A First Hand Report of the Damage of Katrina

The Moravian - December 2005

Editor’s note: The following is the account of the first Northern Province, Eastern District team to go to the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. JoAnn and Jim Rohn of the Nazareth Moravian congregation shared the following email with the Board of World Mission about what they encountered. They started serving the area on the mission team on October 31, 2005. If you hear a calling to serve in this way, please go to www.moravianmission.org and click on news. There you will see a link to Regional Volunteer Coordinators serving your area. Contact them and see how you can help.

We have been in Ocean Springs now for three days, have worked from 8 to 4 each day, and have not made a dent in what needs to be done. I can not imagine what these people were feeling and going through right after the storm. What you see on TV is nothing compared to what is really here and it is two months and a week since the storm.

Let me start at the beginning. We are working out of the Ocean Springs Presbyterian Church. Linda Darphin is our coordinator. (Her house is gone. Not just flooded, but destroyed. The remains had to be bulldozed. She and her family are living in her husband’s office building.) At this point, we are the sole Moravian couple working with a group from the Shelby Presbyterian Church from Shelby, North Carolina. One couple from their group were members here before moving to Shelby three years ago, so we are getting a guided tour of what WAS, not only for this church but for their friends and community. All volunteers stay in the Sunday school rooms on the third floor of the Christian Education Building. The second floor is the fellowship hall and is ground level on the front or south side toward the Gulf. The first floor is ground level in back on the parking lot side. (They had 12 feet of water in the lower level.) Several neighbors stayed in the fellowship hall during the storm.

As you look from the front of the church towards the Gulf (500 yards away) you see a row of homes across the street in various stages of damage, a small stand of trees, and then nothing but open area, the beach, and the water. (Before Katrina, you could not see the water because of all the trees and houses. As you walk toward the beach, it is hard to comprehend what you are seeing. The remaining trees look like something ghostly. Clothing, toys, personal belongings, plastic bags, trash, etc. are clinging to the branches. Bricks, lumber, furniture, bushes, trees, cars, boats are piled up along the foundations and remaining trees.)

The cleanup and rebuilding is being done by churches and volunteers. You wouldn’t believe the horror stories we are hearing about flood insurance and home owners insurance and what pennies on the dollar they are entitled to. Most people can handle the cleanup (throwing out carpeting, furniture, drywall, and insulation, and then scrubbing away the dirt and bacteria with clorox and strong cleaners), but, if they don’t have the cash or credit, they can’t start rebuilding.

Yesterday we were working in the home of an attorney who was just getting his practice off the ground after spending several years in the military. They have been living in their friend’s game room over the garage. He sold over half of his monthly receipts client base to finance his rebuilding. (insulation, drywall, spackling, nails, stove, refrigerator, dishwasher, tile floor, tools, and carpeting. He hasn’t gotten to the furniture yet). His FEMA house trailer arrived yesterday, November 3, 2005. He feels blessed because he still has his house. The houses behind him and across that street are totally gone.

Everyone is so grateful that we came to help out. Most are very somber and almost in tears when we get there, but as the day goes on, they work with us and see some progress, they talk about the experience and we sometimes cry and pray together. At the end of the day their spirits are better, there are smiles and thanks for all that we did. We see their spirit and faith in God AND we see what is still remaining to be done and wonder who, how, and when.

This is a very challenging mission both physically and emotionally. (I wish we could have done this at 42 rather than 62). But with God’s grace we will keep helping and hopefully make a difference.

Good Bless you all —
JoAnn and Jim Rohn