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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
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May/June 2006 |
Reflections in the aftermath of Katrina recovery work
The things I worry about in life are unimportant
By Judy Bradford
"I'm tired. I'm burned out. I know we were stubborn, deciding to rebuild, but I just can't do it alone anymore. My husband just went back to work, and now I'm here alone, all day, working on it."
Sugi, a petite woman in her mid-thirties, was the homeowner of a modest, two-bedroom ranch in Gulfport, Miss.
I met her while our United Methodist Disaster Relief work team, from northern Indiana, was working on her neighbor's home. Sugi wanted to know if our team could work on her house, too.
When Katrina and its resulting surge of seawater hit on Aug. 29, she and her husband evacuated. When they returned, they had to crawl through rubble and then break down the doors of their home. The wooden floors swelled several feet, blocking the doorways.
Seven months later, they've made many repairs. But they still have a lot to do, and their insurance claim money - $26,000 - has been depleted.
Other homes we worked on were far less advanced in the rebuilding phase.
One of them had mold so bad in the drywall and ceilings that the smell could be detected from the front yard.
Many homeowners are still living in trailers. They cannot get contractors to work on their homes because the contractors are already too busy. Homeowners are also discouraged with governmental or insurance red tape to pay for labor.
That's why volunteer groups are so important on the Gulf Coast right now. They do the work for free, and will continue to be important in the rebuilding process for the next five years. Some officials say ten.
Our week-long trip was sponsored by Hope United Methodist Church in Hoagland, Ind. Pastor John Randall has taken several groups down since fall.
"It's great to see walls go up," he said, speaking to a lunch-time Lenten gathering for volunteers and church members at Trinity United Methodist, in Gulfport. "It's great to see roofs go on. It's great to see all that physical stuff. But what I love is that there's an invitation to Jesus attached to it."
Trinity church served as our base camp for the week. Its church members say their ministry has changed. They "no longer worry about the carpet" and instead take care of some 100 volunteers every week. They've also hired a rebuilding coordinator, who takes requests from any homeowner affected by the storm.
Individual pictures do not give the whole story. When our 26-member work team first arrived in a bus, we took a "disaster tour" down Highway 90, which follows the coastline.
The bus got quiet real fast. The beachfront still looks like the aftermath of a war, as if bombs had purposely destroyed every hotel, restaurant and historical home. There are piles of debris everywhere.
Further inland, homes deemed worthy of rebuilding routinely deplete local stores of sheetrock and roofing materials. An estimated 38,000 homes in Gulfport alone were damaged or destroyed.
The coastline is some 60 miles long. To get a better picture of the scope of the disaster, just multiply that 38,000 times all the communities along the coast, including Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Waveland, Long Beach and Biloxi.
What did we get out of this?
Ruth Daring, of New Haven, said it was wonderful to give someone else some hope, "the sense that they can continue on."
Jordan Fisher, 15, of Fort Wayne, realized that "people can be happy not with what they've lost, but with what they've gained."
Taylor Shirk, 17, of South Bend, said "I've learned to be more grateful for what I have, because it can be destroyed in a second."
As I handed Sugi the name of our sponsoring relief organization and its phone number, I thought of all the things I cherish and often take for granted. I learned that the things I worry about in my life - what to wear, what to eat - are really, really stupid and unimportant.
Judy Bradford serves as a freelance writer.
Last updated on 25 Apr 2008