Hello from the Mississippi Gulf Coast!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

I came down here New Year's Day with a group from my church (no help from Northwest Airlines, which diverted us to New Orleans (long story) and still hasn't delivered my luggage :grr: )

We're the so-called Camp Coast Care, which is headquartered on the grounds of an Episcopal school, and conditions for the volunteers are anything but luxurious. Basically, we're on cots in the school gym.

The Camp provides free groceries, clothing, and whatever other supplies are available, as well as hosting a medical tent and sending teams out to clear lots. Although it is a joint venture of the local Lutheran and Episcopal churhes, help is available to all, and there is no spiritual component for the people helped unless they ask for it. (The volunteers end the day with a service before dinner.)

After today's work, we went out for a brief drive down to the beach, and were stunned to see how much devastation is still evident. For those of you who have seen the aftermath of a tornado, imagine that kind of damage extending for miles.

Today I worked in the clothing area, sorting donations and handing out clothing of the sizes and types available, if they were available. Some was obviously collected in clothing drives, while some of the rest is donated in unopened packages by various stores.

It was interesting to talk to the people we served, about half of whom were African-American, with a surprisingly large number of Vietnamese and a few Latinos mixed in. The people seemed to belong to every socioeconomic class. One of the women we talked to wondered whether the rest of the country was even aware of how bad the damage is here or whether they thought it was all New Orleans.

We'll be here through Saturday, and I hope to work at some of the other available jobs (I'm kind of burned out on sorting clothes after today).

But I'd like to leave you with the word that this area still needs lots of help. If you encounter anyone soliciting funds for rebuilding, think about chipping in.

Thanks. :hi:

[trof]

1. This Alabama Gulf Coaster thanks you.

:hi:

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. Thanks for the coast info update and your help!

If I had the resources, would be there, too.

Can you take pics and share what you see?

[KamaAina]

3. What area are you in, exactly (or approximately)?

The level of devastation ranges from heartwrenching (Gulfport, Biloxi) to near-total (Bay St. Louis, Waveland). Say, have you caught up with any Coast DUers such as merh? She or others might be able to give you guys valuable tips on exactly where and what help is needed.

It was interesting to talk to the people we served, about half of whom were African-American, with a surprisingly large number of Vietnamese and a few Latinos mixed in.

No surprise here; Vietnamese settled all along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Alabama, for the shrimping industry which was what many of them knew back home. One of the largest Vietnamese communities of all is in extremely hard-hit New Orleans East.

One of the women we talked to wondered whether the rest of the country was even aware of how bad the damage is here or whether they thought it was all New Orleans.

From where I sit (N.O. resident for a couple of years), even the city isn't getting enough press! As for the Coast, well, when the guy carrying the torch for you is Joe Scarborough, you've got problems.

Keep up the good work! :bounce:

[trof]

4. Many VN in Bayou Le Batre, AL

And that town is largely forgotten.
Folks still living in tents.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. We're in Long Beach/Pass Christian

We went down to the beach last evening and were stunned at how bad that area still looks.

Today I'm in the "grocery store." We have tons of canned food (including 71,000 cans of black beans), but not enough paper products, packaged foods, or fresh fruits and vegetables. A box of school kits went fast, as did quilts and blankets brought in by a new group of volunteers. A couple of elderly people asked for Ensure.

Clothes in large sizes are also needed.

To find out more, go to this URL:

http://www.campcoastcare.com

[jobycom]

9. OMG, That's it!!!

That's my old high school!!! Wow.

The beach is stunning. You can't even describe it. You can clearly see where the waves came and where they stopped. All those empty slabs and piles of debris used to be houses. I had friends in some of those houses.

Did you happen to notice a slab just east of Espy along Hiway 90 with a sign that says "Pirate's Cove?" That used to be the best Po' Boy restuarant in Mississippi.

[jobycom]

10. Oh, one more thing

Are you working with anyone from the actual school? It used to be run by Linda McCoulouch (I really don't know how she spelled it!), and I've heard she's still there. I wonder if she'd rememeber me. It was a small school. We once took the entire school to Ship Island, off the coast, in a 97 foot yacht owned by one of the teachers, or technically, owned by the engine company that the teacher's husband's family owned.

Okay, I'll stop being a pest! Something about Katrina has made a lot of people from the area more nostalgic. I've heard from two old friends since the hurricane, who looked me up after twenty years (one was my first kiss, as I mentioned in another post!).

