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PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI
HURRICANE KATRINA RELIEF MISSION
NOVEMBER 2-5, 2005
Tammy's BLOG
(now in CHRONOLOGICAL order below...)
Tamara (Tammy) Gross
tamaragross AT cfl.rr.com
MORE INFO:
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DAY 1: WEDNESDAY November 2, 2005
Wow. You ain't seen nothin' till you've seen a house plopped down on top of a car. Houses were completely lifted & moved, intact, from their foundations. The back door is now the front door, but it's still there. Refrigerators are up in trees. Cars are parked next to each other - one upside down, the next right side up. Convertibles have unidentifiable metal roofs while sedans are now turned into convertibles.
Our leader, Caron, is the wife of the Senior Pastor at Discovery Church. Their daughter-in-law was due to give birth before our trip. As of last night there was no baby, so Caron did not join us. Diana, Mary Lou & myself (Tammy) all met up at Orlando International & began our journey into this devastated area. We rented a car & made our way through what was once a beautiful town.
In Pass Christian Katrina obviously hit VERY hard. Some neighborhoods had multi-million dollar estates, some were very poor communities. All are now shells of a town. No businesses are operating - 2+ months after the storm. The Wal-Mart was completely gutted (hey - it had prime real estate facing the ocean - hard to feel sorry for them). Two days after Halloween it is eerie to see how all the merchandise was strewn about in the treetops surrounding the megastore skeleton. It looks like thousands of decorative ghosts hanging in the otherwise barren trees.
The church where we are staying, Trinity Episcopal, was established in 1824. It is right along the coastline & is now only a frame which resembles the shape of a traditional small town church. A large tent is set up with smaller tents all over. Our leaders are not here for our arrival day, so we are spoiled to stay in a large motor trailer which has water & electricity. Our leaders arrive tomorrow. This trailer was donated to Travis Todd, whose mother's house was down the street before Katrina roared in & literally wiped it off the face of the earth, along with most everything on that block. It is most amazing to see a before picture of the house.
On the small plane which took us in to Gulfport we got a sense that many if not most of the passengers were some type of relief worker. Professionals in the construction industry & plain old nobody's like us were all coming here to do something...anything.
After an incomplete tour of our little area, we made our way to a distribution center where we helped to unload a truckload of donated ice, & label all the clothing. They served us a very tasty & filling chicken & dumpling stew. We returned to the trailer where we talked & watched an inappropriate DVD on my tiny laptop (it was rated PG-13 - I had no idea the language would be so strong!). We all crashed early, & we should have a good start in the morning since the time zone is central & we gained one hour.
Our first night is a cushy one in the trailer, & we will move to the big echoing tent on cots for the next two nights where we'll "rough it."
Tammy Gross - day 1 blogger
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DAY 2: Thursday, November 3, 2005
Pass Christian
Today we got up confused about our timezone but managed to figure it out & STILL be late to everything. The lateness is because everywhere we go we run into people & get their "story." Like the man whose house was saved by the rubble of his neighbors. All their houses are completely gone, but his collected all their debris to protect from wind & water. The debris also protected the house from looters. We run into many other workers from all over the country, though I'm starting to think everyone was born in San Diego. People have such a helpful spirit, it really restores your faith in humanity to come here.
I am revising a previous statement I made in a "blog" about my trip to Africa this summer. I had said, quoting a friend, that it should be required that every American visit a third world country. Of greater or equal value to that would be for every American to visit a disaster zone - anywhere. Our nation's young people would be inspired in so many ways, & we more jaded old fogies would find our cynical hearts rejuvenated to find that even those in dire straits are learning to appreciate their world more than ever in the wake of disaster. Everyone here is only here to help. Those who are "stuck" here are learning that there's ALWAYS someone in a worse scenario than themselves. And they are SO amazed at the generosity of strangers - 99% of whom come here representing Jesus Christ's love.
Today we started out by going to the God's Kitchen along I-90 where we have a great view of the ocean. The Kitchen is run 100% on donations & volunteers. From there we tried to get on to the work site, but heard a few stories first. We found our destination after a few wrong turns & met up with our new San Diego buddies Tom, Mark & Ruben. Jason drove in from St. Louis to join us. He is originally from San Diego, as is our own Diana.
