Late last week in the late afternoon, I drove around one neighborhood of Pearlington over near the Pearl River to pick up one of our village staff. He was at the home we have built for one of our neighbors. This neighbor had loaned us his four wheeler to pull pods from the swamp and kept an eye on our Village while we were in evacuation from Gustav.
I parked along the side of the road by the house, trying to get as much truck out of the road as I could without driving into the ditch. I leaped over the ditch and walked up the steps to the rear of the house to see how the interior work is coming along. Thankfully, Eddie had built the new house with enough elevation to stay high of the water this time.
While I stood there looking in, an older man slowly ambled over to talk to me from the house next door.
"Hello, how are you doing? My name is Henry.”
He took my hand and said, “I’m doing as well as I can, my name’s Ab, Eddie’s Dad.”
“Eddie is a fine guy.”
I swatted at a stinging on the back of my neck, smashing a large mosquito with my hand. As I looked at the large bloody spot on my open palm Ab laughed and asked, “Do you know you just killed one of Mississippi’s State birds?”
I imagine because of my drawl he then asked, “Where are you from?”
“I came down from Chattanooga last spring. I’m a Georgia boy though, from Rome.”
“Rome. I know that town for some reason. But, Chattanooga, that’s a nice town too. I used to push barges up the Mississippi. Sometimes we would push them up the Tennessee River. Always though it was odd how that river ran back down into Mississippi and up to Chattanooga. “
“Yes, Ab, I remember reading how after winning the battle of Nashville, the Union Army chased General Forrest down the river to Mississippi and across Alabama to Guntersville. I think that is where Forrest headed south to the Alabama River and up towards Rome.”
"I really hated those trips. There are so many recreational boating lanes and those small boats out on the water. They just ignore those heavy barges. I always feared I’d hit some knucklehead who was not paying attention. Those barges don’t even feel a boat like those when they hit it. You hit one of them with a barge and its kind of like that bug you swatted. Boy I'd hate to hit one of those boaters.”
“I pushed them on the Cumberland, too – up though Paducah, Kentucky. That was worse than the Tennessee River, the channel is so narrow. I never liked those trips.”
“We all really appreciate what you all from the Presbyterian Church are doing for us in Pearlington. That Jeremy, your work site manager is a fine young man. Chris is too. They are both good boys. A lot of us just wouldn’t have made it if you hadn’t come. I lost everything and just about all my hope. In fact, this is the second time my wife and I lost everything. But you know, I’ve come to realize it doesn’t matter. I don't have much left anyway, my health is gone. I have really bad lungs and heart. These cigarettes have done me in. I’ve tried to stop but I just can’t. I wonder what they put in them? I’ll tell you, as far as I am concerned as long as my wife and I have each other we will be OK. The house and furniture just don’t matter.”
“Ab, I think I understand what you mean about that.”
"I’ll tell you though, some of the folks you helped didn’t need it. You know there is a really bad drug problem in Pearlington. There always has been. It goes back a long way, before Katrina. Some of those folks whose houses you rebuilt houses have enough money from the drugs to build everybody in Pearlington a house.”
“You know Ab, I read in the paper about that cocaine bust over on 604. One of my friends lives over on 5th street, I think it is, off 7th Avenue where they hang out selling drugs on the corner at Whites Road. Sometimes they actually almost block the road to traffic. One day my friend’s wife was coming back from work and those guys gave her a hard time. She said she just drove on through. One of them waved a gun at her and she just picked up the one she had on the seat just in case, and waved it in the rear view mirror, almost daring them to try something. She has a lot of sass in her.“
“I can imagine it Mr. Henry. You know though, it is a bad feeling to be in a situation where you realize in the next moment you may have to shoot someone. It happened to me once a few years ago and I still get a bad feeling about it. I got into a fix so deep that I had already pulled the slack out of the trigger and I knew the next thing was going to be somebody getting killed. It made a terrible feeling in my stomach that I can’t forget.”
“Really? What happened?”
“I was driving over to New Orleans on US 90. I drove by my wife’s brother-in-law’s house that sits on the highway just past Slidell. As I drove by I saw a guy with a can and hose at the back of the brother-in-law’s car. Another man was standing by the driver’s door fiddling with the window. An old Econoline Ford panel truck sat across the road and I figured it was theirs.”
“I wasn’t about to let them mess up his car, so I drove past them a little bit and pulled over onto the side of the road. I had my old shotgun with me, a Winchester my Dad gave me. It wasn't a great gun but it worked really fine then. I still have it but Katrina ruined it, the action doesn’t work now. I put a couple of double ought buckshot shells in the gun. Then I got out of the car and started walking towards them.”
“Hey! You boys had best just leave that car alone now. I want you to get back in that van and get out of here.”
"They took a look at me and started walking towards me. That’s when I started getting nervous.”
"You boys hear me, this gun is loaded. You just keep on coming toward me and I’ll have to use it."
"They kept coming and got up within maybe twenty feet. I said, 'I’m warning you if you take another step towards me I’m shooting.'"
“It was a terrible thing, I knew right there that this situation had only two ways to end. We were hanging on the moment of decision. If they made another move I was going to have to let loose with my shotgun.”
“Aw mister, what’s the problem? We ran out of gas and just need a gallon or two to get on down the road to a service station.”
“They just stood there a while lookin' down the barrel of my shotgun, thinking of what to do next.”
“You boys don’t fool me with that line. You passed three stations back in Slidell. I’m telling you that you’d better get back in that van and go back to Slidell and get some gas there, or move on towards New Orleans. In fact, I’m telling you to get in the van and get out of here now because as soon as you get in, I’m going back to Slidell and calling the police. So you’d best put some distance between me and you.”