Anyway, again, thanks for helping people out down there. The media and the government seem to have forgotten the area. I'm glad there are still people doing what they can. This nation is too beautiful for people like George W Bush.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

20. We saw the Pirates' Cove sign the other day

:-(

That's all that's left--just a sign.

Nearby was either a hotel or apartment complex that looked as if it had been bombed--it looked like something from Sarajevo.

[pitohui]

15. empire, louisiana

the vietnamese community in that area must be similarly devastated, the entire area is destroyed since katrina made landfall at buras

as kamaaina points out, new orleans east which includes the vietnamese community, catholic church, and buddhist temple was also destroyed, they are actually trying to do repairs there but i don't think it the best idea since they are not going to get services or good levee protection in new orleans east for some time, if ever, this area (developed in the 70s) prob. never should have been allowed for development, in theory it would be better to mitigate these people and find them a safer location elsewhere but in practice i don't think the money is there nor is the will there to tell people they've lost another home in less than 40 years

[katinmn]

6. Hi Lydia!

Fantastic that you've gone to help. I know another Twin Citian who wrote from down that way this weekend. Wonder if you're in the same group.

Have any people from FNVW?

[jobycom]

7. Not Coast Episcopal on Espy in Pass Christian, by any chance?

That was my high school. I drove by there the Monday after Christmas and saw that it was a large help center now. It's also no longer a high school, from what I've heard. I went there seventh, eighth and tenth grade. My first kiss was in the school lab. The gym back then had no walls or seats, and we used to put on plays under it. My drama teacher named it the "Open Air Arts Pavillion."

Several of my best friends in the world still live in Pass Christian, or rather, the part north of it, called DeLisle. Did you ever visit the area before Katrina? One of the most beautiful places in America, if you ask me, though I am biased.

Thanks for helping out over there.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. The very same

For insurance reasons, they've told us not to mingle with the kids--we're housed in the gym, which has been taken over by the relief center. Word has it that the center will be moved in a couple of months so that the school can have its gym back.

Today I'll be working in the "drug store" part of the medical tent, distributing over the counter drugs, bandages, and so on to people who request them or have been told to get them.

There are now over 100 volunteers here, including a bus load who just came in from Pennsylvania yesterday.

[RevCheesehead]

8. Hooray, Lydia!

Thanks so much for sharing this information! :hug:

And many thanks to all the hard working people from your church.

Please let the people know that we haven't forgotten them. I remind people of Katrina relief as often as I can, and we continue to pray for them every week in church.

[jus_the_facts]

11. What a commendable thing to do LL....

.....all the BEST to you and yours for all you're doin' down there! :hi: :hug: :loveya:

[merh]

12. Thank you Lydia Leftcoast!

:hug:

I kind of run out of steam trying to let folks of the devastation down here.

I so appreciate your help and that you care so much to volunteer to help others.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. :hug: :loveya:

[EFerrari]

13. Hi there, Lydia! Good going and thanks for the reminder.

:hi:

[Shell Beau]

16. I am glad you are there helping!

:hug:

I am a few hours north of where you are. I pray for all of those. I hope no one has forgotten them!!! I haven't for sure!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

17. Today I spent the day handing out OTC drugs, mostly cough and cold

medicines.

There's a lot of what people call "Katrina crud," which probably comes from molds.

Most of us volunteers have come down with respiratory problems, too, although I don't know whether it's from tiredness (I basically didn't get much sleep for three nights) or from being in close quarters with other people.

The weather has been lovely, sunny and in the high sixties, low seventies, quite a change for us Minnesotans.

Now our adventure on the way down went like this:

Three of us flew separately from the rest of the group, first to Memphis and then to Gulfport, or at least that was the plan. Our pilot tried to land in Gulfport three times but aborted at the last minute, which was kind of unnerving. Then he came on and announced that since Gulfport was too fogged in to land, we were going to be diverted to New Orleans.

So we landed at New Orleans and just sat there for a while, as everyone whipped out their cell phones. Several passengers made arrangements to be picked up in New Orleans, including a young woman who was sitting with the other two members of my subgroup. Okay, so we'd get off in New Orleans and be driven to Mississippi.

But then the pilot announced that we were returning to Memphis and would spend the night there (only with no hotel or meal vouchers, of course), and anyone who wanted to get off was free to do so, but there were no baggage handlers on duty at NOLA, so we would not be able to retrieve our luggage.

Well, there was NO way we wanted to stay on that plane any longer than we had to, so we got off to find the Twilight Zone atmosphere of a closed and suffocatingly moldy-smelling airport. We sat there for about two hours until our ride showed up. Even though it was dark, we could see some of the damage, especially in all the trashed=looking businesses.

