Hillsboro Katrina Report for December 21

I’m to be helping with PDA Camp One at Gautier – which is still under construction in a fenced-off cow pasture. We’re currently based at the PDA’s camp in D’Iberville, about fifteen miles west of Gautier where teams are dispatched for work in that area. Several problems plus frequent rain set it back a few days. Consequently, I went out on a couple labor jobs on Friday, December 16, the day after my arrival.

The first job was to do sheetrock (or wallboard – same thing) in a mobile home. It had several feed of flood water and the owner removed all the old sheetrock and insulation right after the storm. Much of the new insulation was already installed so we started measuring and cutting new sheetrock in the bedroom. However – a major problem with the outlets and light switches caused us to stumble. The mobile home used self-contained units and light switches with wiring going through each terminal unit and on to the next. They were not wired into the outlets with a separate face plate. Brian, Larry (Steve’s dad) and I didn’t know how to allow for these outlets so we weren’t able to finish much more for this elderly gentleman.

So, the three of us went to a painting job in the afternoon. This lady had only a few inches of water in her home, so all flooring, carpets, and baseboards had to be replaced. Her son was replacing the tile floor. We painted one room mustard yellow – only one coat plus the ceiling which had leaked. On Monday, a different crew went back to her house but repainted the same room in a different color! The owner had decided the mustard was too bright! She has become very overwhelmed by it all – she had trouble making decisions. She had to talk about it and we all listened as we painted. Everyone has a story here in Mississippi.

One of my earlier blog entries showed tents and by their sides kerosene heaters – “heat wagons”. One heater will warm six tents. Three heaters are powered by a generator so it is rather noisy all night. Each camp site has thirty small tents so numerous heaters and generators. They are run only at night as we’re not in our tents during the days. And we’ve had some cold days! Our current camp is built within a city’s baseball field with a concession stand. So there is a heated restroom plus the kitchen area where there’s coffee. No food preparation is done there, but people grab their coffee, play cards at night and generally go to warm up. Our camp manager here is a retired veterinarian from New York, and he’s blessed with a heated travel trailer donated by a church member. It gives him a place to sleep and is also the camp office to run things. He’s awakened during the nights by volunteers who need help with faulty heaters or generators which seem to need refueling every few hours.

I’m sleepy tonight after a hard day. Following dinner at the disaster feeding area, we had an interesting outdoor presentation by a teacher who has made a special study of old English literature (delivered in old English!), but trying to stay warm for this got me too fatigued to make it to devotions at nine, so off to my warm sleeping bag for a good night’s rest. Good night, Oregon!

P.S. – Wes Carter is typing this for me so I have to put in a good word for him, so here it is: WORD. There, he’s got his good word!