- 11 years ago
Documentary (2008) 44 minutes ~ Color
A story of one family's struggle to survive after Hurricane Katrina and the emotional journey of 54 volunteers from New York who helped them rebuild their home and their lives.
Director: Lewis Stiefel
Writers: Judy Stiefel, Lewis Stiefel
Stars: Dave Browde
A story of one family's struggle to survive after Hurricane Katrina and the emotional journey of 54 volunteers from New York who helped them rebuild their home and their lives.
Director: Lewis Stiefel
Writers: Judy Stiefel, Lewis Stiefel
Stars: Dave Browde
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00You
00:30You
01:00You
01:14The Luxie, Mississippi
01:16February 2007 a
01:18Year and a half has already passed since Hurricane Katrina changed the lives of everyone along the Mississippi Gulf Coast
01:26But some things haven't changed
01:31It's Mardi Gras time
01:33There's an air of normalcy and celebration as the annual event winds its way through downtown, Biloxi
01:42But less than a mile away there are stark reminders that wherever you look life in Biloxi is far from normal
01:49It is 18 months since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast
01:54along us-90 that stretches along the Gulf
01:58businesses
01:59schools
02:01Museums
02:03hotels and
02:05Houses of worship were either wiped out or badly damaged by the storm
02:20Slabs of concrete are now all that's left of where some homes once stood
02:25Other homes have been reduced to hollowed-out shells those who lost homes or are rebuilding now live in trailers
02:34These scenes of desolation and destruction are repeated all over the Mississippi Coast
02:40It is nearly two years later and people are still trying to piece their lives back together
02:45Still hoping to regain a sense of normalcy. Just come back from Iraq couple days right before Hurricane Trina hit and
02:52Since I got back in head bunker down on the same gift go for shelter
02:56I didn't want to go to shelter at first my wife said she wanted to go so we went you know
03:01Luckily we did because by the time we got back to the house. I was after Hurricane Katrina came through
03:07My house was pretty much flooded. I lost a lot of like a Bible things that was valuable to me
03:12It's basically sleep out in front of a house. I'm standing in front of tents until
03:17Until I got the money to actually restore rebuilding on my house
03:20I mean it was devastating
03:22actually, I
03:24Wasn't prepared to come back home. No, it's our from Iraq here. I'm saying a lot of things going on over there now. I come back
03:30it's just
03:32Just crazy with I
03:35Wasn't prepared for it at all not at all
03:38All my friends all my relatives we can't get over how much
03:43Help we have received from all the people all over the world all over the United States
03:48my daughter's house
03:51But he lives about two blocks from here. It was totally gutted a couple from Michigan came
03:56They put in new heating. They put in new plumbing. They they put in new plumbing
04:01They put in new plumbing. They put in new plumbing. They put in new plumbing
04:04They put in new heating they put in new plumbing they did the walls they put in a new roof
04:10They were able to help her that she could get back in her house. And this was just like about five months ago
04:16There's not enough money flowing in for the recovery
04:18We've certainly got the volunteers that want to come out and do the work
04:22but the homeowners still face a lot of a lot of struggles as far as getting materials they need to build rebuild their homes or
04:29Just the various agencies they have to go through with the flood the new flood guidelines with FEMA
04:35The insurance companies and are still not paying some folks and it's just it's still a mess
04:41That's the best way to best way to describe it is one big mess
04:44It's just so much work and just looking at your life just has crumbled, you know
04:50So you didn't know I didn't exactly know what to do or where to go and stuff
04:55And then the volunteers came in and they just it's just one help all you have to do
04:59You don't really have to ask they'll stop by and they'll say do you need help? And I'll be like, oh, yes, please give us help
05:04You know, so they've been very instrumental in helping us. I can say from from personal experience
05:12If it hadn't been for volunteers, we'd have given up a long long time ago. This is a giving nation
05:18We are a giving people and we down here in the Gulf South
05:23I think one thing, you know
05:25there's there are good things that have come out of Katrina and one of the things that I know have come out of Katrina is
