Out of hurricane destruction, hope grows

A team of volunteers from Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church helped clean up and start the rebuilding process for a Mississippi community.

By: Lea Kahn
When Bruce McGraw returned from hurricane-ravaged Mississippi last month, he brought home a piece of cloth that he presented to the congregation of the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church.
   That piece of drapery, which came from a heavily damaged church in East Biloxi, is more than a memento of Hurricane Katrina’s destruction. It is part of the fabric of hope that volunteers represented to the hurricane’s survivors, Mr. McGraw said this week.
   Mr. McGraw, who lives on Empress Lane, is one of the members of a work team organized by the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church that spent 11 days in Mississippi last month. The group spent Oct. 11-22 helping residents clean up.

Clean-up volunteers needed
The Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church is organizing a work team of handymen and non-skilled workers to return to Mississippi later this month to continue the clean-up of areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.


   The group plans to leave Nov. 12 and return home Nov. 20. There is a commitment of eight days. It is not necessary to be a member of the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church congregation to volunteer.

   "For people who want to respond (and help hurricane survivors), it’s better to go with an organized group. You can’t be a lone wolf in this effort," said Bruce McGraw, a church member who spent 11 days in Mississippi last month.

   Volunteers will fly to Mississippi on commercial airliners — leaving from Philadelphia International Airport — at their own expense. Arrangements will be made to provide rides to and from the airport. Once volunteers arrive in Mississippi, they may rent a van or car to reach the camp site at the Orange Grove Presbyterian Church in Gulfport, Miss.

   Volunteers will sleep on cots in small tents. They may eat at food kitchens, cooking at the church or eating in local restaurants. Team members will pay for the cost of food in restaurants.

   There is no need to bring tools. Wal-Mart and Home Depot are open. The primary work is the removal of muck and debris. Rubber boots, leather gloves and face masks are recommended because they are easy to clean.

   Volunteers should bring a sleeping bag, extra blankets, a flashlight and extra batteries, casual or work shirts, jeans or cotton trousers, shorts, heavy work shoes, rain gear and sleeping attire because they will be at a camp site with both genders.

   For more information, persons may contact Roberta Gernhardt at [email protected] or the Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church office at (609) 896-1212.

   Mr. McGraw and Rick van den Heuvel, who traveled to Mississippi with the work crew, said that virtually every building in Biloxi had been damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The city, which is located on a peninsula, suffered damage from the storm surge as the water swept into the city and then as it left the city, they said.
   Upon their arrival, the team — which also included Lawrence residents Victor Murray, Lisa Zelanak, Rose Chan and Tom and Tracy Gates — was dispatched to help specific neighborhoods in East Biloxi. The effort was organized through Oxfam America and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Mr. van den Heuvel said. The two organizations provide emergency relief to disaster areas.
   The blue tarps that covered the roofs of nearly every building were among the first things he noticed as the airplane began to land near Biloxi, said Mr. van den Heuvel, who lives on Winnipeg Lane.
   While the number of blue tarps was a striking image, he said, it paled by comparison when he found himself standing in the middle of the street in an East Biloxi neighborhood — face to face with the results of Hurricane Katrina.
   "We saw the inside of the houses," Mr. van den Heuvel said. "It was more immediate and more personal. Standing there, you experience it, you feel it. It’s visceral. That’s the best way I can describe it."
   In some cases, there were no houses — just a set of elaborate steps leading to nowhere, they said. There were portions of houses still standing and piles of debris that had been a house. Still other houses had been twisted off their foundations by the storm surge.
   The two men recalled one house on which they worked. It belonged to Ronnie Fountain, who had lived in the house since he was 8 years old. The 77-year-old man was sitting, dejected, on the front porch of his house when they arrived, Mr. McGraw said.
   Inside Mr. Fountain’s house, the floodwater surged to within 12 inches of the ceiling, Mr. McGraw said. When they reached up to a ceiling fan to remove it, water poured out of the light fixture that was part of the fan, they said.
   "Imagine a room where you can’t have anything back, except ceramic (items), that won’t deteriorate in water," Mr. McGraw said. Almost the entire contents of Mr. Fountain’s house, as well as the houses of his neighbors, had to be discarded, he added.
   Before the work crews gutted the house and threw out water-soaked items, Mr. Fountain was given a chance to go through the house to search for keepsakes. The work crews emptied all of the closets in search of a box of Christmas figurines, Mr. McGraw said.
   Mr. Fountain was certain the box of figurines was on the back porch, he said. The crews looked there, but could not find it. They searched the house for the box, without success. But on the bottom shelf of a bookshelf in the last room to be emptied, they found the box — the last thing to be removed from the house, he said.
   Then, all of the contents of Mr. Fountain’s house — including cabinets, sheetrock and flooring — were pushed into a pile of debris 10 feet tall by 30 feet long outside the residence, Mr. McGraw said. As the cleanup proceeded, Mr. McGraw said, he initially was concerned about Mr. Fountain.
   "As his things were pushed into a pile, (Mr. Fountain) said, ‘There goes my heart — but I guess it’s a good thing.’ You can see the resiliency of the human spirit," Mr. McGraw said.
   Given the amount of devastation, the volunteers realized they would not be staying in a hotel. The work crews stayed in "volunteer villages" set up by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Mr. McGraw said. The Lawrenceville Presbyterian Church crew camped out in tents on the grounds of a Presbyterian church in Gulfport, Miss.
   Living conditions were primitive, Mr. McGraw said. They slept on cots in tents and had only lukewarm water in their outdoor showers. Port-a-johns served as sanitary facilities, he said.
   To prevent dehydration, it was necessary to drink water, Mr. van den Heuvel said, adding that a warm bottle of water could be "surprisingly refreshing" after long hours of work in 90-degree temperatures.
   At the end of the day, the work crews would gather together to debrief — to share images and concerns and stories of the day’s events, Mr. McGraw said. Sharing was very important, he said.
   "I don’t think anybody was prepared to see what we saw, day after day after day — to see crushed buildings, or a truck lying on its side on top of a car, and endless piles of rubbish strewn everywhere," Mr. van den Heuvel added.
   Mr. McGraw recalled that as he flew to Mississippi on an airplane, the other passengers asked him why he was going there to help. The answer was quite simple, he said.
   "It was the right thing to do," he said. "The people were in trouble and clearly in need, and we had the capacity to respond. We are organizing chaos to make order."
   Mr. van den Heuvel agreed and said that was the reason he, too, volunteered his time. The need was so important and the damage was so widespread that there was little choice but to help the survivors, he said.
   "We can be individual threads in the fabric of hope," Mr. van den Heuvel said. "The option to do nothing is just not tenable."