Princeton residents report a shameful lack of progress
By: Kara Fitzpatrick
Princeton residents who have recently traveled to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to assist in Hurricane Katrina cleanup say that despite the fact that eight months have passed since the storm, the area is in poor shape and visibly ill-equipped for the upcoming hurricane season, which officially begins Thursday.
Gretchen Sword of Nassau Presbyterian Church, who returned May 9 from a week-long trip to assist in the rebuilding of Biloxi, Miss., said the church has organized seven trips to Biloxi since October and plans two more this summer.
Ms. Sword said what she saw on her most recent trip is what one would expect to see weeks not months after a hurricane made landfall.
"Eighty-five percent of the people who lost their homes are still living in trailers. Trailers aren’t what you live in during hurricane season," she said. "People down there feel like the world has forgotten about them."
Linda Grenis, her husband, Michael, and her three children, ages 12 to 17, traveled to Biloxi over spring break in April to volunteer in the relief effort. While Ms. Grenis’ trip was totally unrelated to the work being done by Nassau Presbyterian, she echoed Ms. Sword’s sentiments on the state of the Gulf Coast.
"To see how our fellow Americans were living was mind-boggling," Ms. Grenis said. "It was worse than I imagined."
Ms. Grenis said she was motivated to take her family to the Gulf Coast as volunteers after the president of a Mississippi synagogue which the Jewish Center of Princeton adopted after the storm spoke locally, revealing that the severity of the problems related to the storm had not subsided.
"It was at that point I realized that we don’t think about (Katrina) anymore," Ms. Grenis said.
The Grenis family, working with the non-faith-based volunteer organization Hands On Network, spent a week in Biloxi removing mold, cleaning up damaged homes and working at food distribution centers. While some grocery stores have opened, they provide a limited amount of goods and some residents can’t even afford to purchase those goods. "A lot of people don’t even have the money or the resources," she explained.
Ms. Grenis said what she saw while she was in Mississippi was disheartening. "Every day, the tide brings in refrigerators, tires, microwaves, roofs. Everything is gone, completely.
"There were moments that it seemed almost surreal so you could separate yourself from it," she said, adding that her children returned from the trip rather shaken.
Ms. Sword noticed similar signs of destruction that remain to this day.
"I will prepare people that I take on these trips, saying that it’s kind of like a war zone. The whole guts of people’s houses are exposed. You’d see tricycles 40 feet up in the trees," she said. "You just think something like this couldn’t have happened in the United States."
However, Ms. Sword, who first traveled to the Gulf Cost in October, said she has noticed a few signs of improvement since her first journey. Since the fall, the large stuff "what I mean by large stuff is the casinos," she said has been cleared. "It’s still the people’s homes that are unlivable and the people’s businesses that are lost," she said.
Both Ms. Sword and Ms. Grenis said the attitude of those affected is remarkable but some of the resident’s are clearly becoming tired.
"I know that right after the storm, these people were so hopeful, they were so resilient," Ms. Sword said. "Something I noticed on this last trip was that the people that I met in October, they just looked aged."
Ms. Grenis said those whom she met were grateful that she and her family came to help. "They really appreciate the human contact," she said, adding that she would urge those who have the means to help Katrina victims through an organization such as the Hands On Network.
Ms. Sword agreed that much still needs to be done before Gulf Coast residents resume a normal life. In the meantime, she suggested that those who are able volunteer their time. The two upcoming trips planned by Nassau Presbyterian are open to all community members.
In addition, Nassau Presbyterian will host Karaoke for Katrina at 7 p.m. on June 25. The event will benefit long-term projects being taken on by the church to assist two Mississippi congregations affected by the storm.
"The idea is to just not forget," Ms. Sword said. "Now it’s even more important to remind these people that their country has not forgotten about them."