We spent all day pulling out dry wall & nails. Some very sweaty, dirty & backbreaking work. Even with my broken finger I did my part. I felt the rush of adrenaline when I single handedly (literally) took out an entire wall all by myself. Of course it was actually the easiest thing all day since it required mostly kicking, but was fun.
We bypassed all the free food set-ups to make our way to town for lunch. In town there are actual businesses running! It was exciting to see commerce since there is none along the coastline. We got some burgers & fries & got to know each other better. Turns out Tom is the only person of great knowledge for this kind of work. He's in masonry while the rest of us are mostly computer geeks or in other non-physical careers.
The girls went to the community showers while I did my own version of a bath (using moist body wipes). We all felt MUCH better after that. We found a great volunteer set-up right next to the showers where we not only could eat with no bugs, but the tent is heated & air conditioned. Great food too, even with cheesecake for dessert. All donated food.
From there we headed to a church service with Jason, who had come by himself to work under the same leadership we are reporting to. 3 soloists sang & led us in song, then the pastor of the local Baptist church spoke. He had incredible stories to tell about Hurricane Camille, & especially about Katrina. His entire family is STILL homeless, yet never so happy & hopeful.
Tom, Mark & Ruben had showed up there so we talked for a while before all heading to our various places. Travis was here to meet us & insisted we stay in his trailer. He & a few others & Jason all slept either in small tents or in the one big community tent set up here at the Campus Crusade headquarters of the gutted out Episcopal church. We must warn that our special treatment is unique. Future teams following us can get creative in finding places to sleep elsewhere, but here at the HQ it is sleeping bags in a big communal tent - porta potties are across the road. Hot showers are up the road several blocks.
Feeling spoiled, I'm able to sleep pretty comfortably in my sleeping bag on top of a real bed. My blogging is made possible by the growing number of generators. I found internet connection via BellSouth booths set up with phones. Poky phone lines are better than nothing. A few good Samaritans are working to set up wireless internet. I met Ken, a kindred spirit, at the service tonight. Shortly after arriving from Virginia a few days ago, he flagged down a cable company worker & begged for a line to his campsite. The guy said there would be a wait, but showed up off duty 2 days later & told Ken to stop traffic while he ran a wire across the road. So now I may be able to give that a shot, though it is in town (about 10 minutes to drive) & we only have the car rental in Diana's name, so I may or may not have access to that. But he is already networking to get wireless over here at the coastline for volunteers.
OK - it's officially too late to be up. More to come...
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Day 3: Friday November 4, 2005
Today we began our work by joining our 3 California dudes at the elderly widow's house. We finished our part of gutting it out & putting the small amount of salvaged treasures back in the garage. It is now ready for a construction team to come & rebuild it into a livable home.
From there we went into town to seek out some more supplies & wi-fi internet. Couldn't send but could download - yeah! But the site was too far from our base camp to be practical. We enjoyed some familiar cuisine at Subway in town.
We then joined a fresh crew of college students from Illinois University (Champaign) who were up to their ears in muck at what I think was a police academy or something. It was so slippery with mud it was like ice skating while trying to push & carry & roll out a zillion ruined things like police batons, huge exercise equipment, computers, tables, etc. There was nasty insulation all over to make it worse. These kids all drove 13 hours straight & went to this work right away when they arrived. They didn't have hardly any of the needed tools to fit the situation, so it was pretty miserable. They were really great troopers. They were initiated a lot harder than we'd been when we arrived! We all had black muck to wash off our boots & clothes & off our bodies. The showers were packed, so a long line for all.
In search of a phone connection for the internet I found out that there is wi-fi near the great big tent where we eat sometimes. For some reason it is not working well for my computer & I'm not happy about that, but others seem to be doing ok. Like me, all the geeks come out at night to seek internet after a long day of work.
Our on-site coordinator with Campus Crusade is Travis, & today he was GIVEN a 2nd motor home - this one is an RV, & fully loaded. He wanted us to sleep there instead of the big tent. We were all set to join the kids for a noisy night, but he insisted & we are there. The folks who gave it to him were sent here (from Virginia?) to do some construction work & then instructed to give the RV to someone who would make good use of it & offer a tax deduction. Wow.
That's the kind of thing that happens every day down here. Someone mentions they need 100 tarps, an hour later a pallet shows up with exactly that. Just talking with people & making needs known goes pretty far.
