As Hurricane Dolly was approaching the coast of Texas this week, some local residents were discussing their recent efforts to help restore areas hit by Hurricane Katrina.
Nearly three years after the category 3 storm devastated the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, communities in Louisiana and Mississippi are still struggling to recover.
Porches with no houses, roofs growing grass, and abandoned homes were some of the sights that members of Momentum Youth Ministry, a youth group at Hillside Bible Church in Ortonville, saw when they took a mission trip to Pearlington, Miss. and New Orleans from July 12-19.
Pearlington was a community of about 2,200 homes before Hurricane Katrina, said Ken Tison, youth pastor at Hillside. Now, there are about 600 homes.
‘There were 10-12 foot floodwaters, so the houses were all totalled,? Tison said. ‘All the old homes are gone.?
Tison led a group of 23 teens and five adults on the mission trip. The group helped to put the finishing touches on new homes, by hanging drywall and gutters, putting up insulation, building wheelchair ramps, and staining stilts that some homes have been built on to avoid future flooding.
‘We wanted to do something concrete that means something at the end of the day and means something to the community,? said Tison. ‘Hurricane Katrina was a maybe once-in-a-lifetime disaster and seemed a good opportunity to help.?
The group primarily stayed in Pearlington housed in a tent-like shelter, rising every day at around 6 a.m., eating breakfast and having a Bible study before going to their job site, where they worked until about 5 p.m. most days.
‘I worked on a church, doing drywall in an attic where it was 100 degrees,? said Eric Aho, 17. ‘I was sore and sweated off a couple pounds.?
Aho was joined in working on the church and about seven homes by Chloe Kleindl, 14, Taylor Fote, 15, and Kaitlin Holbrook, 15, among others.
Tison said most of the homes were ‘paycheck houses,? in which the owners were at work, earning money to rebuild a little at a time. Most of the people they were working to help they didn’t get an opportunity to meet, but there were a few exceptions.
One of the homes they worked on is owned by ‘Miss Alma,? a resident of Pearlington for 45 years. Prior to Hurricane Katrina, she had lived through three hurricanes, she told the youth group. None of the storms had left more than what she described as a puddle, but Katrina wiped her out. With no flood insurance, she received only $11,000 with which to replace her home.
Miss Alma was grateful for the help provided and fed the group gumbo.
‘They were so happy we were there and wanted us to stay the whole time and help the town,? said Holbrook.
‘Instead of feeling sorry for themselves, they felt sorry for their friends who had to leave and the community,? Fote said.
Tison said the teens were very dedicated and he had to pull them off the jobsite daily when they wanted to keep working. In the evenings, they would travel to the gulf coast and sit on a stretch of grass playing music as the sun went down behind them and the moon came up over the ocean, said Kleindl.
It was a good time for reflection and Tison said that it will take a long time for the area to come back, and he isn’t sure that it will ever come back the way it was.
The teens said they learned a lot of lessons from the trip.
Aho said the main lesson he took away from it was to look out for everyone else.
‘We are all a family of God and I want to go on living for others,? he said.
Fote echoed that sentiment, saying she learned to put others first. She also has a greater sense of how fortunate she is and said the little things of life now seem like extravagant details.
Tison praised the youth, calling them an incredible group of teens who paid their own way to go down south and work very hard for a week.
‘I just spent a whole lot of money to do chores I gripe about when I’m at home,? laughed Kleindl. ‘Cool.?