05:31This line between north and south
05:34Has been erased
05:36There's there's yeah, you're still gonna have some bubbles in the woods with Confederate flags and all that foolishness
05:42But I can tell you that it's it's a big difference when if it if it wasn't for the folks from all over this country
05:48There's no way we we would have been able to do what we've done to try and get our lives back in order
05:53I'm a single parent. And so without the volunteers, there's just no way I mean, I couldn't have done this
05:59I mean I have limited skills and stuff like that. So I really needed them to help
06:04I just I think I would have given up. I know I would have given up the coast would not recover
06:11without the volunteers
06:13Thousands and thousands and thousands and they are a blessing like we could not imagine
06:19We just could not make it without them
06:22One of the countless communities in Mississippi hit hard by Katrina was Ocean Springs
06:28Where a group of interfaith volunteers from New York have come to help in the relief effort
06:35Pete Jones a retired Marine is the disaster relief and recovery coordinator for st
06:41John's Episcopal Church in Ocean Springs
06:43Here we are 18 months after a hurricane Katrina and we're at a site where at least four or five homes
06:50Were lost on August 29th
06:55As you can see look around I'm standing on the slab what used to be a house next door is the garage and off to my right
07:04Is the remnants of another lot where the home was totally destroyed and off to my left are the remnants of three homes
07:11As we go up the block
07:15This scene that you see here is repeated for over a hundred miles along the coast and
07:24From any waterfront it goes in about
07:28Two to three blocks of total destruction and another two blocks where major flooding occurred and the structures are still standing
07:35One such house still standing is located at 415 Ruskin Avenue
07:39It's been home to the Hale family for the past 12 years
07:43The storm spared the structure of their home, but the floodwaters destroyed everything inside
07:50Forcing Michael Michelle their teenage daughter Haven and their dog Duncan to live in a trailer for the past year and a half
07:58With assistance coming from their local parish st
08:01John's Episcopal Church the Hale family was one of many to receive help from large volunteer groups today
08:07The interfaith volunteers from New York have come to help the Hales get back into their home
08:13As the group gathers inside
08:15Michael and Michelle tell their harrowing story of how they barely escaped Katrina's floodwaters with their lives
08:25We realized we didn't those used to be
08:28Glass doors from top to bottom and we did not know that the water had pushed those in that there was jagged
08:36Glass this long all along that wall for some reason we hugged this wall
08:41And he flipped the deep freeze over and we looked at each other
08:46And said there's a possibility we could drown because there was a wrought iron thing on this door in there
08:53So we came back the way we went and that's pretty much when we got it went into shock about how
09:00But uh, but the good Lord was watching after us because if we had gone
09:04Three feet that way if we had gotten flamed by that glass
09:10Because there was no emergent, you know, there's 38 feet of water from the bottom of the street up here
09:18We were on the phone with my dad and my stepmom at was it 20 after 9
09:2520 after
09:2620 after something I don't remember it was it might have been even earlier than that
09:31And when the water started rushing in so fast, we told them
09:35We're gonna have to go and we found the clock that was over the stove and it stopped at four minutes till the next hour
09:41So from 20 after four minutes
09:45That's how quick it happened. It just came quick
09:53They were panicking because when I went in you'll see in this orange bathroom I went in there it's got a
09:59Japanese style sunken tub and water was shooting up from the bottom of the tub and
10:06They were saying we told them we were going to have to leave and I'll never forget
10:11My stepmother telling me that do y'all have any rope and we were like rope
10:17We don't we couldn't get the dog up in that tree back there
10:20So then we're just really panicking and of course then the lines went dead and they didn't talk to us for a week
10:25So they didn't know whether we were alive or dead
10:28It's not you don't want to put your family through
10:32Like we are like I said, yeah, we're alive. Well, that's good because I'm gonna kill you next time
