Since my Red Cross deployment did not come through yet, I hooked up with Global Crossroad for my volunteer work, an organization who has a straight line to the Mayor’s office in Biloxi, Mississippi (and the same in which I did my volunteer trip to South Africa). As a result of that connection, there has been checkpoint-clearance and a variety of opportunities right in the thick of things -- exactly what a volunteer in a war zone wants to have. I took no donations as most folks have already been quite generous with the Red Cross, Salvation Army, and others. In fact, all of Global’s volunteers on this trip have paid their own way for flight, gas, car, food, camping equipment, etc., and we are sustaining ourselves through MRE’s and living in small tents. Our focus is to provide needed manpower to help clean up devastated homes, and also work in the evacuation/disaster centers to help with food and clothing distribution.
As a little frame of reference for you, since I have family in Texas, I flew into that state Saturday as Rita passed through, and then I drove through Louisiana from the northwest corner down to the southeast corner, stopping at towns along the way like Alexandria, Lafeyette, and Baton Rouge. Both gas and water were rare, and in fact I was surprised to hear that 30 minutes after I drove through Alexandria, all businesses had to close at 1 PM by executive order because the water was running out (only medical and emergency facilities could stay open). Eventually, though, I made it to the Global Crossroad office in Baton Rouge, and then went just north of New Orleans on into Biloxi Monday evening.
As far as the cleanup part of our work, it is back-breaking, heavy-lifting, constantly-moving work in 100 degree weather using shovels, axes, sledgehammers, chainsaws, wheelbarrows, and rakes, and it is physically demanding and probably doesn’t have near the volunteers it needs (people want to get paid for this sort of thing). I have had to soak my whole body with water all day as I work, and I know that I am losing weight each day with all the sweat (which I am trying to counter with high-calorie meals and liquids). My feet are currenty covered in blisters, of which I don't feel the pain until we return back to camp...and then it hits.
We have volunteers that person-for-person would put paid crews to shame, and in fact the first house we did, a paid crew abandoned the effort because it was too much work for them. This was a neighborhood that had a 22 ft wall of water slam through. One couple who rode it out was carried down the street in waste-deep water and had to bust through a bottom-floor window of another house and climb to the top quickly before the water rose the rest of the way. In another instance, an 80-year old man sat on a matress inside his house with his little puppy, and the mattress rose to the very top of his vaulted ceiling, where he floated for about five hours before being rescued. Some weren’t so lucky, as eight bodies had previously been fished out of the bayou behind the house we were working on. These people went through sheer hell, and I am deeply humbled and awed by the way the survivors have risen up and are planning their recovery.
The human being in the midst of a disaster is a mightier force than the disaster itself.
Biloxi is a city that received some of the worst damage of Katrina, as the eastern part of the storm’s eye passed over it causing 20 to near-50 ft storm surges. It is hard to mentally grasp, but when you are here and you look at the water lines on buildings, it becomes clear that this was no dream, but instead a staggering reality. Having a daughter, I also feel deep sadness for the children who had to go through this trauma and lost all of their toys, their protected way of life, and even their friends or loved ones (in many cases). It is deeply heartbreaking, and I know in my quieter moments when this work is behind me and I return home, I will let it settle in and purge my feelings on this matter.
To continue this short and very raw diary entry a little more (and one that I write with drowsy mind), today we helped an elderly couple with their home. You can't imagine the work because everything inside and outside these homes is destroyed (and often smells heavily putrid because of all the toxic stuff rotting in the water-logged debris). It is amazing to see how far people’s homes, cars, boats, and other stuff are carried down the road into other people’s yards; so much of what gets cleaned isn’t even the residents’ items.
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This afternoon I hooked up at the Biloxy Community Center (where food and clothes distribution was going on). This work was alot of loading-and-unloading as we moved items to the Biloxi Convention Center so Red Cross could have this facility. This time I got to ride along in the front of a military truck of the Biloxi PD, which was a great opportunity to meet some more disaster workers, get into some places I might not normally have access to, and to feel that sense of great pride and patriotism of working side-by-side with the "troops" in the trenches. After I finished this work, I went eastward on the Biloxi coast and met with some residents whose homes were completely demolished, in many cases with only concrete slab remaining. The power and the fury of the hurricane was evident by observing the destroyed homes and the twisted metal of cars and boats. It was here that I heard one story of a man riding out the 25 ft surge by hanging at the top of a telephone pole.
Tomorrow I will be joining up again with the city and may possibly work with Red Cross a bit, which is taking over this area we are moving stuff out of. It appears that food is getting to those in need okay, be it MRE’s or other, and people are coming to grips and looking ahead to their next steps. The immensity of the cleanup is what is the larger issue here, and it is mind boggling to behold, and it will be going on for quite some time.
I have included some choice pictures to capture some of what I have seen the past couple of days -- see the Katrina Part 1 photo album on the side. I have video I may put together when I get back home, although I think the pictures tell the story quite well. Incidentally, tonight I was digging through some rubble in a flattened part of the city and trying to dig up a tiny motor "noise." What I discovered was an electric toothbrush that was buzzing away and undoubtedly had been that way since Katrina hit, because the thing was buried deep. The thought that struck me was that those were some awfully good batteries!