FIVE YEARS LATER

Five years ago today Hurricane Katrina came on land at Bay St. Louis, MS.    Ted and I saw this little town that December and I will never forget how I felt that day.    We had missed the turn off of I12 to go into Slidel and I told him to just go on and we'd stop on our way home.    When we started back to Baldwin I couldn't stand to see anymore and asked Ted not to stop.

When all this happened I, like EVERYONE else, wanted to help.    I started calling the Red Cross.   They had shelters set up in Franklin and other places in Nashville and I wanted to be a part of whatever was being done.   BUT...I had not been trained by the Red Cross.   Since then I have had some Red Cross training  and realize if you have not had that training you cannot really help.  

It was driving me nuts.    We had talked of going down to UMCOR Sager Brown in Baldwin, LA for a long time but they were always full when we could go.   I did get on line and they were needing help but their rooms were full so I asked if they had camping facilities.    They did so we loaded up our little pop-up camper and  went down the first two weeks of December.

Once there I felt so useless.    We were filling plastic bags with tooth brushes, combs, wash cloths, soap, etc.    I felt like I SURELY could be doing something more helpful.   Then on Thursday night a minister spoke of his feelings and how he had been thinking the same things I had, then realized that someone had to buy that soap, someone had to get it to Baldwin, we were packing it and someone would be taking it into New Orleans or Mississippi where it was needed and handed out to someone that had lost everything.   Somehow it all made sense and I began to want to go as a LONG TERM VOLUNTEER.

Ted shared that he, too, wanted to come back as a LTV.    So...we got the information but they really wanted us to stay two to three months at a time.   Well, no way was I going to do that.   They would feed and house us but that was just too long to be gone from home.     I told Jan we might be able to come for a month and she said to go ahead and fill out the papers and see what happened.

We came home about the 15th of December and didn't expect we'd be called.   Then New Year's Day Jan called early that morning asking if we could come down for a month - the month of February.   Perfect.   We leave to go back the end of September and that will be our 7th trip down to work as LTV'S.    We now stay six to eight weeks but this trip we will be there ten weeks.  

I think of the people that are there now.   Kathy was the Outreach person - she is now the Director, Bill and Dianna were running the Dispatch office.    They had sold their home in Arkansas, put all their furniture in storage and were planning on doing Mission work.   They were the Dispatchers for all the trucks we sent out every day for MONTHS.   Now they are over all the volunteers, assign our work jobs, set up where we stay and how long we can come for.   Bob and Barbara were just volunteers at first and now she is the Outreach Director as it has expanded greatly and Bob oversees the jobs on local housing.  

It's a WONDERFUL place to go, we LOVE it and as long as our old bodies are able to function in the jobs they request us to do we'll probably go back year after year.

Last year we received our 5 yr. pins and I'm proud of that pin.   It represents something I can do and LOVE doing for someone else.  

We are hoping none of these Hurricanes come on land that are out in the Atlantic now churning away but if they do we will do what we can to help get supplies where they are needed.