“I was sweating up a storm with dread of what was going to happen next. It was a bad, cold feeling, I’ll tell you the acid in my stomach was churning. I knew what that buckshot would do if I pulled the trigger.”
“Thank the Lord, they decided I meant business, moved backwards to their van, got in and took off. I don’t know how I’d have been able to stand it if I’d had to shoot. I would have because it was surely me or them. I feel the dread now just as I did then.”
* * *
As with so many encounters down here, the one with Ab left me unsettled on my drive back to Gulfport. It brought back to me some words that I’d written several years earlier, and dread I'd felt because of it.
“Let us make man in our own image.…So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created them, and blessed them and (gave them) dominion over…every living thing upon the earth, and saw that it was very good.
“I tell you my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear, fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell, yes I tell you, fear him!
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” And he said to him, 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with your mind. And the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the laws and the prophets.' ”
These words persuade me strongly that a piece of God is in every person. No, I would say God as a whole is in every person, as far-fetched as that sounds. This creates a difficult problem for us. It means to kill a person is to kill God, or to strike against God, or at least against a part of God. From Adam until now, constantly and impudently we have vied with God for dominion over the one thing He holds dear to Himself alone, the power to give creativity (life) and death.
We justify struggling with Him for this power, proclaiming it His way. We justify killing by stating it is “in defense of God and Faith.” In defense of God? In defense of Faith?” How does one defend a Faith that rests not on the influence or power of another person or country or on freedom itself, but only upon what is in one’s heart? What is Faith but internally held conviction unfettered by worldly power? It is based not on fact or reason, but on belief in forgiveness and salvation. Faith stands in conflict with fact and reason. Faith cannot be subjugated except by oneself. And so, does God really need a defense by us? Or, do we just treasure life over Faith?
In a fit of selfish pretension we often justify killing by joining to our statement the words “in defense of liberty and country.” We send our sons to kill or be killed in defense of liberty and country. Or we say, this man killed my wife, or this man raped my daughter, or this man betrayed my country, I want his blood, execute him. We do this in spite of the greater two commandments Jesus spoke, and in spite of God’s reservation of vengeance to Himself.
In my opinion, Jesus in that quote above emphasized and extended the interpretation of the Law. Jesus proscribes killing, how can you love and honor God, or your neighbor, and kill him?
Let’s ask the question, “who has demanded the death of sons that has the authority to demand such a thing?” I recall two sons, Isaac and Jesus. I believe that every time we kill, by our own hands or by proxy, we strike against God. We can’t kill God, but perhaps we dare to bruise His compassion.
If you have children that you love, especially teenagers, you know how it feels when one of them does or says something especially cruel that hurts you. Must God feel that way when we kill His creation? How many times have we bruised God’s compassion in this way? 100-fold times, a million-fold times, a billion-fold times, perhaps more? Yet God persists in one endeavor, to hold open arms and say to us “I have allowed you to exact your killing on Me as Man to show you that I alone have dominion over life and death. I have forgiven you of this wrong before you were born.”
No sin is beyond absolution except denial of Faith. This is where my Faith lies; in the persistent enigma of unjustified forgiveness of reprehensible, evil acts.
I just pray I never face the test that Ab found for himself that night on the road to New Orleans.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Day 174 – Circumcise our Hearts to The Lord
It has been almost three weeks since we began preparing for Gustav. We evacuated to Meridian, MS. Gustav has come and gone and Ike came as close to us as I really want to be to a really bad storm.
Recovering from the damage of those storms has been time-consuming, emotionally draining and physically exhausting. Most of our staff has worked 6-7 days a week, many of them 9 or 10 hour days for the majority of those three weeks.
We have volunteers coming into Orange Grove (Gulfport) and Olive Tree (New Orleans) Sunday. The next weekend we have volunteers coming into Pearlington and Luling. We have little time to rest to get ready for them.
Late last week I was in Pearlington. Pearlington has our attention because that Village sustained so much damage and volunteers are coming in another week. Although we packed out almost all our high-value tools from our two sea containers and filled them with our cots, mattresses, heaters and air conditioners and large dining tent; Gustav flooded the containers with about two feet of water, leaving behind a nice present of mold.
Gustav floated away our pods (“tents”) and damaged several beyond repair. We pressure washed the stinking mud and detritus from the concrete and then fished most of the pods out of the swamp onto the concrete using chains, ropes and straps with a back hoe, a pickup truck, a four-wheeler recreational cart and brute force.
Then after all that, Ike came along. Although it never approached closer than about 200 miles, the surge from it undid everything we had done to recover from Gustav. All the pods were back into the swamp. We have had to recover those in the same way.
Yesterday we managed to get all our surviving pods back into the rough formation we want thanks to the fork lift provided by the graciousness of the Laignappe Church in Bay Saint Louis. We’ve had to cut trenches in our concrete pad for new wiring. (That concrete pad is the parking lot of the former post office.) The water damaged much of our ground-level electrical wiring at Pearlington. We have dug trenches for electric line and new propane lines. Now we wait on the electricians and the propane company.
Our pods and main tent at Houma Village were completely destroyed by Gustav and Ike. Because we were not able to pack out the cots and mattresses, or get them into the sea container on site a large proportion of them were destroyed, as was the big tent. I am not sure when we will be able to bring in volunteers to Houma.
Our Luling Village on the north side of New Orleans out near Lafourche Parish was spared a lot of damage. We lost a couple of pods. This was miraculous since near by parishes of Lafourche and Terrebonne were severely damaged. The last I heard, Terrebonne is still without power and has a serious problem with the water supply.
