Thursday's Internet Edition, September 09, 2010.
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| Pictured front, from left, Dick Sheek, Scott Brent, Larry Fagge, Craig Smith; back, Butch Santelle, Becky Surratt, Ann Sheek, Lee Kimball, Corrie Sapp, Allen Yoder and Betty Phillips. |
Last week a group of 11 Moravians from Friedland and Unity Moravian Churches traveled over 700 miles to Ocean Springs, Mississippi to help with various re-building projects and repairs, and to provide manpower for the food distribution center and kitchen in the Lutheran Disaster Relief Center.
The center is named Camp Victor and is operated by Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Ocean Springs. To date, almost 7,000 volunteers have stayed in Camp Victor, a former garment-making industrial building, which can house 212 people. There are three dorm rooms for men and three for women with bunk beds and new mattresses.
Lutherans expect to operate the relief center for at least another eight to 10 years to provide assistance to the hurricane victims, and to return the area to some degree of normalcy prior to Katrina.
Seven Moravians from Friedland Moravian and four from Unity Moravian churches arrived in Ocean Springs, on the Gulf of Mexico, after a 13-hour trip in Friedland’s bus.
Mark Ebert, Moravian Disaster Relief director, has recruited over 50 teams of Moravians from both the Northern and Southern Provinces to help with the Katrina relief and repairs.
“Katrina was America’s Tsunami,” said Ebert.”“Christians are the only hope there in Mississippi. Most people in the three counties around Biloxi and Ocean Springs have no money, no insurance and are looking to faith-based organizations for help.”
Ebert said, “There are few laborers and most have no building skills. There are no houses, apartments etc. to rent for contractors to live in and work. Rents for any available houses are exorbitant. Tiny houses rent for up to $1,500 a month. Hurricane Katrina affected some 60 miles of Mississippi coastline over 90,000 square miles. Moravians have joined with Lutherans to work in the three counties.”
“Some 64,000 homes were totally destroyed during Katrina and 78,000 homes were damaged and inhabitable, although people are still living in these damaged homes,” said Ebert.”“To date, only 2,500 homes have been rebuilt. Moravian mission teams of volunteers have helped one dozen families move back into their repaired homes. People are living in 24-ft. FEMA (government issued) camping trailers, which only have two or three small windows.”
Ebert said most of the damage from the hurricane, which struck on August 29,2005, was from water. The Pascagoula River reached nine-feet flood level and went nine miles inland. Staffers in the Lutheran Center said “mullet fish were jumping in the water-covered streets of Ocean Springs.”
Bob Montgomery, who serves on the board of the center’s distribution center, and who has worked with Katrina’s victims since August 29,2005, said’“There are still some 100,000 people living in FEMA trailers in Mississippi, and 30,400 on the Gulf coast. At least 60,000 people are homeless and cannot return to live in the area.”
After Katrina struck Ocean Springs, Montgomery said “the distribution center was serving 250 families each day. This number is down now.”
On the first day the Friedland-Unity team worked, 62 families received food assistance. Food continues to arrive at the center in 18-wheel trucks.
Montgomery said “During the 1969 Hurricane Camille on the Gulf coast, the storm surge was 22 feet. During Katrina the surge was 23 feet in Ocean Springs; 25 feet in Biloxi and a few feet more in Pass Christian and Bay St. Louis, Ms.”
Bridges, piers and docks were destroyed. Sand covers many streets along the Gulf.
“Volunteers have come by the thousands to help,” said Montgomery. “Besides the Lutherans, the Methodist, Christian and Baptist churches in the area operate relief centers.”
Samaritan’s Purse operates a large relief center in Biloxi, across the Gulf of Mexico from Ocean Springs. This organization collected $20 million for assistance along the Gulf and $5 million just to Biloxi, which had more damage than Ocean Springs.
The Lutheran Center has several resident staffers, who are dedicated to stay in Ocean Springs and work as long as needed or when the center no longer is in operation.
John Fitzgerald, the center manager, came from Pennsylvania and a comfortable lifestyle to live in the center. “I feel very fortunate to come and assist. I read on the internet about the center’s work, and volunteered to come and help.”
Trudy Johnson, kitchen director, came from Ohio with her teenage son, to direct volunteers and run the kitchen, which feeds staffers and volunteers, as well as several elderly and disabled nearby residents. “My older son came to Ocean Springs as a volunteer, and came back home. He convinced me I could help, so I left my job in a school cafeteria and came.”
Montgomery stated “Camp Victor is a resort destination. We book activities (work), and give out free beds and three meals a day. Volunteers continue to come on down.”
Each hurricane victim wants to talk about his or her story. Listeners are appreciated. The horror of witnessing a hurricane destroying everything the victims’ own remains fresh in memories.
“One woman victim told a volunteer. “Even after 15 months I get up and most mornings I just don’t know where I am going.”
Another woman, living in Ocean Springs, told volunteers who arrive to work on her house, “I guess I can start living now. You all have helped renew me.”
Emotions remain raw from the hurricane victims, volunteers, Camp Victor staffers and board members. Eyes are often moist from tears, and voices quaver when relating experiences of Katrina victims.
The Board of Moravian Home Missions has purchased a four-bedroom brick home in Ocean Springs, and is in the process of rebuilding the interior. The interior was waterlogged with the storm surge and new wiring and plumbing will be installed, and walls rebuilt. When completed, this house will be used as a dorm for Moravian mission teams coming to help Katrina victims in Ocean Springs.