IBEW Local 164 committed to rebuilding New Orleans.

The images from New Orleans one year in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the lack of recovery in the historic 9th Ward in particular, prompted the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 164, based in Paramus, N.J. to partner with Rebuilding Together Bergen County to support REBUILD 1000!, a national effort to rehabilitate 1,000 Gulf Coast houses affected by last year's storms.

Rebuilding Together Bergen County dispatched a total of 19 volunteers, including five fully certified Local 164 electricians, to the area. During a six-day period, the skilled craftsmen and women, as well as lay workers, worked on four homes. Local 164's electrical workers completed a comprehensive rewiring of two homes, corrective wiring in one home, as well as the restoration of complete electrical service to all four residences.

"Pictures of the devastation that remains in the 9th Ward do not represent the dire reality these people are facing on a daily basis," said Carl Fry of Wyckoff, N.J., an electrical project manager and member of the Board of Directors of Rebuilding Bergen County, who volunteered. "But there is hope. And where there is hope, there is a strong desire to move forward."

In addition to donating skills and materials to the rebuilding effort, Local 164 donated $10,000 to the Brotherhood's Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund immediately following the storm. Funds provided short- and long-term assistance to union members and other residents who lost homes and jobs as a result of the storm.