Four years ago, a slow-moving storm system crept over Louisiana bringing flooding unlike ever before. The natural disaster now known as the “thousand year flood,” devastated several parishes, killed 13 people and yielded a national response. One of thousands who answered the call for help was Alex Tubridy, civic engagement coordinator for the Center for Leadership & Civic Engagement (CLCE), who then was an AmeriCorps NCCC team leader. 

After completing weeks of AmeriCorps training in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Tubridy and his team left for Greeneville, Tennessee for their first community service project. But on the third day, the team got a call that shifted their attention south. That night they packed their things, filled up the van’s tank and headed toward Baton Rouge. 

“When we first got to Baton Rouge, my team showed up while the floodwater was receding,” Tubridy said. “For the first week, we ended up staying in a museum. We would set up cots or roll out sleeping bags on the floor.”

The team spent more than two months helping residents restore their homes and communities. Tubridy, a Niagara Falls, New York native, says he’d never experienced anything like it. 

“For the five or six weeks we were there, my team did mucking and gutting. Mucking is when you have to remove all of the mud, debris and dirt that’s inside a house that the floodwaters bring in. Gutting is when you have to gut a house. Depending on how high the water was, we would do either a four-foot gut or a full floor-to-ceiling gut. We were literally taking down the house to the studs,” he explained.  

Tubridy’s team gutted more than 20 homes before transitioning to mold remediation. Along the way, he made it a point to learn more about the homeowners who’d lost everything in the floods. 

“It was heartbreaking having these conversations and knowing that most of us were not in the same situation,” the western New Yorker said. “We’re here to provide whatever aide and assistance we can, but knowing this was the most we could do was unfortunate.” 

Even facing devastation, Tubridy said residents were sure to demonstrate southern hospitality. “We had people make a big gumbo pot and serve it to us, or they would do a crawfish bake and we had fresh shrimp once,” he added. 

After leaving Baton Rouge, the team returned to Vicksburg for a week-long debrief with other AmeriCorps teams. Although some teams returned to Louisiana right after, Tubridy’s headed north to Norton, Virginia— home of the WoodBooger, better known as BigFoot. It was here that the group worked with the city to build a mile-and-a-half of mountain bike trails in the Appalachians. After giving the trails a ride for themselves, they returned to Vicksburg—this time for service. 

“Vicksburg was the second largest Civil War battle after Gettysburg so there was a lot of Civil War history there. We were doing trail work and removal of invasive species and a little bit of wetland restoration,” said the Canisius ‘15 grad who majored in biology. “I think we were in Vicksburg for about a week-and-a-half before there was a wildfire that happened in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.”

In Gatlinburg, Tubridy’s team took on the task of managing a warehouse that was set up to take in donations from across the country. They also assisted with coordinating volunteer staff for Volunteer East Tennessee and mapping damaged properties. 

Tubridy said, “This was a very wide response so my team was split up and did a lot of different tasks throughout the day. It was equally as difficult as responding to Baton Rouge. Oftentimes, people lost their homes and their employment to the fire.” 

Following holiday break, the team reunited in Virginia where they assisted with homeless shelter operations for nearly two months. In late-February 2017, the team returned to Baton Rouge to wrap their service year with AmeriCorps NCCC. Tubridy said this time was much different. 

“When we returned to Baton Rouge, they were in the rebuild cycle of the disaster response,” he added. “We worked with Habitat for Humanity to help with rebuilding projects. We had pretty much experienced a full cycle of disaster response during our year of service. It was a very interesting thing to see and live through.”

After the service year was over, Tubridy returned to western New York for a few months before starting graduate school at his alma mater. He said the transition back to “normal life” took some easing into. 

“I found myself getting anxious because I felt like I wasn’t giving back to the community enough when I got back,” he explained. “[Community service] was something I did every day for an entire year—weekends included— to coming back home and not having anything set up to start right away. I found myself sitting around most of the time just feeling like I wasn’t doing enough but it kind of lights a fire to get out and do more.”

Tubridy says his service experience was what motivated him to pursue a career in student life. He wanted to work with young adults to solve social issues and injustices facing the community. 

“Having that full-year where I was just out working with other young adults, opened my eyes to the passion and dedication that young adults have,” he said. “That is what really swayed me to pursue this as a career. I wanted to stay involved with communities and work toward fixing issues with young people while making a living out of it.” 

Since joining the CLCE, Tubridy has introduced hundreds of RIT students to the city around them through “Into the ROC” programming. Earlier this year, he also went on an Alternative Break trip to St. Marks, Florida where he helped with trail work— a skill acquired through AmeriCorps service. While Alex continues to make a home for himself at RIT, he encourages more students to consider post graduate service. 

“There’s a possibility that these communities [where you’re serving] may be facing similar issues to your home community and you can learn about efforts they’re taking to combat it which you could bring back to your own community,” Tubridy concluded.