Volunteers boost spirits in Mississippi

GULFPORT, Miss. (Disaster News Network) - "This all has touched my heart. I've gotten so much out of it."

"We estimate that 60,000 people lost homes or had major damage down here."

- Ed Blakeslee

Those are words from Ed Blakeslee, director of Mississippi United Methodist Hurricane Katrina Response (MUMHKR). Blakeslee is a native of southern Mississippi - his own home was damaged during the hurricane last fall. He said he continues to receive strength through all those who donate their money and time to the recovery effort.

"The people that come here say they get more out of it than us, but that's hard to imagine," he said. "This will all take a while, nobody was prepared for this. This is my home."

Because it was home, responding to his neighbors in need was natural for Blakeslee. A retired power company worker, he returned to the area to help with the power restoration after evacuating. Then he started organizing relief volunteers out of his own church, Trinity United Methodist.

Since then, Blakeslee has helped spearhead a huge response from the United Methodist Church. The response involves coordinating volunteers, managing casework and organizing home repairs.

Volunteers are busy repairing homes around the region, with more than 17,000 having donated their time in the response since last fall. Some even helped build shower units for the hard-hit residents of Pearlington, Miss.

Blakeslee added that part of the MUMHKR effort is reaching out to populations that are not receiving as much help.

"We're trying to reach out to the Hispanic community with our own Spanish speakers," explained Blakeslee. "Many Hispanics make up our workforce and we want to know how we can help them."

The response is also directed at children affected by the disaster. "They're traumatized by this. They've lost their homes, their toys. They may be displaced. So we're providing emotional support for them."

Much of the support behind the response comes from 30 Mississippi churches, he noted. Many of those churches house volunteers, and so some of the work has been installing showers in the churches to make them more functional as volunteer housing. Another move is to build a Methodist volunteer village. "We don't want to burn out our churches with the volunteer housing, we don't want to use up their support," said Blakeslee.

Part of that village idea is the construction of a 2,000-square-foot warehouse that would be used to store relief supplies. Blakeslee said the facility would be offered for use to the local churches when the response is done, but would instantly become a disaster response coordination site when another disaster strikes - not that this response is expected to end anytime soon.

"We estimate that 60,000 people lost homes or had major damage down here," explained Blakeslee.

The stories of hurricane survivors and their plight touch Blakeslee, who said he's not afraid to tear up when talking to people or when recounting their stories. "I spoke with one lady who had water up to the eaves of her home," he said. "She has two kids and her husband is in the Army serving in Iraq. She didn't know what to do. I told her, 'We'll have to gut your house.' She told me that she had no money, and I told her, 'Don't worry, it's free.' Well, then she started crying and so did I."

Blakeslee does not hesitate when saying who deserves all the credit thus far in the response. "The heroes are the local churches. It's all denominations and faith groups. They're doing the work here."

Last updated on 25 Apr 2008

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