Several of us spent a very hard full day last weekend at Luling cutting up all the broken trees and limbs with chain saws and dragging the result to the curb. This weekend Leslie, our Volunteer Village Coordinator and son and friends went back to finish cleanup and painting.
We are exhausted and everyone is on edge. This is unbelievably hard work. Some of our staff are not prepared for this sacrifice. They cannot deal with the long-term stress and physical demands. I can’t criticize them for it as I am stressed myself and more than a little tired.
A lot of folks come down with full intention to help but expect a more laid-back situation within which that big hurricane (Katrina) is a past meteorological anomaly. If one has not had the experience of dealing with long periods of sustain high stress, physical labor, and inherently dangerous weather; burnout is a common consequence.
We forget that we work in a geography where hurricanes are part of the historical record. On top of our recent struggles another tropic disturbance lurking in the Hispaniola area shows signs of intensifying. I fear that if this storm grows and threatens us; a few of our staff may not have the strength to sustain the effort to remain to help.
Nevertheless these challenges will pass and even be replaced by others. We must always be mindful that we are charged with the mission of our church, a charge that lies at the hearth of Christianity to give the gifts of our own blessings to help the homeless, the poor, the widow, the downtrodden people who survived Katrina, Gustav and Ike.
We will do our best to prevail with that charge with an humble and broken spirit.
Recovering from the damage of those storms has been time-consuming, emotionally draining and physically exhausting. Most of our staff has worked 6-7 days a week, many of them 9 or 10 hour days for the majority of those three weeks.
We have volunteers coming into Orange Grove (Gulfport) and Olive Tree (New Orleans) Sunday. The next weekend we have volunteers coming into Pearlington and Luling. We have little time to rest to get ready for them.
Late last week I was in Pearlington. Pearlington has our attention because that Village sustained so much damage and volunteers are coming in another week. Although we packed out almost all our high-value tools from our two sea containers and filled them with our cots, mattresses, heaters and air conditioners and large dining tent; Gustav flooded the containers with about two feet of water, leaving behind a nice present of mold.
Gustav floated away our pods (“tents”) and damaged several beyond repair. We pressure washed the stinking mud and detritus from the concrete and then fished most of the pods out of the swamp onto the concrete using chains, ropes and straps with a back hoe, a pickup truck, a four-wheeler recreational cart and brute force.
Then after all that, Ike came along. Although it never approached closer than about 200 miles, the surge from it undid everything we had done to recover from Gustav. All the pods were back into the swamp. We have had to recover those in the same way.
Yesterday we managed to get all our surviving pods back into the rough formation we want thanks to the fork lift provided by the graciousness of the Laignappe Church in Bay Saint Louis. We’ve had to cut trenches in our concrete pad for new wiring. (That concrete pad is the parking lot of the former post office.) The water damaged much of our ground-level electrical wiring at Pearlington. We have dug trenches for electric line and new propane lines. Now we wait on the electricians and the propane company.
Our pods and main tent at Houma Village were completely destroyed by Gustav and Ike. Because we were not able to pack out the cots and mattresses, or get them into the sea container on site a large proportion of them were destroyed, as was the big tent. I am not sure when we will be able to bring in volunteers to Houma.
Our Luling Village on the north side of New Orleans out near Lafourche Parish was spared a lot of damage. We lost a couple of pods. This was miraculous since near by parishes of Lafourche and Terrebonne were severely damaged. The last I heard, Terrebonne is still without power and has a serious problem with the water supply.
Several of us spent a very hard full day last weekend at Luling cutting up all the broken trees and limbs with chain saws and dragging the result to the curb. This weekend Leslie, our Volunteer Village Coordinator and son and friends went back to finish cleanup and painting.
We are exhausted and everyone is on edge. This is unbelievably hard work. Some of our staff are not prepared for this sacrifice. They cannot deal with the long-term stress and physical demands. I can’t criticize them for it as I am stressed myself and more than a little tired.
A lot of folks come down with full intention to help but expect a more laid-back situation within which that big hurricane (Katrina) is a past meteorological anomaly. If one has not had the experience of dealing with long periods of sustain high stress, physical labor, and inherently dangerous weather; burnout is a common consequence.
We forget that we work in a geography where hurricanes are part of the historical record. On top of our recent struggles another tropic disturbance lurking in the Hispaniola area shows signs of intensifying. I fear that if this storm grows and threatens us; a few of our staff may not have the strength to sustain the effort to remain to help.
Nevertheless these challenges will pass and even be replaced by others. We must always be mindful that we are charged with the mission of our church, a charge that lies at the hearth of Christianity to give the gifts of our own blessings to help the homeless, the poor, the widow, the downtrodden people who survived Katrina, Gustav and Ike.
We will do our best to prevail with that charge with an humble and broken spirit.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Day 166 - Ike comes to us
The high water along our Mississippi coast described in my last post dropped with the ebbing tide last night. I am awaiting what comes today with the next high tide.
Last night about 5:00PM after I left a client's home over in Long Beach, I was waiting to turn onto US90. Looking out over the Gulf as far as I could see wave after wave marched westward almost parallel to the beach. The ocean level a mile or so out looked decidedly higher than the shoreline. We are on the eastern fringe of the wind field and it is still quite strong enough to bow and bend the trees and limbs.
Sitting in the dining tent earlier at 6:00AM drinking my tea, the rattling tent walls were quite the distraction but not a real threat. However, the gusts that rock of my RV as I write this are more disconcerting.
As a scienist/engineer, I am completely fascinated with the massive size and behavior of this hurricane. At 5:00AM Ike had strengthened from 100 mph to 105 mph. Where the wind speed will stop increasing, no one knows with certainty.
