Katrina Clean-up

Last Monday, October 3, my husband and I went to Ocean Springs, Mississippi with a group from our church. We met at the church, loaded supplies, stopped at the local health department for a tetanus shot and headed out.

We drove to St. Paul's Methodist Church in Ocean Springs. St. Paul's is a large church on the outskirts of town. The entire church building and grounds are being used for hurricane relief. After a (not so nice) welcome from a "Michael Brown wannabee" we were shown to our home for the week, an air-conditioned tent with 10 cots in it. There were men's tents and women's tents. The volunteer camp had "portapotties" and "shower tents" for our use. The church building was serving as a warehouse for food and household supplies that were being distributed to hurricane victims. There was a large, commercial kitchen in the church that was staffed by a volunteer group from North Carolina. This group prepared 3 meals a day for volunteer workers and evacuees. (They were good cooks and always greeted us with smiling faces.)

On Tuesday morning, three members of our group chose jobs at the church. Two women worked directly with evacuees. They helped them complete forms and gather household and food items. One lady worked in the food sorting and distribution room. Many food items had been donated and had to be sorted out. Then boxes were filled for families. Each box contained canned foods, cereals, snack foods, canned meats, etc.

The rest of our group joined with members of the Hope Community Church in West Palm Beach and were sent to a home that had been virtually destroyed by the storm surge and a tornado spawned by the hurricane.

The house was home to a couple in their 70's. They had designed and built the house more than 20 years ago. It had been a beautiful home, on a quiet street, that backed up to a bayou. The storm surge had been so high in the bayou that flood water had risen to within 2 feet of the ceiling of the home.

It had been 5 weeks since the hurricane and little had been done at this house. Our team removed furniture and appliances that were ruined by the flooding. We also ripped up carpet, shoveled out broken drywall and glass. We knocked out drywall, removed base boards, and removed debris from the yard. By the end of the week there was a pile of rubble in the yard at least 10 feet high and it covered the whole front of the lot. It was sad to think that this pile of rubble had such a short time ago been the home and valued possessions of this family.

The amazing thing was while we were removing piles of bricks that had fallen from the house we would often find a family treasure. Under the rubble we would find a tea cup, a family photo, a doll or other memento that was virtually untouched. How could such small, delicate items remain intact and unscratched through the violent storm and under the bricks and debris that had fallen on top of them?

There is so much work to be done in Ocean Springs and that is just one community on the eastern edge of Katrina's destruction. There will be a need for many volunteers, much food, many household items for many months. Our church plans to send another team in about 3 weeks, I plan to go again.

There are lots of photos of the Ocean Springs area at this address: http://www.datasync.com/~stpaul/index.htm