There is so much destruction everywhere. For the first 300 yards or so inland from the Gulf, all that was left was empty slabs where homes used to be and tons and tons of debris everywhere. Parts of homes, displaced from their lots, lumber and bricks that used to be homes, battered and sea-soaked worthless vehicles, appliances, tubs, and sinks were all scattered about. All of the trees were draped with all of the cloth remains (clothes, sheets, drapes, you name it) of hundreds of families lives. Where a hotel used to be, just 100 yards from the beach, there was nothing but a swimming pool with someone’s mid-sized car in it, two fountain pools, distorted pillars of steel and brick that used to support the upper floors, and scattered everywhere were the bath tubs and sinks and toilets which were the only things heavy enough not to be washed away. It was clear that the need for help of every possible kind is tremendous. The destruction was absolute for about 2 blocks inland. From there it was amazing how capricious the storm’s wrath was. Some homes within a few lots of the zone of total destruction seemed minimally damaged, if at all, while others miles inland along tributaries backed up by the storm surge lost everything.

            A team of 5-6 volunteers helped one family. The family owned a home that was the first surviving home in their block coming from the beach. If it had not been for a small tree next to their garage, the neighboring house, or most of it anyway, would have battered down most of their house. The neighbor’s house was resting against the tree on a large pile of debris just 15-20 feet from their garage. The storm surge had brought 3-4 feet of water into the house and it was filled with pine straw and dried out muck. In the 2+ months since the storm, they had had some roof repairs done and that was about all the progress that had been made before we got there. There seemed to be very few of the family’s possessions that were salvageable. The refrigerator was taped shut to seal off its original contents and the freezer was likewise locked shut, both were tipped over and wedged in the kitchen and utility room as were the washer and dryer. The gentleman’s old mid-sized Cadillac had floated and turned at an odd angle in the garage. The front yard had uprooted trees and some debris, but the back yard was completely filled with several feet of storm debris from neighboring homes.

            The family situation was particularly heart rending. The gentleman in his 70’s has just recently undergone major surgery to unblock both of the arteries in his neck going to his brain. He was alert, but his voice was very weak and hoarse from the surgery. Just two weeks before the storm, he had lost his wife who had been healthy until she had gotten acutely ill. She had been expected to recover from the illness, but somehow did not survive. On top of all of this, his homeowner’s insurance will only pay $6,000 toward the damages. You can understand why the local parish decided to help him in spite of the fact that the family does not belong to that parish nor are they Catholic. A parishioner a few houses up the street made the family plight known to the disaster relief team at his church and that is how we came to help.

We found the man the first day wandering around the debris mourning his losses as he had been each day for the 2 weeks since they let him return to his home. At night he stayed with his daughter. He was somewhat dazed and clearly the shock of his experiences had taken a toll on him. We asked him what things he wanted to save and put those in the living room. The rest we piled up in the front yard at the curb for the debris removal trucks to take away. The first day we took all of the furniture out of the bedrooms and dining area, raked up the pine straw and dried muck, and pulled up all of the carpeting and padding. That day, we helped him find a purse of old coins he wanted that was in a chest with its drawers swelled shut. He was grateful to find those few coins he had been saving. It was so hard to tell what was of value that someone mistakenly discarded a box of Christmas ornaments. When his daughter saw many of their old Christmas ornaments scattered in the front yard, she broke down and cried and was upset with us for discarding them. Two of us helped pick up what we could find because we realized how important they were to her, but the damage could not be undone. All we could do is convey our sorrow and share with her that we appreciated how important they were to her and how painful their loss must be.

The next day the daughter apologized for her reaction to our mistake, but we again apologized to her and told her that her reaction needed no apology. She then gathered us around her and read a scripture passage that related to how blessed were those who come to the help of their neighbors in times of need. Several of us men shed a few tears with her about then and we thanked her for sharing her feelings and the scriptural thank you. That day we spent removing most of the dry wall.

The third and final day we removed the dry wall from the living room, dining room, and kitchen.  We then took all of the appliances (Refrigerator, freezer, washer, & dryer) down to the curb and removed the bottom kitchen cabinets and sink. We finished by pushing the gentleman’s car out of the garage. By the time we left, we could tell that the man’s spirits had steadily improved each day and that he was thinking more of how he would rebuild than of what he had lost. Before we left, the daughter hugged and thanked each of us and we could tell she really appreciated all we had been able to do.

That was as hard as any of us had worked for three days straight in a long, long time. We felt, however that we had each gained far more than we had given. We all felt blessed to have had the opportunity to do something to help even one family. Others from our group helped some other families with things like tree removal and cleaning up debris. Others worked to distribute food and other needed goods each day from the disaster relief center at the church. They were touched by the needs, selflessness, and thankfulness of the 70-80 families that came for help each day. Still others worked to do needed repairs on the Church that hosted the relief effort. Their Diocese had over $120,000,000 in damages and their insurance provided only about $35,000,000 so many of the smaller churches may have to be closed if they have severe damages. Hopefully St. Ann’s will be able to stay open to serve the needs there.

In our travels it was amazing to see just how wide-spread the devastation is from hurricane Katrina. We saw a lot of damage all the way from Mobile AL. to Bay St. Louis MISS and as far north as Hattiesburg MISS. You have seen the severe damage on TV in New Orleans and the surrounding area. There are more than 200 miles of the Gulf coast that are severely damaged by this one storm. It looks like it will be many years before that area recovers.

The uplifting thing is that the people there (90% of the families in that parish had significant losses and 1/3 of the families lost EVERYTHING) were upbeat and optimistic about the rebuilding efforts. St. Mary On The Hill has sent over 50 volunteers to help and the people of St. Ann’s and all of the people they help appreciate every one of them. Thanks for your donations & sending us to HELP.