Bayou La Batre, AL
Disaster Description
Hurricane Katrina, August 2005. There is water and wind damage. MDS volunteers performed plumbing and interior electrical repairs to churches and buildings where people were being housed. In addition volunteers placed tarps on damaged roofs and cut up trees damaged in the storm.
Volunteers have now set up a long-term MDS response facility in a local strip mall. Work continues in the rebuilding phase, fixing up homes that were damaged.
Report to April 5, 2007
It is with
mixed emotions that I write this final week review. Our last short term
volunteer group left almost a week ago. Cooks, Carolyn Hochestetler and
Patricia Mack
remained here at home base along with directors Norm and Kathy Gerber.
Many times
during a daily report we would hear the phrase "we sanded and mudded and
painted....we sanded and mudded
and painted". This week we "cleaned and packed and gave
away...we cleaned and packed and gave away". After 17 months in the bayou
of Alabama, Mennonite
Disaster is leaving the area. 250 houses have been repaired and many lives
touched. Over 32,000 meals were prepared for over 1400 volunteers. These
final days were spent saying goodbye to clients and fellow workers in Hurricane
Katrina
Recovery work.
3
volunteers from MDS
Mobile, Al. and 3 volunteers from Mississippi
assisted in moving trucks and equipment to the MDS warehouse in Columbus, Mississippi.
Our closing of this site was made easier in that
the United Methodist
Church Disaster Recovery Ministry
is taking over the building to be used for continuing
recovery ministry in the area.
Ms. J's and Mr. and
Mrs. D's
houses were finished although floor
covering and some electrical work to be done by Lutheran Recovery is
still waiting to be completed. Mr. and Mrs. C's house is being finished by MDS out of Mobile unit. Mrs. G's house is complete and we visited
with her there giving her a Bible, a knotted comfort, and
a Vacuum. Her words of appreciation, the smile on her face, and
the hugs we received for repairing her house, brought joy to us.
Many of you
reading this report have helped rebuild houses in the Bayou La Batre area. you truly have been the hands and feet
of Jesus. Continue to serve Him in your home communities and join MDS in rebuilding
houses and lives again real soon.