10:46And that's the one thing that a lot of people will tell you if you talk to that it was really lucky
10:51That that normally hurricanes come at night
10:54Very rarely in the daytime and if this had happened at night there would been so many more fatalities
11:00You just cannot imagine because by the in the dark, it's ten times harder, you know
11:05And we were well prepared believe me. I mean we had everything because we just thought trees were gonna fall on the house
11:12nobody ever
11:14the water the tidal surge
11:16And
11:19We're so glad y'all are here
11:23The response by volunteers from both within state and out of state
11:28Was just amazing
11:30We had out-of-state volunteers come to st. John's
11:34two days after the storm because of these volunteers who have so generously poured in from all over the country that
11:42We along the coast are able to repair and rebuild and regrow
11:48with a renewed hope we have a volunteer group right now working from New York and
11:55We're doing kind of a little extreme makeover
11:59Challenge because we've got 44 volunteers here. They're all inside
12:03We've had drywall put up just after Christmas and it was all prepared for this group to come in and do a painting
12:10We hope to get this whole place painted by the time they leave
12:29In this area we had 35 feet of water from the street level
12:35To this particular home that's across the street. They had over six feet plus of water within the house
12:40So where we're standing at this level that meant that the height of the water in
12:46Right along this street was 35 feet high and that would put it
12:51Into their home and on this particular tree would bring us above the the wise
12:57in those branches
12:58So because of the storm surge this tree was probably completely underwater because it would just be bending at the top
13:05And so at some point if you were actually looking at this or had the ability to look at it from overhead
13:10You probably couldn't see this tree at all
13:13It would have been completely underwater as the wind and the waves would have just been
13:18bending the top of this tree almost to the point of
13:22Just breaking it in half so it's kind of hard to imagine right now here we are in this beautiful day
13:28We're standing. It's completely dry that this area right here was just underwater
13:35For hours, we've got some good friends that are hurricane hunters, and I'll never forget the night before
13:39He was a met him at the convenience store, and I said mark. Why are you buying all these batteries?
13:45And he kind of smiled. He says well Mike you're talking this thing might make that dreaded turn
13:50And we all we all kind of felt something you know we knew something was fixing to happen the water started rising
13:56It was early in the morning
13:59It started in a slow wave motion each time
14:04The water wave went this way and that way it raised two feet
14:09Back this way two more feet
14:12Our front yard started filling up. We had a
14:15Cargo van we were trying to get out. It was too late for that the mailbox went under
14:20water just kept rising so quickly and
14:24Started coming in the house through the bathrooms and through the front door and this
14:29Black mark right underneath this yellow cable up here. You can faintly see it. That's
14:36Where the water the highest point of the water?
14:39Water was shooting in through these windows. It got about knee-deep and
14:45That's when we decided we would evacuate to our neighbors, but when the water came it came really quickly
14:51Every door and window the house the water was coming in it was it was not that scary at that time
14:58But when we evacuated and went down the steps, then we were in significantly deeper water
15:04And we kind of half waited half swam with our animals to our next-door neighbors
15:10They swam probably through this tree right here and
15:15Swam to the back of my house
15:17And banged on the door and one of them said it's all gone. It's all gone
15:23And they came in and we got towels and dried them off and then they joined us all
15:28Looking out the window watching the storm
15:31That was about halfway through and we just sat and watched the storm probably
15:36Looking out different windows all over the place and not believing that it was really
15:41It was a lonely feeling but not as lonely as after the storm had passed and walking out into the debris and rubble and
15:48Just seeing the devastation and knowing that you were at the mercy of just waiting for someone to come help
15:54Well the house across the street was totally underwater