We arrived at Camp Coast Care at 2AM, but fortunately the security guards were up and able to let us into the sleeping area. We just selected cots and crashed--I using my rolled-up sweatshirt as a pillow and putting my jacket on backwards.

The next morning, we found the rest of the group and learned that most of them were without luggage, as we were. Most of the luggage arrived that afternoon, but mine and that of the youngest member of the group did not arrive till noon on Tuesday, about 18 hours after it was promised to arrive.

As one group member noted, being with almost no possessions and dependent on the generosity of others waqs a good way to gain empathy with the people who lost everything in the hurricane. Currently, we're sleeping in barracks-like surroundings, about 150 people in a gym and too few bath and shower facilities for everyone to be happy, so this is a further sharing of the situation of the people we're serving.

I was really, really happy to see my luggage yesterday, and it was a great relief to have a sleeping bag! A pillow! Clean socks and underwear! Everything we take for granted!

More tomorrow.

[bvar22]

18. Thanks, LL.

My heart is with you.

[merh]

19. Thanks so much LL

Yes, most of us do have a lingering cough down here.

Tea and honey & lots of water. :shrug:

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. I spent my second day in the medical tent, handing out aspirin, etc.

There's a lot of high blood pressure and a lot of diabetes.

The saddest case today was a woman who had not seen a doctor in three years but had come here on her friends' insistance. The medical staff believe that she probably has at least a massive tumor and possibly ovarian cancer, so there was nothing they could do in what is basically a tent (which is why I can see everything that's happening and hear a lot of it--there's no privacy except for one curtained off area that contains an examining table) except send her on to the hospital. It was the old story--going to the doctor would be too expensive. It's rewarding to help the local residents, but it's also infuriating to know that in a civilized country, people wouldn't have to be afraid to go to the doctor.

Today was really really windy, and I could see dust blowing around outside the tent. Inside the tent, it was chilly, and we huddled around the gas heaters (of a type I'd never seen before--they look like big floor lamps) and the electric space heater to keep warm.

Last night, we made a run to (ugh!) WalMart, which is, unfortunately, the only show in town. We all went with shopping lists for the areas that we had worked in during the day and came back with a total of about $500 worth of merchandise, everything from toilet paper to toys to hydrogen peroxide.

I've noticed a pattern in the medical section. Someone comes in asking for Zantac or anti-fungal cream, and we don't have it. Then an hour later, someone donates a box of it. We've started joking that we can almost predict what donations will come in.

I enjoy working in the "drug store" and plan to do so again tomorrow, especially since I'm begiinning to feel competent. Saturday will be our last day, and the medical tent is closed then, so I don't know what I'll do instead. Because of my cold, I'm not going out to a work site, and everyone I've talked to agrees. There's so much junk in the air that clearing lots and tearing down houses will do nothing for my respiratory system. However, other members of our group have gone out to work on people's property.

That's all for now. I need to get ready for the evening meeting/evening prayer service, which is followed by dinner.

Breakfast has been a tour of Southern cuisine, with corned beef hash and grits yesterday and biscuits and gravy today. Dinner has been more conventional, although the vegetarians are frustrated.

More later!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

22. Friday at Camp Coast Care

I spent a third day in the medical tent, but the people who came in search of Tylenol and Robitussin said, "You need this worse than I do" when they heard me speak. My laryngitis, which began yesterday and was really bad today, sounded worse than I felt, but I had to mostly be a good listener and leave most of the talking to the other OTC meds volunteer, a pleasant young college student from Mississippi.

Temps were cold for this area, in the 40s with high winds, and not even the efforts of two pillar-style propane space heaters and a radiator-style space heater could keep us warm.

We ran out of some high-demand items, including ibuprofen, anti-lice shampoo, and vitamin B12, so at lunch, the nurse in charge of the medical tent asked people to chip in some money to replenish supplies. The response looked pretty generous.

The camp was at capacity last night, with over 150 people in barracks-like surroundings. The main problem was the inadequate number of toilets and showers, four of each in the women's room. Some creative scheduling has been required.

Tonight is the Feast of the Epiphany, so instead of the customary 6:00 PM Evening Prayer, we'll be having a Eucharist.

Tomorrow we'll work for a half day, and then after lunch, we'll prepare to fly back to Minneapolis. I hope that Northwest Airlines and the weather are more cooperative than they were on Sunday.

:hi: