot of construction and drywall and stuff that you need more specialized volunteers and that’s a lot harder to find.”
She added that they are planning relief for April 18 that will work in conjunction with Spruce Up Winona.
She said they want it to be similar to their previous relief efforts where they send a lot of students to different locations.
For now, she said they look forward to seeing where the people they’ve helped are at in their recovery process and they hope to bring some helpful tips back to those still recovering in Minnesota.

Contact Courtney at CLZinter8738@winona.edu