15:59The house next over there house right next to it was completely underwater
16:04So we had to get out of the house and we had to get out of the house and we had to get out of the house
16:09Next over there house was totally underwater
16:13Now the water gradually seeped out. But of course it weakened the houses so much that they just
16:21Folded and disappeared the people on this side
16:25Their house was in three pieces and the lot on the other side of them their second story of their house
16:32Was in the middle of the road
16:40You
16:51We were
16:53Quite a photo op for a long time, but we still had a structure standing granted all the contents and
17:00Everything had to be gutted and we lost all of our possessions
17:04But at least we had something to work with and just the fact that we could live in a trailer in front of this house
17:10Gave us comfort. We we did not have to move
17:14We were able to stay in the neighborhood and have some kind of it sounds ironic
17:19Semblance of normalcy just because we were not displaced, but we still consider ourselves lucky because we could have easily died
17:26and
17:28We look at life a lot differently
17:31Our new motto is if you don't need it, you don't use it and you can't wear it
17:36We're not going to have it our priorities have changed greatly
17:39But we think for the better when my wife and I came back in the house after we getting everybody
17:44Secured I had a big chest freezer that was slam-packed and taped shut with nothing but ice
17:50And it's one thing that I guess that I came back over here. I was able to flip that thing outside
17:56I
17:57Write that up and that's what the neighborhood that's I supplied the ice a few people on this street for like a week
18:04and I was very precious ice and water after the storm, so
18:09There's a there's a bombshell
18:11Pastor Chris Matlowski of Dobbs Ferry Lutheran Church
18:14Explains how he got involved with a relief effort here in Ocean Springs
18:19We're here with a group of people to make a difference to bring hope
18:23about a
18:25Week after the storm hit a year and a half ago
18:28My congregation I wanted to respond in some way and so we talked about making a trip down to Mississippi and six months after
18:34The storm we came last year with a group of ten of us who came to Ocean Springs
18:40this is where we were assigned and and we saw some of the worst devastation that we could ever imagine and
18:47And it really moved us deeply and we had the opportunity to work for a number of
18:51Residents here in Ocean Springs get to know them get to meet them get to hear their stories get moved by the trauma and tragedy
18:58They experienced but also make a difference help them
19:02continue the rebuilding process
19:04and so a
19:06Year went by and we're back now
19:09Instead of ten from last year. We're back with 53 and it's been exciting and wonderful
19:14To have a group of people so committed so inspired to come in and really
19:20Help these folks continue the rebuilding process
19:31The flurry of people around all everyone what they can do to help
19:39Rabbi Billy Dreskin of Woodlands Community Temple in Greenberg a longtime friend of pastor Chris Matlowski heard about his experiences
19:47Decided to make the trip this year with his congregants as well
19:50I'm here because my friend pastor Chris Matlowski brought his church here a year ago
19:54And when he came back and told us all about it
19:56I said don't you dare go back without inviting our synagogue to come with you certainly when Katrina happened
20:02Our hearts went out to the folks down here, and we did what everybody did we collected supplies and got them down here to help
20:10out a year and a half later
20:12We find that they are still in tremendous need of assistance and the assistance that they need is help in
20:19Putting their homes back together this opportunity to come down and actually put our hands on the materials and help create
20:26recreate a home like this is
20:28Just it's an honor
20:30We don't think we're going to build an entire house if we can paint a wall
20:34If we can help a family move one step closer to being able to get back into their home
20:39Then our expectations will have been more than fulfilled the work. We're doing this year is a lot different than last year
20:45We're not doing the basic
20:48cleaning up of branches and and and
20:50Clearing out roads and trying to recover from the devastation of the storm storm a lot of that has been done now
20:56We're back to rebuilding
20:58Painting she rocking and and that's going to help the people transition into a sense of normalcy