Almost forgotten in my attention to Ike, the remnant of Jospehine is lurking in the Atlantic near Haiti and the Dominican Republic. What is that one going to do?
In an earlier e-mail to a colleague I had expressed relief that his meteorologist friend had quite accurately hypothesized that most of this season's storms would take a southerly route.
It doesn't take much to turn scientific curiosity and relief into grief. That wind against my RV is foreboding the disaster that lies ahead about 1:00AM tonight in the Galveston area and eastward. I heard on the radio that the NHC or NWS released a statement that anyone in Galveston who lives in one or two story residence faces certain death if they stay behind today.
God help them all.
Last night about 5:00PM after I left a client's home over in Long Beach, I was waiting to turn onto US90. Looking out over the Gulf as far as I could see wave after wave marched westward almost parallel to the beach. The ocean level a mile or so out looked decidedly higher than the shoreline. We are on the eastern fringe of the wind field and it is still quite strong enough to bow and bend the trees and limbs.
Sitting in the dining tent earlier at 6:00AM drinking my tea, the rattling tent walls were quite the distraction but not a real threat. However, the gusts that rock of my RV as I write this are more disconcerting.
As a scienist/engineer, I am completely fascinated with the massive size and behavior of this hurricane. At 5:00AM Ike had strengthened from 100 mph to 105 mph. Where the wind speed will stop increasing, no one knows with certainty.
Almost forgotten in my attention to Ike, the remnant of Jospehine is lurking in the Atlantic near Haiti and the Dominican Republic. What is that one going to do?
In an earlier e-mail to a colleague I had expressed relief that his meteorologist friend had quite accurately hypothesized that most of this season's storms would take a southerly route.
It doesn't take much to turn scientific curiosity and relief into grief. That wind against my RV is foreboding the disaster that lies ahead about 1:00AM tonight in the Galveston area and eastward. I heard on the radio that the NHC or NWS released a statement that anyone in Galveston who lives in one or two story residence faces certain death if they stay behind today.
God help them all.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Day 165 - Relying In Our Own Strength
Well, Ike is a category 2 hurricane about 200 or so nautical miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi river, moving west towards Corpus Christi or Galveston, TX. It is a massive category 1 storm with a low pressure at its center that says it should be a transitioning from category 3 to category 4. A very unusual and likely dangerous storm.
Ike's wind field is massive, especially on its northern arc, and that means us. We have tropical storm warnings all the way to the Alabama coast.
I was on the telephone at 10AM looking for a fork lift, concrete saw and trenching tool to start trenching for electrical work and reassembling the pods in our Pearlington Village with Jeremy and an electrician. The fellow at the rental store asked me what the water was like in Pearlington. Thinking of Gustav's water, I said we were ok and were just trying to move our pods back into position.
"Well, you ought to check, I don't want to deliver a fork lift into a parking lot full of water."
"Really, what do you mean?"
"Well here in Waveland, MS603 is already underwater, the police have it closed."
Now readers, MS603 is the road that runs from I-10 south to Waveland. It is la little low and Gustav covered it with maybe several inches of water. But, Ike is well south of us, I mean 200 nautical miles south. I expected being on the eastern side of Ike might give us some water, but not two days before landfall in Texas.
Then the weather radio reports that there are 20-25 foot seas in the gulf off the Mississippi coast. That's significant.
I decided I had better call my friend Larry in Pearlington for the situation because he is a long time resident and knows the streets. Gustav flooded him about eight inches.
"Hey, Mr. Henry, how's it going?"
"Larry, I heard 603 is underwater, what is it like over on the Pearl River side of 604 at our village?"
"I don't think you have water over there, yet... Water is over a lot of the small streets and my wife and I are working hard to get all our stuff put up high because it looks like we are going to take some water."
"Well, Larry I better let you go I don't want to slow you down."
***
You may have read about Larry in my first seven pieces. Katrina washed away Larry's place. Before that he had never seen water that high in Pearlington. Gustav did not wash his home away but it soaked everything.
A couple days after Gustav came through and we got back to Pearlington, I stopped over at the Pearlington Recovery Center with an American Red Cross volunteer from Ohio to talk to him. Larry said he and his wife were talking seriously about fixing up the place and selling it.
They have had enough. I'm sure he'll say that again for the last time if Ike floods him.
Significantly, Ike is to take a hard right turn north about the time it encounters Texas.
I will not rest easy until that happens because a little change in the weather in the mid-west could make Ike turn a lot sooner than we think. I would fear for New Orleans.
Even so, I worry for the folks in Texas. I remember what that poor woman in Pearlington said about hoping it hit there instead of somewhere else (see Day 151).
I guess you can only fight with Nature for just so long before you realize you can't win.
Somewhere in Psalms the writer says, "If we rely in our own strength, we are lost."
Ike's wind field is massive, especially on its northern arc, and that means us. We have tropical storm warnings all the way to the Alabama coast.
I was on the telephone at 10AM looking for a fork lift, concrete saw and trenching tool to start trenching for electrical work and reassembling the pods in our Pearlington Village with Jeremy and an electrician. The fellow at the rental store asked me what the water was like in Pearlington. Thinking of Gustav's water, I said we were ok and were just trying to move our pods back into position.
"Well, you ought to check, I don't want to deliver a fork lift into a parking lot full of water."
"Really, what do you mean?"
"Well here in Waveland, MS603 is already underwater, the police have it closed."
Now readers, MS603 is the road that runs from I-10 south to Waveland. It is la little low and Gustav covered it with maybe several inches of water. But, Ike is well south of us, I mean 200 nautical miles south. I expected being on the eastern side of Ike might give us some water, but not two days before landfall in Texas.
Then the weather radio reports that there are 20-25 foot seas in the gulf off the Mississippi coast. That's significant.
