One congregation joins in Katrina relief
[2-15-06]

Eleven of us from the East Hampton Church returned last night from a week’s stay in Gautier (pronounced Go-ché), Mississippi. We were part of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance team which has been on the ground since September, helping people put their lives and homes back together. It was a remarkable experience for all of us on this team.

With a wide variety of skills (or in my case non skills) we were assigned varying ranges of tasks, from cooking, to office management, to roofing. Together, we shingled and insulated one home for a woman with disabilities who has been living in Memphis since the storm, and mucked out (taking the debris, wallboard, rugs - everything - out of the house); repaired poorly constructed boards, insulated and wall boarded another home. In the meantime, we erected the camp tent, did camp clean up duties, and purchased supplies for the work teams that would follow us. (There were three other groups in camp when we left yesterday.) We had a great sense of accomplishment as we saw tasks being completed.

But our work leaves such a small imprint on such an overwhelming canvas. The devastation is beyond description and beyond belief. As we drove toward the coast from the airport in Jackson, we began to point out trees that had fallen, neon signs that had been blown away in Hattiesburg, some 60 miles away. Throughout the week we would see little pockets of the damage: homes with blue tarped roofs, FEMA trailers on the front yards, and debris piled up near the curb. But as we left yesterday, we drove on Highway 90 along the coast in Biloxi and Gulfport, and we began to see the enormous task that lies ahead. Blocks and blocks are still waiting for the rubble to be removed. There are areas that look like they have been bombed, Businesses are gone – there is the foundation, but nothing else. These are most likely the mom-and-pop variety of stores that populate beach communities, and there is little chance that they will come back. There is construction being done on the casinos in Biloxi – one is already open for business – and some of the larger hotels and homes, but everything else is piecemeal. There is no economy outside of the service industries – the fast food chains are up and running and feeding the construction workers – and Lowe’s, Home Depot and Wal-Mart were running at full-speed. Workers are hard to find for these establishments; they advertise $7.00 an hour wages, but there is no place for people to live.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance will be on site for two to three years. Groups are strongly encouraged to plan work camps and mission trips; there is so much work to do! We are thankful for the nearly $5,000 that was raised in the East Hampton Community for this trip. We will be offering a report in worship on March 12, and at other opportunities as they develop.

One final word of encouragement. On Sunday we worshiped at the Gautier Presbyterian Church, a small church with about 70 members. The church sustained some damage as did many of its members. But we were all struck by the powerful spirit of hope that was present in worship that morning. There were several visiting groups to join the congregation in worship. Every seat was taken (and they were new, of course, since the old pews were found floating in a couple feet of water when the doors were opened after the storm.) They sang with enthusiasm along with the new piano, hymnal and bibles. In the service there was a service of ordination and installation of one elder, and when the call came out for all elders to come forward, there were people representing churches from South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Ohio, New York and other states, forming again, an unbreakable bond of the Body of Christ.