21:04I think moving from a place of living in temporary quarters trailers
21:09Situations are very compromised tight and difficult finally to go back into a place called home where the place is rebuilt and it's clean
21:16It's painted and it's it's it's back to normal
21:19And I think that will help them in the emotional rebuilding that they're going to be going through for years to come. This is
21:26what was
21:28Stapled to our house by the Army Corps of Engineers. It used to be bright green. It happened perhaps
21:34I
21:36Guess a month after the storm
21:40Which a lot of people wanted to try to live in their house with all the mold and things while they were
21:46Dismantling it and this just said that
21:49Absolutely, not it's unhealthy and dangerous
21:54Displaced from their home the Hales were able to borrow a trailer from friends and had to find a way to live as comfortably as
22:00Possible with their teenage daughter and their dog
22:06This is my bed that really should be a dining room table
22:14This is where we cook you can see I lay in bed
22:23This is my husband's face which is all communal space
22:27We have no room to keep any clothes
22:30This is the bathroom that
22:33where we've been
22:35Showering and living and I can jump in there and let you take a look of this is this is how much room you have
22:42When you're showering
22:45This is this is your space
22:47My husband's head hits this
22:51So it's really tight
22:54And you have two minutes before the hot water runs out
22:58And then this is my daughter's room we
23:02Felt like since the storm that she to help her being a teenager
23:07we let her have her own bedroom and it's helped a lot because she has her space and her friends come and they pile up and
23:16Listen to music and but we felt it was very important for her to have the largest space
23:22To just help her stay focused and not get depressed
23:27Those less fortunate who were not able to secure a trailer on their own had to wait to be assigned to a FEMA
23:33Trailer park where they weren't sure what life would be like and what conditions they would have to face
23:38We're turning in here. This is the Ocean Springs EGH site
23:42Which means it's emergency government housing and this is basically your FEMA trailer park
23:48And this is the ritziest one. This is the one where they don't have as many
23:55Domestic violence disputes and not
24:00problems that they've had in other ones
24:02this trailer park probably sprang up about
24:06Two to three months after the hurricane. I'm not really sure when this one opened up
24:13But FEMA trailers really didn't start coming down and being made available readily available, even though you might have
24:22Registered for one three days after the storm. They really were not being brought down till three months
24:30After the storm so you can imagine people three months nowhere to live
24:34The government just could not respond quickly enough. They were not prepared for this type of disaster
24:41They tried but and they did what they did when they finally got it together was good
24:46But it just took so long and people suffered so badly in the beginning
24:53It was just really miserable
24:56And then trying to wait and see what was going to happen
25:00We know everybody thinks it was New Orleans
25:03But it was just one ward of New Orleans. The rest of New Orleans was fine
25:07It was just one ward and I do feel bad for those people, but we're talking about
25:1340 or 50 miles of the state of Mississippi being gone. I mean, it's gone. It's not even there all of our
25:21antebellum homes
25:24Just if you were within a
25:28Mile or two of the beach you lost everything you own
25:31Don't think that they're sending enough people down here to stay on top of it and to see the continued plight
25:38I think that they came in and did what they could in a big way initially
25:43But there are people that still need help there. There's people that had to live on that FEMA money
25:48They got FEMA money, but they had to live on it because they didn't have a job or they had to rent trailers or buy
25:56Something like that now the FEMA money's gone
25:58They still don't have a place to live the ones that had insurance still don't have insurance money. And I
26:06I mean if you don't have cars and a place to live, how can you work? So
26:12There's just a lot of problems down here. I mean, I know for us we got FEMA money
26:17we had to live on it because we didn't have and there was no way there was any work because
26:24There was no way to get to work and this that and the other
26:27but
26:29How do we replace the furniture in our house?