Wi-Fi lives at the big tent by the showers!!! A group of men from Mexico is working non-stop on the Episcopal church. They were at the phone station making their nightly calls & being so nice & helpful as I was trying to hook up my phone line to the computer. After a geek came by & told me there is wi-fi at the big tent, I left the station in the car & found that all was getting shut off just as I arrived. So I turned around & the men were gone from the station. Further down the road in TOTAL blackness they were walking toward the church. So I stopped & offered a ride. Couldn't ask any questions since they spoke no English but they were grateful. That's the closest I come to picking up a hitchhiker I guess. Went back for a good long sleep in the new trailer. Jason, Mary Lou & Diana were all talking so we hung out for a while before I kicked them out of my "bedroom."
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Day 4: Final Day, Saturday November 5, 2005
Awaking early for our final day in Pass Christian (pronounced Kris-chee-an), Diana, Mary Lou & I got our assignment to join some fresh arrivals from Georgia (college students) at a house for more drywall demo-ing. Turns out that Diana knew one of the gals through relatives. Jason, our adopted team member, joined us at the site too.
"Drywall" is not accurate for this older house. It had two layers of sheetrock & something else. A little tougher. Facing the ocean, this house was incredibly preserved by two trees which fell on either side of it, anchoring the house to keep it fully together. There was NO flooding. But the roof was severely damaged, & thus much wall damage. Also some foundation damage from the weight of one of the trees. Their little office structure in the back had no damage, other than some mold from all the moisture. Considering what had happened around them it was amazing. This time we had the owners with us. Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman (for real - her name is Dr. Kathleen C. Quinn) was our gracious hostess to guide us through the rooms for demo-ing. Unlike the other house a few blocks away, this one has the old southern charm. Beautiful wood floors. There was NO flooding in this house. The other house had had water all the way to the ceiling (even the attic had gotten an inch or two). However, this one had all the other damage, & turns out that one side of the house had termite damage too, so just as well we were demoing those rooms.
Even though no flooding, the insurance company is still giving them a hard time, prompting them to take legal action. The same story everywhere is that all the insurance companies are fighting over wind versus flood. They refuse to pay stating that the damage is from flood, not covered. Never mind that the only reason there was flood was from a hurricane which tore off the roofs!! For years these companies have taken all our money in expectance that they'd pay when disaster strikes. Now they don't want to do the only thing they are paid to do - pay up. Lots of lawsuits are being filed.
Our little trio could only put in a half day so we could shower & make our way to the airport, but it was great. We have much yet to reflect upon. We saw so much. Heard many stories. Many thoughts & images are swirling in our heads. After some rest, we'll be uploading a ton of photos from our cameras as well as from the cameras of those we met along the way.
I have free wi-fi at the Gulfport airport & must finish quickly to upload before having to go through security, so I'm cutting it short. Maybe more will come with the photos. We'll definitely be uploading some info (like lists & suggestions) to benefit future teams coming this way...
TTFN
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Back At Home Afterthoughts:
Mary Lou points out that this whole experience is our "40 Days Of Community" (Rick Warren) put into action. What a lesson we've learned & will keep learning!!
When my mom picked me up at the airport she told me the exciting conclusion of HER mission. This weekend she was doing a garage sale at my house, which is up for sale, when the First United Methodist Church pulled up with a semi asking for donations for Katrina victims in Louisiana. They looked at our stuff & Mom told them to take it all! It was a blessing to them, to us & to those receiving since most of it is the kind of stuff people actually need!!!!
I forgot to mention a couple things in my blog (& I'm sure missed a LOT) about our experience. One is the colorfulness of the town of Pass Christian. With the tent set-up it's really a tight community. The police & workers & residents all congregate in the same places daily for meals, so everyone knows what's up & who's who. It's really pretty cool - even what I'd ironically call "ideal" in many ways.
Another thing I forgot to mention is Randy's Rangers - click for the website. Randy is a great guy who's banded a lot of people together to run a terrific distribution center in the middle of the disaster-struck area. We met him so briefly but he really left a great impression on us. We helped a little on the first day there & since had passed by in the car many times to see the corner lot grow so busy with helpers & helpees. How inspiring that gang is!
One last image I'll never forget, despite that no photo was taken. There is a little old man riding around on his bike. I assume he's a resident. He was so friendly & happy & asking everyone where they're from. With little or no teeth, & an old-time aviator's cap, & long BROWN hair with a long gray mustache, he's quite a sight. He makes you look twice & it always ends in a smile as I saw others taking their gander. Folks like that just light up a town!