I decided I had better call my friend Larry in Pearlington for the situation because he is a long time resident and knows the streets. Gustav flooded him about eight inches.
"Hey, Mr. Henry, how's it going?"
"Larry, I heard 603 is underwater, what is it like over on the Pearl River side of 604 at our village?"
"I don't think you have water over there, yet... Water is over a lot of the small streets and my wife and I are working hard to get all our stuff put up high because it looks like we are going to take some water."
"Well, Larry I better let you go I don't want to slow you down."
***
You may have read about Larry in my first seven pieces. Katrina washed away Larry's place. Before that he had never seen water that high in Pearlington. Gustav did not wash his home away but it soaked everything.
A couple days after Gustav came through and we got back to Pearlington, I stopped over at the Pearlington Recovery Center with an American Red Cross volunteer from Ohio to talk to him. Larry said he and his wife were talking seriously about fixing up the place and selling it.
They have had enough. I'm sure he'll say that again for the last time if Ike floods him.
Significantly, Ike is to take a hard right turn north about the time it encounters Texas.
I will not rest easy until that happens because a little change in the weather in the mid-west could make Ike turn a lot sooner than we think. I would fear for New Orleans.
Even so, I worry for the folks in Texas. I remember what that poor woman in Pearlington said about hoping it hit there instead of somewhere else (see Day 151).
I guess you can only fight with Nature for just so long before you realize you can't win.
Somewhere in Psalms the writer says, "If we rely in our own strength, we are lost."
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Day 161 - Houma
We went to Houma yesterday, all of us got in our trucks or SUV's and drove the 80 or so miles over. The curfew is now 8PM to 6AM - so we have enough time. We actually are going to two places in Lafourche Parish outside Houma, on the Bayou Blue. Does that bring back a memory?
Our objective is to get to our Village and complete as much salvage as possible and get to Kevin's house to salvage as much of his family's clothing as possible, and document the damage to his house for FEMA.
The drive over through New Orleans was uneventful, there was some but not much evidence of damage, but once we got on I-310 and exited into US90W we saw increasing damage.
The telephone and power poles were all leaning north, we saw many ravaged trees, mostly pines and the beautiful oaks, but the cedars and cypress are for the most part undamaged. The oaks are a signature for this coast. They are protected by law but Gustav had no respect for law.
On LA660 it was clear the road was impassable earlier. Gustav, a category 2 storm uprooted oaks, pines, cypress, limbs and tree tops chain sawed off litter the shoulder of the road. I saw one uprooted oak in a front yard, the periphery of the roots was maybe 15 feet in diameter. The tree was just lifted out of the ground.
When we got to his home the roof was laying in the front yard but otherwise it looked salvagable. Then we went to the back. Kevin says a cousin watching it related the story.
There was a lull in the wind and they ran over to get some items from the house. Then, a big wind blew up and peeled the roof.
We went over to our Village.
It was a hard trip also.
Just before the turn of LA3087 onto 660 we see a long line of cars waiting to get into the Baptist Church that is giving out food and supplies, and tarps.
After the turn to the Village we find the a sign saying the bridge over Bayou Blue is closed.
In the lot we see all the pods are gone and all that is left is the metal ductwork that fed cooling or heating air.
The big tent, framed with strong aluminum piping, had collapsed.
Inside, we find crushed water bottles, cots, smashed containers of sleeping bags, overturned shelves.
The RV's were unharmed but also hard to pull out of the mud and muck.
Well before the storm, one of our village managers would sit on the porch of the dining hall habitually and spit watermellon seeds. Several seeds sprouted and a robust mellon vine grew.
The mellon survived Gustav!
Yesterday Ike, the next storm, looked like it has Mississippi in its sight. But today it still is tracking west, it looks increasingly likely it may miss us. We will have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to know.
We are re-organizing out materials and supplies, anticipating another evacuation sometime between Tuesday to Thursday, depending on how Ike's storm track develops.
I have not even unpacked.
Our objective is to get to our Village and complete as much salvage as possible and get to Kevin's house to salvage as much of his family's clothing as possible, and document the damage to his house for FEMA.
The drive over through New Orleans was uneventful, there was some but not much evidence of damage, but once we got on I-310 and exited into US90W we saw increasing damage.
The telephone and power poles were all leaning north, we saw many ravaged trees, mostly pines and the beautiful oaks, but the cedars and cypress are for the most part undamaged. The oaks are a signature for this coast. They are protected by law but Gustav had no respect for law.
On LA660 it was clear the road was impassable earlier. Gustav, a category 2 storm uprooted oaks, pines, cypress, limbs and tree tops chain sawed off litter the shoulder of the road. I saw one uprooted oak in a front yard, the periphery of the roots was maybe 15 feet in diameter. The tree was just lifted out of the ground.
When we got to his home the roof was laying in the front yard but otherwise it looked salvagable. Then we went to the back. Kevin says a cousin watching it related the story.
There was a lull in the wind and they ran over to get some items from the house. Then, a big wind blew up and peeled the roof.
We went over to our Village.
It was a hard trip also.
Just before the turn of LA3087 onto 660 we see a long line of cars waiting to get into the Baptist Church that is giving out food and supplies, and tarps.
After the turn to the Village we find the a sign saying the bridge over Bayou Blue is closed.
In the lot we see all the pods are gone and all that is left is the metal ductwork that fed cooling or heating air.
The big tent, framed with strong aluminum piping, had collapsed.
Inside, we find crushed water bottles, cots, smashed containers of sleeping bags, overturned shelves.
The RV's were unharmed but also hard to pull out of the mud and muck.