26:32How do we you know, we're getting our house back and we're so grateful
26:36We're gonna sleep on mattresses and things like that
26:39But we still have no furniture and that takes a long time to set up enough money for
26:44We will deal with it. We won't have the kind of life we used to but we're gonna have a house again
26:50So that is the best thing
26:52In
26:58Addition to working on the Hales house the volunteers were also asked to take part in an ongoing project of
27:06enormous proportions
27:08Cleaning up a snake and insect infested bayou where the remains of seven homes lay in ruins
27:15Ready to conquer the marsh dig everything out
27:20Ready for it
27:22We're
27:25Gonna be attacking the bayou right now. There's seven to three from seven houses in here
27:35Dressed in protective suits the group makes its way into the marsh by stepping on pieces of what were once
27:41Parts of the houses that were destroyed by the storm
27:45You
27:50There's a foundation of a home getting rebuilt way down the end of this by you and from what I understand
27:57That house and six others that were wrecked by the storm
28:03Is now deposited in this part of this by you that the seven houses were just slammed
28:09Blown apart and and the storm forced
28:13The the mess the the materials into this area which then settled after the storm
28:18recited and now what's what needs to happen is that there needs to be crews of people like our group out there who need to
28:26Hand-carry each of these pieces from the marsh area up to the street where the Army Corps of Engineers
28:33in the Department of
28:35Transportation here in the community will take this away
28:39And there's no way that we can get vehicles into that marsh
28:42Because it's just too wet and swampy and the vehicles would get stuck as this crew is pulling out the debris
28:49chunks of wood and
28:51Boards in mixed with all this debris or some personal items that are really very stirring very moving
28:59See toys obviously
29:03Belonging to some children who lived here at one point
29:05This is a CD case from somebody's prom in 2005 Ocean Springs High School prom 2005
29:15Presenting the stars was the theme
29:18We're finding lots of good stuff and lots of sad stuff as well
29:22Stuff snowman stuffed animals little Thomas the Tank Engine trains things like that
29:27Let you know there were families who were living here whose stuff is now all over the place
29:36Dirty here's Thomas the Tank Engine. I found this along with balloons and a baby bottle
29:43Tylenol syringe
29:45Nice big roll of red and green tartan ribbon just waiting for somebody to use last year
29:50We saw all of these neighborhoods with just piles of rubble
29:54Whatever didn't get washed back into the Gulf piles of rubble sitting on the property and now a year later
30:00We're just seeing concrete slabs
30:02So people have really cleared a lot of that junk away, which which and the grass is now green
30:07Last year everything was brown the salt water had killed all vegetation trees flowers grass
30:12So anything green here was not green last year. It was all brown starting in there in the middle
30:18You can see little shards of green. Yeah, it's starting to come up and see that's the new life
30:23That's the new life or and we're seeing more that now this new life both in the vegetation and in people's lives
30:29You know that's springing up and it just brings new meaning life goes on yes life life finds a way yeah
30:38There's always hope
30:40there's always hope and that's what I think a lot of the reaction of the people that live here when they see group after group come
30:45In and and they're they they feel like they've been remembered. They feel like people we still care for them
30:53We still are thinking about them and we still want to be here to help them
30:57You know whatever gets done on the site it's almost beside the point the fact that they're still being held and yeah
31:04Being cared about that's really something
31:10Get out there Andrea go go go go
31:14It's a lovely outfit by the way
31:17very lovely outfit
31:21You can
31:23be the most
31:25Giving person you can give money and send checks you can
31:29take part in
31:31fundraisers
31:33for
31:34Disasters like this that are far away from you even in other parts of the country and other parts of the world
31:41But until you've come down here to a place like this until you've seen it for yourself. You can't comprehend
31:49how horrendous a
31:51Disaster this has been and how many people have been affected and really how nature is so powerful
31:59Even now it's sort of it's it's amazing how powerful the flood was it's amazing how many people were affected
32:07It's a mad amazing how many people are still living in trailers now. I guess they were surprised by how many homes are still just
32:15completely either falling down or
32:18In such bad shape, you know here it is 18 months later
