DO SOMETHING - KATRINA DISASTER - SEPT 2005
After disaster struck the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts with Hurricane Katrina, millions of Americans made generous donations of money and needed items to victims. 
But one volunteer organization offered some, including me, a chance to give in other ways as well. I was very fortunate to spend a few days in the Gulfport-Biloxi area, among the hardest hit areas affected by Katrina, working with a valiant group of folks who make up HandsOnUSA.
HandsOnUSA was set up following the devastating Tsunami by a small group of Americans who acted on their keen desire to give direct aid by traveling to Thailand and pitch in anyway they could. They set up a formal non-profit organization late last year, never expecting there would be a need for it so soon and in their own home country.
The Hands OnUSA group I stayed with included Dave Campbell, Gail Evertz, Dick Clinton and others from around the nation and Canada. We rested each night on air mattresses and toiled during the day to assist first responders’ families. In addition to helping the families of police officers working 24/7, we distributed relief items to those we found at or near their wrecked or vanished homes – tetanus shots, work gloves and boots, new socks and underwear, ice, and hygiene kits.
The surge had virtually erased the vibrant mix of McDonald’s, Waffle Houses, motels, churches and homes from the shoreline back a few blocks, leaving the beach area in some places as it might have looked hundreds of years ago. The storm surge then deposited a pile of debris of twisted wreckage -- cars, boats, beams and planks, even port containers-- which stood as high as 15 or 20 feet in some areas, on top or alongside whatever homes or buildings that were still standing. The flood waters had inundated homes and businesses many blocks beyond that.
We heard stories from those who had stayed and survived the hurricane. The flooding started in the early hours and, as the waters rose, Pedro and his girlfriend swam out the first floor window and clung to a plywood board for nine hours. A Vietnamese shrimper family close to the water had somehow survived, but the path to their home was outsized litter and rubble; their small home was surprisingly intact. A young restaurant manager, Chris, trying to get his business open again, told us how he had to swim out to help rescue his father-in-law isolated in his flooded home. Another man near the wreckage of his once large and beautiful home informed us that this was his vacation home – his main residence was in, of all places, New Orleans.
Saddest of all, a photo posted to a tree showed a small family whose remains were believed to be unrecovered in a collapsed house with a pungent and unforgettable odor - a grim reminder that for some there will be no getting on with their lives.
Many homes looked much like the back lot set of wreckage for War of the Worlds with the front facades gone, curtains billowing out, delicate plates still in the china hutch half askew and yet parts seemingly untouched. Some people we met were returning to find steps to nowhere and their homes entirely gone. One elderly couple had survived hurricane Camille in 1969, lost everything then and lost it all again in Katrina's wake. The steps to the pad of their home was all that remained aside from a bear skin rug drying in the 90 degree heat and a few mason jars of blackened pickles and a few shards of china. 
We asked the couple if they could use some work gloves or boots. The gentleman was heartened – he said all that was left was what he had on - a pair of well worn cowboy boots for going to church or sifting through the ruins of his life. We found a perfect fit in a new pair of workboots. We handed the boots to the tall and composed man and all of a sudden he started to weep. He tried to hold back the tears, but they kept flowing. He pulled himself together and said “I’m not crying because I’m sad, I am crying because I can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.” We both hugged him and tried to reassure both husband and wife that things would get better.
Would it? The devastation of this area was so complete, it is difficult to comprehend. The woeful lack of leadership and competent response from the Administration is not encouraging. 
When Katrina is no longer in the headlines and the tens of thousands of Americans displaced by Katrina are still trying to pick up their lives, one can hope that real help will not be far behind. The Americans harmed by Katrina throughout the Delta area cannot be forgotten.
