Lone Oak High School Band

Hurricane Katrina Relief
(This was NO lady) - September 22 - 27, 2005
(click on any thumbnail for an enlarged copy of the photo with captions explaining the picture)

We left on Monday morning, September 22, from the parking lot of the Lone Oak Church of Christ. Members of the team consisted of people from congregations in Metropolis, IL and Paducah, KY (Broadway and Lone Oak Churches of Christ).

(More pictures of the trip)

Evidence of storm damage started to appear around Jackson, Mississippi in the form of downed trees and damaged roofs. Also, those pine farms you see from time to time showed wind influence in how they had bent over almost to the ground.

Once we got to Ocean Springs, we slept in the classrooms on the second floor of the church. We were told to expect no power or sanitary water and, therefore, no place to shower or bathe. Reality was much better once we got there but, had we arrived just a few days earlier, THAT's exactly what we would have faced.

The worship area of the church (what some would call the sanctuary) was dedicated to food distribution. Services on Sunday were being held on the grass at the front of the building.

Breakfast was served every morning starting at about 7:00am and then we were released to go do what we came to do. I started off slowly - working on houses that had already been "gutted" of their interior furnishings and walls, spraying them with pure Chlorox to kill the mild that had started to develop. Each house would require 4 treatments, spaced three days' apart.

From that point, the tasks we were asked to do were increasingly involved. next, we were asked to take the drywall out of houses that had already been screened, that had already had the appliances removed. This was a fairly simple task.

The houses that came next still had water standing in the kitchens or other parts of the house. The insulation was often soaked with foul-smelling water, because it had not been touched shince the storm ended. All applicances had to be removed, because the salt water that flooded the area is deadly to the internal workings of pretty much anything electrical. The heat index in many of these houses was over 100 degrees. Drinking LOTS of water was of utmost importance to keep from becoming dehydrated.

The city of D'iberville was essentially wiped from the map. Over 90% of the homes in the town were leveled. The schools were obliterated by the storm surge. At the church where we stayed, there was one young woman who came to work every day that we were there. Hers was the sole house in D'iberville that was essentially undamaged by the hurricane. She felt that, because she had escaped personal loss, she owed it to everyone else to be there and help. I heard that her mother often cried, feeling guilty because their house had been spared, when so many had lost everything.

At the point in time that we were there, re-building was in the future. The inhabitants are concentrating on getting the water-damaged items out of their houses so that the mold can be treated. If the mold is not removed, it can result in the house being declared uninhabitable and it will have to be completely destroyed, requiring that the owner essentially start over.

(More pictures of area damage)

The downtown area of the city of Biloxi defies belief. The casinos were competely destroyed and many, if not all, of the hotels there sustained major structural damage from the tidal surge and may have to be rebuilt.

This was one of the most heart-breaking trips I had ever taken, but, at the same time, one of the most rewarding. I have told some of you that I would have loved for you to have been able to make the trip also and work as we did. It would put an an entirely new perspective on your lives and the problems we all THINK that we have to endure. The school year is effectively over for many of the students down there. The bands have no place to play or practice. The kids have no place to live, let alone hang out. Some of them died, literally in their own front yards, at the height of the storm, or in their own attics. It's not something we have to deal with here, as a rule.

Appreciate what you have, and remember your friends, how important they are to you and what is important in life. Much of what we worry about on a daily basis just doesn't amount to much.