32:21And it's just shocking to come down and see that that there's so many homes that that we still need to be rebuilt
32:27You know you come down here you see the destruction all over
32:32There are homes that are just empty shells
32:36They look nice from the outside, but if you really look at them you look right through them because there's nothing inside
32:42No walls, no nothing then there's other homes that are waiting to be torn down
32:48You know their roofs are collapsed. It's horrible. I mean I can't believe that
32:54the damage that
32:56The damage is still that that exists still along the waterfront
32:59I mean there are there are huge buildings that are hollow
33:01And I wouldn't have thought that after two years or two plus years that that would still be the case
33:06You know I would have thought quite a lot of that would need to be removed or you know
33:10Repaired and up and running again, and that's just absolutely not true massive buildings destroyed
33:15Just structure skeletal remains of massive buildings
33:19And it will go from mile after mile after mile hundred miles of coastline just devastated destroyed by the storm and and yet
33:26To be built well. I think that everybody knows a hurricane came
33:30I think everybody knows people died and everybody knows that houses were destroyed, but until you come down here
33:35You really don't know the magnitude of what actually happens until you see the shoes floating in the swamp
33:40And you really know that there are people living here just a few months earlier
33:44And you see just how quickly everything got wiped out that you really feel the magnitude of this disaster
33:49What amazed me about this is that we were riding along 90
33:54Looking at how nice the beaches were and then finding out that that didn't used to be a beach
34:00That used to be all hotels and and stores and restaurants, and now it's just a beautiful
34:07White beach, I never would have imagined that something like this happened that it wouldn't all be fixed by the
34:12The physical damage that Katrina caused is still easily visible
34:16But as Pete Jones tells his personal story to the group from New York Katrina's aftermath
34:21Took its toll on those trying to recover from the storm in other way shortly after the storm
34:26We took out all the carpets in our house. We only had three carpets in our house. It was all tile
34:33So we got all that stuff out
34:35And dried off the floors
34:38And I knew there wasn't much that I could do in the way of just ripping everything up by myself
34:45And the other part of it was that
34:48Inside of my heart I needed to be here at the church
34:52And I was the junior warden. That's the person that's in charge of buildings and ground. So that means I'm responsible for the church building
35:00and
35:03I
35:04Although I tried to do a little bit at the house. I kept finding myself being tugged and I came here to the church
35:11And I ended up helping a lot of other people
35:15Who in turn helped me
35:17Volunteers would come in and they come out to my house and help me rip all the drywall out of my house, too
35:23but
35:26For whatever reasons
35:29It affected my wife in such a way that
35:37She just didn't think things were happening fast enough
35:42She didn't think she didn't think that I cared
35:45And so she asked me not to be with her anymore
35:49So as a result of Katrina
35:51Here in about a week or so. I'll probably be officially divorced
35:56And that's just one of the fallouts
35:59And it's happened to many many couples
36:08So I've lost a lot
36:12But I still need to be here
36:15Because this is what I this is what I think God wants me to be doing
36:20He wants me to be helping people
36:24And
36:26The only way that I can really help people is by
36:30Having people like you who volunteer to come in
36:34Because I can't do all the work myself
36:37There's just too much work out there to be done
36:43And so I will continue to do this
36:49For as long as it's possible
36:53And for as long as the need exists
36:56And for as long as people like you
36:59Will keep coming back so easy to see and sense how the people are still really struggling and hurting
37:06They tell their stories as if it happened yesterday
37:09You see them tear up and well up you see the emotion in their faces and clearly this is something that's traumatized their lives
37:15I'm sure the emotional
37:17Turmoil that they're experiencing is going to take a long time to overcome
37:20At least the homes will get back to a place of some normalcy when we go back
37:26We'll share the stories of which there will be many we will
37:31Invite people encourage people to sign up and come down themselves
37:36Because there'll be a lot of work. I'm sure for many many years to come and
37:41And I guess in general you know in general feel like
37:46Religion has more meaning in our lives because it is it's impelling us to do something for our fellow humanity and
