Reflections on "Rebuilding Together" Experience in Waveland, Mississippi

Since last Wednesday, I have not posted...first, because I was preparing to be away from work, then from Sunday to Wednesday, I joined seven colleagues from API in our "Rebuilding Together" effort for 2008.

We arrived in Gulfport, MS on Sunday morning then drove to Bay St. Louis (about 45 miles northeast of New Orleans). Driving from the airport to the hotel (about 60 miles or so) we passed through some of the areas most devastated from Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, including Gulfport, Pass Christian, Bay St. Louis, and Waveland. Although New Orleans gets most of the attention from the sheer volume of damage, Waveland and Bay St. Louis also took a direct hit from Katrina.

After making a brief initial landfall in Louisiana, Katrina had made its final landfall near the MS state line, and the eyewall passed over the cities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 120 mph. Katrina's powerful right-front quadrant passed over the west and central Mississippi coast, causing a powerful 27-foot storm surge, which penetrated 6 miles inland in many areas and up to 12 miles inland along bays and rivers. Hearing about the devastation is much different than seeing it...even three years later.

We met several other volunteers Sunday evening at a church/workcamp to get the marching orders for the week. The volunteers were going to be working on seven projects in Waveland, MS.

Our first project was to help Mrs. Westbrook, a wonderful woman who has helped many of her neighbors and others in the area. She lost her home in Katrina. She had a friend who owned several rental properties, when she returned to the area, her friend sold her properties...one to her. It is a cute 2 bedroom cottage over a mile inland which had over 4 feet of water inside. The cottage missed a lot of the devastation as it was on 4 foot pilings, unlike most of the neighborhood...

Our job (the 8 of us from API) was to scrape, sand, paint, and detail the exterior of the house. I have just one thing to say...Thank God for vinyl siding! We had most of the house sanded and painted by the end of Monday, leaving only a litle bit of detailing on Tuesday. We then moved on to a complete rebuild project for someone who lost everything. This house had already been framed, roofed, and sided...our job was to hang the sheetrock.

This experience was tremendously rewarding. I plan on suggesting our church send a delegation, and I will also suggest to my Bible school class (seniors and college students) come together as well. There is so much left to be done there...

I will have pictures soon...