Well before the storm, one of our village managers would sit on the porch of the dining hall habitually and spit watermellon seeds. Several seeds sprouted and a robust mellon vine grew.
The mellon survived Gustav!
Yesterday Ike, the next storm, looked like it has Mississippi in its sight. But today it still is tracking west, it looks increasingly likely it may miss us. We will have to wait until Tuesday or Wednesday to know.
We are re-organizing out materials and supplies, anticipating another evacuation sometime between Tuesday to Thursday, depending on how Ike's storm track develops.
I have not even unpacked.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Day 159 - Lost in Time
It is hard to believe that in the last eleven days we have struggled with three hurricanes, Fay gave us a glancing blow (see Day 148). Gustav (see Day 155) spared us what should have been a deadly blow. Now Ike lurks in the Caribbean moving towards the straight between Florida and Cuba, the mouth of the Gulf of Mexico. Perhaps the worst is yet to come.
Everyone in our camps has been in constant motion, packing, evacuating, returning, cleaning and rebuilding and now facing a probable second evacuation next wednesday or thursday. Tomorrow we arise and try to leave by 7:30AM to go to Houma to clean up and to help Kevin's family salvage what he can from his home and belonging. We are looking for a bed/mattress for his wife who has muscular dystrophy. I went out and purchased 16 moving boxes at WalMart about 8:30PM. Sunday at 11:30AM, after church, we will meet and discuss Ike.
Everyone is on edge from the stress.
I have so many stories to tell you but I am so exhausted I can't really organize my thoughts to do it well, so you are going to get more real-time reportage for a while.
About Ike
Ike is a serious storm, fluctuating between a category 4 and category 3 storm. It is wandering due west towards the Florida-Cuba area as I said above. Some time between now and wednesday it is going to take a turn northward. If it enters the Gulf of Mexico it can get out only over land and we look like a good target. Ominously, as I remember it, Ike is on a path very close to Katrina in 2005 one of the worst hurricane on record.
Gustav has dramatically changed a lot of people's minds. I was driving around with a Red Cross First Responder in Pearlington trying to find Ani's house, a seventy year old woman who came by in tears asking for help. Driving around in one of the few areas I've only been in once looking for her house, I passed a couple of women who had a yard full of belongings spread out in the yard from their garage. Most people who rebuilt houses were ok but their garages sitting on slabs were not so lucky.
I roilled my window down to ask directions. I started the conversation remarked that her garage looks like it took a lot of water.
"Yes, we did. I've had enough, i'm not going to do this again. We are leaving."
The woman told me where Ani lived and we stopped by. She only needs to have part of a chain link fence put back up. She is stressed but there are many people who need so much more help. I am not sure when we will get to Ani's fence.
Later I dropped by the Pearlington Recovery Center and talked to Larry. He told me he took on about 6 or 10 inches of water in his house.
"Larry, I can't believe it. You told me yourr place had never taken water before Katrina?"
"Yes that's right, but I got hit again. My wife and I have been talking, maybe we fix it up and sell it. This is just too much to go through again."
The recovery is going to be different this time, and who knows what we face if Ike hits us with the strength it has now.
Keep us in your prayers.
Everyone in our camps has been in constant motion, packing, evacuating, returning, cleaning and rebuilding and now facing a probable second evacuation next wednesday or thursday. Tomorrow we arise and try to leave by 7:30AM to go to Houma to clean up and to help Kevin's family salvage what he can from his home and belonging. We are looking for a bed/mattress for his wife who has muscular dystrophy. I went out and purchased 16 moving boxes at WalMart about 8:30PM. Sunday at 11:30AM, after church, we will meet and discuss Ike.
Everyone is on edge from the stress.
I have so many stories to tell you but I am so exhausted I can't really organize my thoughts to do it well, so you are going to get more real-time reportage for a while.
About Ike
Ike is a serious storm, fluctuating between a category 4 and category 3 storm. It is wandering due west towards the Florida-Cuba area as I said above. Some time between now and wednesday it is going to take a turn northward. If it enters the Gulf of Mexico it can get out only over land and we look like a good target. Ominously, as I remember it, Ike is on a path very close to Katrina in 2005 one of the worst hurricane on record.
Gustav has dramatically changed a lot of people's minds. I was driving around with a Red Cross First Responder in Pearlington trying to find Ani's house, a seventy year old woman who came by in tears asking for help. Driving around in one of the few areas I've only been in once looking for her house, I passed a couple of women who had a yard full of belongings spread out in the yard from their garage. Most people who rebuilt houses were ok but their garages sitting on slabs were not so lucky.
I roilled my window down to ask directions. I started the conversation remarked that her garage looks like it took a lot of water.
"Yes, we did. I've had enough, i'm not going to do this again. We are leaving."
The woman told me where Ani lived and we stopped by. She only needs to have part of a chain link fence put back up. She is stressed but there are many people who need so much more help. I am not sure when we will get to Ani's fence.
Later I dropped by the Pearlington Recovery Center and talked to Larry. He told me he took on about 6 or 10 inches of water in his house.
"Larry, I can't believe it. You told me yourr place had never taken water before Katrina?"
"Yes that's right, but I got hit again. My wife and I have been talking, maybe we fix it up and sell it. This is just too much to go through again."
The recovery is going to be different this time, and who knows what we face if Ike hits us with the strength it has now.
Keep us in your prayers.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Day 156 - I Talked to an Angel Today
I write the September 2 blog today, September 3. Internet connection and the pressures of recovery delay my writing.
We got word Monday night that we were to head back to Gulfport at 8AM. Tuesday. I was ready to go and couldn't get to sleep until about 2AM. I set my alarm for 4:45AM so I could be sure everything was taken down and packed to be ready for that early departure.