37:54Look mom. We've done it. I feel like it's a very rewarding experience to help people who have been in such a disaster
38:00With getting back to their everyday lives. I came because I thought I could make a difference
38:07and I
38:09Know I find this fun
38:11I'm here helping people out who need help and hearing their stories and seeing all the destruction is just so incredible that
38:17I'm really glad I came I almost didn't because my friends didn't go and my parents weren't going
38:23But I decided to come for the her personal experience
38:27And I'm really glad I did my mom came down here last year
38:30And she had such a wonderful time and such good experience helping people
38:34And I just wanted to share that if we bring one one family's lives back to normal
38:39That would be a hell of an achievement for me anyway. I think that's that's my goal is get
38:45Somebody's life back in order. I'm here to help them rebuild their lives rebuild their homes
38:50Rebuild or help them try to get back some semblance of what their life was like before Hurricane Katrina
38:56I'm here because I am a cancer survivor, and I wanted to do something to
39:04payback for my good health and
39:07it was an opportunity to really not send a check, but to send myself and
39:14to work hard and
39:16To do something really beneficial for the week
39:19I figured it would be a lot helpful for us to help Hurricane Katrina victims because
39:25Not many people are doing anything the government isn't doing much
39:30And it's so great how we can like help them get back into their home and
39:35Help them like live their lives again as this never happened
39:40They're just so so happy to see us show up yesterday, and it's just you know that's really really shows that you know even though
39:47We're not construction workers or anything like that that you know even though we're we can still help them
39:52We can still do something to help them and and they were just was so grateful to see 50 people show up at their doorstep
39:58You know all they are just to just to help them get back in their house
40:04It's doing something wonderful to someone it's not a chore
40:08It's a pleasure
40:09We're really Donna was just saying how much fun it is to work and to be with everybody and work together
40:14And how amazing it is that the 50 of us came and the house is painted
40:20when Haven came home yesterday and
40:23Saw her room and just smiled it was so beautiful
40:28The spirit of the people have really inspired me they are all so grateful that we're here
40:34They have lived under such horrible circumstances for 18 months and crowded trailers with little water
40:41Cooking outdoors on barbecues, and I've been very impressed with their spirit and their gratefulness just makes it special
40:49when they see us and know that we're volunteers and they come up and
40:53Their tears in their eyes, and they thank us and we get teary to their hugs, and these are complete strangers
41:00It's good to see how good it feels to help people and to see the smile on people's faces when they
41:05They know that 50 people came down just for them to help them and make them better
41:09and the only way to speed up the process is to have you know volunteers and people and the
41:16manpower to
41:18make it go faster and
41:21People to reach out from all over because there's obviously not enough
41:25Living here to rebuild all that's been destroyed. Let me let me give you some statistics here
41:31If we were to build 50 homes a day
41:35It would take Mississippi over the next 10 years to put back the number of homes that were destroyed in the storm
41:42We are nowhere near
41:44Building 50 homes a day, and so just by the simple math we could be rebuilding, Mississippi for the next 20 to 30 years
41:52and
41:53without
41:54Assistance from out of state it would take even longer
41:58So really our volunteer groups are what's put us, so
42:03What's given us so much of an edge or what's given us the ability to rebuild as far as we have a
42:11Lot of people come down here to Mississippi, and they see the devastation and they think oh my god
42:17Why has it more been done?
42:19But we look at it from being here and seeing it every day, and we thank those volunteers
42:24For all the work that they have done
42:27Every time a new group of volunteers comes in it kind of invigorates us. It just rejuvenates us. It's
42:34amazing to see that
42:37And what they've come down here to do for us
42:43Is so much more than perhaps
42:46Cleaning out debris or putting a coat of paint on somebody's house or hanging drywall
42:51it's it really touches everybody everybody's heart and
42:57What's amazing is that we've had friendships
43:01That have begun that never would have begun
43:05But as a result of this storm
43:07We've got this community of brotherhood from all over the place that is
43:15Well, it's nothing short of miracles
43:34You
44:04You
44:34You
45:04You
45:34You
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