Thursday Jan 25 - "flexibility and teamwork"

Wednesday & Thursday, Jan. 24-25, 2007

Great progress has been made! Both sites (Eugene and Juanita Daniels’ and Mildred Roy’s) again had full crews at work, and the results are wonderfully visible. The Daniels’ access ramp and steps are done! Ted and Fran celebrated by moving on to the next jobs, at Mildred’s.

Ted’s (& Fran’s) Pride & Joy

The Daniels’ doors (those that we had on hand) are all hung. Stoddard and Bill dealt with major out-of-plumb difficulties, and custom altered the pre-hung doors to fit the non-standard sizes. Quite an exercise in patience and perseverance…! They then moved on to framing the windows – again, EACH PIECE had to be custom made; all of these got done, leaving just the casing (trim) to go!

Bill & Stoddard – no rushing these workers!

Painting at the Daniels’ was also moved forward, as primer coats on all the walls and ceilings were completed. A lot of the finish coat is also complete, but the darker color in the bedrooms is intense enough to be needing another coat. We also have several small rooms that have not been started: two baths and the laundry room. We hope to completely finish the painting we’ve started, on Friday.

Jan Cowles starts the finish coat.

Mildred’s home also saw progress in several areas. The garage is the most dramatic: the sheetrocking is complete, thanks to Rudy, Cassandra, Dick, Dorrie, Mel and Christian (another volunteer who has joined us from Long Island) - one heck of a day’s work!! Much of the first taping-and-mudding is also done (a few areas were discovered which were overlooked, but we’ve taken care of this). Carol, Dorrie and Dick got about 2/3 of the first sanding done today, and the final mudding-and-sanding for both the garage walls, including the 2 small closets, and the laundry will hopefully be completed on Friday.

Christian, our Long Island volunteer, has his hand at mudding.

Dick Carlson – in a tough corner.

Inside, the laundry room is also in progress. It should be ready for painting either Friday or Saturday, depending on touchup of the walls. This too was Carol, Dorrie and Dick.

Mel and Rudy tackled shoring up the floor joists. At least a dozen need to be reinforced, and Rudy spent a lot of time underneath the house.

Dorrie & Mel get a lesson from Rudy.

Back at the Church, the kitchen crews worked steadily to provide us all with good grub. Everyone is SO grateful to be able to walk in and find hot, delicious food ready and waiting! Daily shopping runs keep us stocked, and are sometimes combined with visits to the Lowe’s across the parking lot from the Wal-Mart.

Thursday was COLD, and the crews very much appreciated hot coffee breaks mid-morning and mid-afternoon. But Friday dawned sunny and pleasant: we were all so grateful! Friday we also only worked a half day, as Rev. Moses wanted to take us all on a tour of the area, so he could share some of the sights and stories of the people who stayed here during the storm.

Our first stop was to see three very large fishing boats which had been washed ashore during Katrina. Still lying in the field where they came to rest, one plowed through a home before ending up here. The homeowner was fortunately riding out the storm with relatives.

This huge home faced the sea, a lovely location except for when Katrina struck. Now destroyed, the owners hope to sell the acreage for development.

Our next stop was the memorial to Hurricane Camille, the previous record-setter for this area. Rebuilt after Katrina struck, it stands on the spot where a church sanctuary once stood (the church is now a few hundred feet away).


Rev. Moses stood on the mosaic depicting the hurricane itself, with a wall of names of the deceased and missing curving around behind him. At the rear is an American flag, as it was found after the storm.

Just down the road is the memorial to Hurricane Katrina. A black wall marks the height of the water; a wall mosaic shows the waves and storm surge that did so much of the damage, and a collection of artifacts from those who died brings alive those who were lost.

The mosaic and the black wall showing the height of the water.

These artifacts were collected from those who died in Katrina, to help us remember those who were lost.

Tomorrow’s another day. We now have a licensed electrician (John, the son of Fran and son-in-law of Pete), so anticipate making a lot of progress towards getting the electricity at various sites checked. Then we can get approved, and turn the lights on!

Laurel Swan & Carol Savery-Frederick, Journalists

Jan. 22 - 24 "the surge"

January 22: Hartford to Biloxi
Team B at Bradley Airport, ready to fly south.

We flew in to Gulfport Airport from the Gulf side, and when we finally descended below the deep cloud cover, those of us on our first trip here got our first glimpse of the hurricane’s devastation. We’d read about it, we’d heard about, we’d discussed it – but nothing compares with seeing it ourselves.

There were lots of “blue roofs” visible – roofs still covered with blue tarps. There are lots of identical white trailers in even rows. Block-sized areas are empty, showing just an occasional driveway and some trash on the overgrown lots.

Our observations continued as we drove on a lovely 4-lane boulevard next to the beach. Returnees commented on how “green” it was! When they were here shortly after Katrina came through, every leaf on every tree was stripped off, and grass was covered or dead. First-timers marveled at the almost total emptiness, mile after mile: every single home – lovely, beachside elegant homes that had stood here for years – is now gone. An occasional lot has been sold to a condo developer, and high rise condos have been built. And the casinos, now allowed to build on land, are mostly back in business. They provide both employment and much-needed income for this area, but their elegance and rich plantings look incongruous right now: they are the only buildings which look really good along the entire coast. In general, it’s so empty that it doesn’t seem like a city at all.

The floor tiles are all that’s left of this place, one of hundreds that are now simply empty.

Juanita’s home is one of the sites where we’ll be working. She was glad to see Pete again!

Returnees were amazed at the beautiful work that has been done on St. Paul’s, where we are all staying. The men even have beds! After a brief tour to see the four sites where we will be working, we gratefully ate a wonderful turkey dinner, had a brief service and a welcome from Rev. Moses, then fell into bed.

Rev. Moses greets us, lets us know what we can expect.

January 23: Our first day of work!
Mildred’s house: the garage needed to be sheetrocked, completely!

Eugene and Juanita’s house, with their FEMA trailer. The previous Team had accomplished wonders with sheetrock; we started in on the paintng.

The handicapped access ramp for Juanita, with Fran and Ted checking out their new railings.

A big breakfast set us all up for tackling whatever needed tackling. The crew leaders got us all settled in at Eugene’s and Juanita’s home, where we could start working right away while they organized the supplies and priorities at the other sites. After lunch one crew moved to Mildred’s house. By the end of our first day, major progress was noticeable in four areas: painting, door frames and railings for the access ramp at Juanita’s and Eugene’s, and sheetrocking of the two small closets in the rear of Mildred’s garage. We were grateful for the preparative work that the previous crews had done: it’s encouraging to see visible progress right from the start.

Beth applies the finish coat to Juanita’s and Eugene’s front bedroom. Eugene didn’t like the color, but Juanita loves it!

Sheetrocking at Mildred’s: Dorrie and Cassandra with drills in hand, encouraged by Dick.













Rev. Mel admires; Rudy labors!














During our debriefing back at the Church, Cassandra noted that the type of work we’re doing is changing as the months have passed. The mucking out and debris removal is now largely over; carpentry work is increasingly needed; and by next year perhaps another field (maybe flooring?) will dominate. The need is indescribably huge. (One person compared asking ‘how long will it take to restore this area?’ to ‘how long would it take to fill in the Grand Canyon?”) All the noises in the street are things like generators, table saws, and traffic. No children, no music, not many birds. Lots of folks are working hard, but this is just so vast that it will take years.

Time for bed: tomorrow’s another day!

Laurel Swan, Journalist for Team B