I went into the building to get my breakfast routine of oatmeal and toast (I have been sleeping in my RV). Kevin was up and he too had stayed awake most of the night anxious about the worry of today.
I shared today with my new friend. She is a cute little pistol, maybe a touch hyperactive but mostly just an exuberant, carefree young girl who turned five today. She has brown curly hair, is friendly and trusting, and a real charmer. She is a little unsettled by this chaos but not enough to get her down.
I went back out and finished setting up the trailer. When I came back into the building I saw her. Her mother was holding her and the little girl had wrapped her arms around her mother's neck. She had a smile on her face, today, September 2, is her birthday.
We shared our birthday stories before we left. She told me how old (young) she was and I told her how young (old) I was. Her name is Angel, she is Kevin's niece. She was ready for her birthday, but we didn't have much of a party because we had to leave in an hour to return to Gulfport.
The three hour trip to Gulfport was harrowing. We ran into a tornado warning around Laurel. The rain was extremely heavy and the sky was darkening very rapidly. We conferenced by cell phone and decided we were ahead of the worst of the weather. We agreed it was more expedient and safer to put more distance between us and Laurel rather than stopping.
We finally got in about 11:30AM. Although I was exhausted from the last several days, we worked until about 6PM to get our Village cleaned up.
The next day, Wednesday, I went over to Pearlington to see exactly what we are facing to recover. It is pretty bad, all our pods floated out into the swamp; however all but two or three can be retrieved relatively undamaged. The kitchen took about eight or ten inches of water and smells foul. The plywood underlay of the floor is buckling.
At the end of the day, Jeremy and I drove back to Gulfport on the scenic beach route, US90, looking at the yachts and boats that washed up against the seawall beside the road. There is a lot of debris and visible damage but nothing like the situation after Katrina. We drove into the Gulfport village about 5:45PM. I could smell the barbeque. Dinner is at six.
After dinner, they asked me to take Angel into the dining tent. I took her hand and we walked back and sat down at the table. In a few minutes in came a parade of two cakes, one with five candles and the other with, well more than five candles. Angel managed to blow out hers and I managed mine while the group sang "Happy Birthday."
Friends are a blessing, and when one is an angel, it is more than deserved.
We got word Monday night that we were to head back to Gulfport at 8AM. Tuesday. I was ready to go and couldn't get to sleep until about 2AM. I set my alarm for 4:45AM so I could be sure everything was taken down and packed to be ready for that early departure.
I went into the building to get my breakfast routine of oatmeal and toast (I have been sleeping in my RV). Kevin was up and he too had stayed awake most of the night anxious about the worry of today.
I shared today with my new friend. She is a cute little pistol, maybe a touch hyperactive but mostly just an exuberant, carefree young girl who turned five today. She has brown curly hair, is friendly and trusting, and a real charmer. She is a little unsettled by this chaos but not enough to get her down.I went back out and finished setting up the trailer. When I came back into the building I saw her. Her mother was holding her and the little girl had wrapped her arms around her mother's neck. She had a smile on her face, today, September 2, is her birthday.
We shared our birthday stories before we left. She told me how old (young) she was and I told her how young (old) I was. Her name is Angel, she is Kevin's niece. She was ready for her birthday, but we didn't have much of a party because we had to leave in an hour to return to Gulfport.
The three hour trip to Gulfport was harrowing. We ran into a tornado warning around Laurel. The rain was extremely heavy and the sky was darkening very rapidly. We conferenced by cell phone and decided we were ahead of the worst of the weather. We agreed it was more expedient and safer to put more distance between us and Laurel rather than stopping.
We finally got in about 11:30AM. Although I was exhausted from the last several days, we worked until about 6PM to get our Village cleaned up.
The next day, Wednesday, I went over to Pearlington to see exactly what we are facing to recover. It is pretty bad, all our pods floated out into the swamp; however all but two or three can be retrieved relatively undamaged. The kitchen took about eight or ten inches of water and smells foul. The plywood underlay of the floor is buckling.
At the end of the day, Jeremy and I drove back to Gulfport on the scenic beach route, US90, looking at the yachts and boats that washed up against the seawall beside the road. There is a lot of debris and visible damage but nothing like the situation after Katrina. We drove into the Gulfport village about 5:45PM. I could smell the barbeque. Dinner is at six.
After dinner, they asked me to take Angel into the dining tent. I took her hand and we walked back and sat down at the table. In a few minutes in came a parade of two cakes, one with five candles and the other with, well more than five candles. Angel managed to blow out hers and I managed mine while the group sang "Happy Birthday."Friends are a blessing, and when one is an angel, it is more than deserved.
Day 155 - Landfall
I write the story of September 1 today.
We evacuated Mississippi and Louisiana in the nick of time. We brought 7 of our staff from the Gulf and 12 immediate family from Houma.
There is a dramatic difference in the local situation between Katrina and Gustav. During Katrina not only did every one (almost) ignore the NHC predictions, as it hit almost all communication was lost. During Gustav' approach over two million people evacuated Louisiana and Mississippi. In addition, we all kept a real-time update on the approach of the storm by cell phone. Because Gustav accelerated across the Gulf, the storm did not have time to grow into what would have been a storm of historic proportion. That is the only good news.
Here in Meridian inside Trinity Presbyterian Church, on Monday morning at 9AM Kevin got a phone call from a cousin in Houma. Gustav destroyed Kevin's house trailer moments earlier. Within a few minutes his mother, two sisters, and son got the same news by cell phone. They lost everything today; their house, clothes, car(?) utensils-except the big cast iron gumbo pot that I'll bet Katrina couldn't move.
We just stood in stunned silence. He had just recovered from Katrina and now this. His mother was crying and we were trying to console her. Everyone else either was teared up or had that face of stunned and shell-shocked innocent people who have just survived a brutal bombardment in a conflict of war.
Later we hear that the cousin was able during a lull to get to the house and retrieve some critical possessions, a few clothes, his hunting guns and some utensils. Then the storm picked up. They lost everything today (house, clothes, car utensils-
except the big cast irn gumbo pot that I'll bet Katrina couldn't move.
The high school about a mile away caught on fire (electrical?) and burned down. The local shrimp processing plant was obliterated and scattered everywhere. Like Pearlington before it, Houma at ground zero was dealt a smashing blow.
Kevin cooked pizza's for lunch. Jeremy and I had been toying with the idea of going to a movie to blow off some of the stress yesterday, but never did it. We decided to do it today. Kevin's young daughter and his two boys looked pretty stunned to be going through this ls three years and 1 day later. I thought the best thing might be to get the young people's minds off this disaster. We asked the four of them if they wanted to go and they all jumped at the chance.
They watched "Tropical Thunder" while Jeremy and I watched "Traitor." I guess I'll use a twenty out of the mission money Northside sent me for mission-related occasions to cover their tickets.
Our movie finished first so Jeremy headed to Sears to get a tool case and I waited for the others in the food court of the mall. When their movie finished they came out laughing and happy. We sat at a table and talked and watched the crowd while we waited on Jeremy.
It was unsettling to me to sit there and see all the Meridians, young teenagers and parents hustling through the mall, laughing and joking on their holiday outing, carrying bags of items bought in the Labor Day sales ( It hasn't even rained in Meriidian yet) and turn to these four young people who, like me, were watching the crowd. It was if we were living on two parallel universes, each oblivious to the reality of the others' world. One held everything material, the other had only what they had been able to bring with them in their cars and on their backs.
We met at 6PM for a telephone conference with our staff leader who remained in the Gulfport area. I felt so badly about Kevin's family that I had to do something to try to assuage their grief. I ran out to my RV and found my RSV and paged until I found Matthew 6:24-34.
After the meeting we held a short prayer devotional. I concluded with this passage, barely able to read it clearly, but it seemed so appropriate. We promised Kevin we will be there to help him and his family recover.
We will take heart in our blessings and let today's worry be enough for us. We will leave tomorrow's for tomorrow.
We evacuated Mississippi and Louisiana in the nick of time. We brought 7 of our staff from the Gulf and 12 immediate family from Houma.
There is a dramatic difference in the local situation between Katrina and Gustav. During Katrina not only did every one (almost) ignore the NHC predictions, as it hit almost all communication was lost. During Gustav' approach over two million people evacuated Louisiana and Mississippi. In addition, we all kept a real-time update on the approach of the storm by cell phone. Because Gustav accelerated across the Gulf, the storm did not have time to grow into what would have been a storm of historic proportion. That is the only good news.
Here in Meridian inside Trinity Presbyterian Church, on Monday morning at 9AM Kevin got a phone call from a cousin in Houma. Gustav destroyed Kevin's house trailer moments earlier. Within a few minutes his mother, two sisters, and son got the same news by cell phone. They lost everything today; their house, clothes, car(?) utensils-except the big cast iron gumbo pot that I'll bet Katrina couldn't move.
We just stood in stunned silence. He had just recovered from Katrina and now this. His mother was crying and we were trying to console her. Everyone else either was teared up or had that face of stunned and shell-shocked innocent people who have just survived a brutal bombardment in a conflict of war.
Later we hear that the cousin was able during a lull to get to the house and retrieve some critical possessions, a few clothes, his hunting guns and some utensils. Then the storm picked up. They lost everything today (house, clothes, car utensils-
except the big cast irn gumbo pot that I'll bet Katrina couldn't move.
The high school about a mile away caught on fire (electrical?) and burned down. The local shrimp processing plant was obliterated and scattered everywhere. Like Pearlington before it, Houma at ground zero was dealt a smashing blow.
Kevin cooked pizza's for lunch. Jeremy and I had been toying with the idea of going to a movie to blow off some of the stress yesterday, but never did it. We decided to do it today. Kevin's young daughter and his two boys looked pretty stunned to be going through this ls three years and 1 day later. I thought the best thing might be to get the young people's minds off this disaster. We asked the four of them if they wanted to go and they all jumped at the chance.
They watched "Tropical Thunder" while Jeremy and I watched "Traitor." I guess I'll use a twenty out of the mission money Northside sent me for mission-related occasions to cover their tickets.
Our movie finished first so Jeremy headed to Sears to get a tool case and I waited for the others in the food court of the mall. When their movie finished they came out laughing and happy. We sat at a table and talked and watched the crowd while we waited on Jeremy.
It was unsettling to me to sit there and see all the Meridians, young teenagers and parents hustling through the mall, laughing and joking on their holiday outing, carrying bags of items bought in the Labor Day sales ( It hasn't even rained in Meriidian yet) and turn to these four young people who, like me, were watching the crowd. It was if we were living on two parallel universes, each oblivious to the reality of the others' world. One held everything material, the other had only what they had been able to bring with them in their cars and on their backs.
We met at 6PM for a telephone conference with our staff leader who remained in the Gulfport area. I felt so badly about Kevin's family that I had to do something to try to assuage their grief. I ran out to my RV and found my RSV and paged until I found Matthew 6:24-34.
After the meeting we held a short prayer devotional. I concluded with this passage, barely able to read it clearly, but it seemed so appropriate. We promised Kevin we will be there to help him and his family recover.
We will take heart in our blessings and let today's worry be enough for us. We will leave tomorrow's for tomorrow.
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