The Way Home: Hurricane Relief

February 19, 2006

Feb 19
More and more life returns to normal in Lake Charles. But five months later there is still much to be done. There are still many homes with damage that has not been fixed because of lack of insurance money and the shortage of contractors. The response of the insurers has been so disappointing. People who have paid insurance regularly all their lives without ever using it are upset to find that now they need it, the insurance companies are dragging their feet, and in some cases, looking for loop holes to get them out of their obligations.

The areas that are hardest hit, such as Cameron Parish and Vermillion Parish have no medical access. I am told by some state workers that Cameron Parish does not have a single doctor, hospital or health care professional. If they wanted to go back they would have nowhere to live.

Finding a place to live here is very hard, too. My daughter is living in a room in my brother’s house with her teenage son and is going to have another baby in June. She is looking constantly for a house to buy or rent. Hopefully things will open up a bit as insurance money comes in and houses get repaired.

New Orleans is still very devastated. My uncle went to see a specialist there and the doctor didn’t have a working bathroom so he had to go across the street to use one. My son, who lives there, says that his little section of town is OK, but he doesn’t venture into any other part of town. It is difficult to get anything done. He had to have his car serviced this weekend and it took 5 hours to get it done. There are just so few places open.

There is so much finger pointing going on with the politicians that I don’t even listen to them anymore. Folks here are a unsure about how New Orleans should be handled as is the rest of the nation. Everyone pretty much agrees that it is sad to have such a pathetic levy system when compared to some of the ones in other countries. They also agree that FEMA was a real disappointment. It is hard to believe that they spent so much money and got so little done. It is sad to see that everyone is so busy pointing their finger at someone else that little is being done to correct the problem.

I am very happy that we were able to help so many people. We received over $20,000 in donations, and aside from $50.00 for stamps, etc to send thank you notes, we distributed every bit of it to people in desperate need. I am also pleased that I see so many people here in my area helping themselves and each other. This has been an extraordinary experience, and I am grateful to the generous people who have reached out a hand to help.

January 8, 2006

It’s a new year and as I look around Lake Charles and the surrounding area, I am pleased to see so many signs of recovery. Lots of blue roofs (tarps) of course, and everyday the city picks up trash from hurricane damage that is set on the side of the road, but then someone else puts out more. It used to be that when you met up with someone you knew, you would ask how they were doing. Now you ask, did you get your insurance check? Everyone waits hopefully for the answer because if they got theirs, maybe yours is coming soon, too. There are still many businesses shut down, or operating on a part time basis. My friend’s special needs child needs to see his psychologist, but he must have decamped. He never returns calls. They are looking desperately for someone else.

Still, you get used to things, and they no longer seem strange and scary. And slowly, life is getting back to normal. But just a few miles south of here, nearer the gulf, things are not returning to normal, and I wonder if they ever will. Those displaced people who have the funds to do so are buying homes around here when they can find any. There is no place to rent; literally. We are helping a mother with four kids whose husband found the situation too much, I guess, and just left. Janet was a stay at home mom for eighteen years and now she is looking for a job. She and her children are living in the shop of a friend. Her youngest is autistic and of course, that makes everything more complicated for a mom who has to work. It is hard enough to find someone you feel comfortable with to watch your children; I just can’t imagine how much harder that is if your child is autistic.

Rev. Linda Ledbetter has single handedly stocked our community closet and we are opening it up to those effected by the hurricane. It is impossible for us to keep it open all the time because all of us work, but Mary is going to drive over from Beaumont Texas to open it for anyone who wants to “shop” there. It is an hour drive, but she is glad to help. Tomorrow she is opening it for Janet who I have only talked to on the phone. I wish I could be there to meet her. She seems like a really nice person.

As I was going through some of the boxes that Linda sent, I found a couple that came from a little girl in Wisconsin. She was celebrating her 6th birthday, and heard about the hurricane. She packed up all of her new gifts and sent them down here for some child who lost all of her toys. What a beautiful thing she is learning from her parents! I wanted these gifts to get to the child they are meant for, so I called the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization about it. They have social workers out in the community working with many children, and I knew they would be able to help.

Because I work out of town every weekday, we had to do all this long distance. The logistics would make a whole story in itself. When they finally got the toys, Brenda, with the organization called me on the phone to say that they found the letter telling little MacKenzie’s story and everyone in the office was in tears. They promised that the toys would go to a little girl who would be having a very good Christmas this year in spite of whatever other loses the family suffered.

I was driving in Cameron parish last week, and was in tears as I looked around at all the destruction. I was surprised that I was so emotional about this. After all it wasn’t my first time here. But I felt so sad for the people whose homes were so destroyed. As I spoke to the Holy Spirit about it, He showed me that I am also experiencing my own fear come up. This could be my home. This could be my life turned upside down.

Then I realized that I am dreading next hurricane season because what if it happens again. It happened to Florida. They got hit several times. Just because we went many years without getting hit didn’t mean we were protected from a second hit. Then I realized that my perception of this event was making my world feel very dangerous, and making me feel very vulnerable. I asked the Holy Spirit to give me a new way to see this.

It never ceases to surprise me that when I am caught up in the drama of an illusion, it becomes so real to me that I forget that there can be any other way to see things. As I prayed though, I remembered that everything is for my benefit. Everything includes this storm. Everything that happens to me is for my growth; it is in my life to help me wake up. If this is true for me, then it is true for everyone else. I began to withdraw my projections of grief and despair from this situation, and I was able to feel gratitude for all that I have learned through this experience. I am not sad for anyone now.

This is the second time that we have distributed all of the money that has been sent to us, and again, just as I thought there was no more, someone sent us another check for $500.00. I can’t wait to see the good that will come from this. 

December 13

I thought I was going to say that we have spent nearly all the money that has been donated for the Hurricane Relief Fund. In fact, last Sunday I mentioned that I wish we had more money to give because the need seems endless. We did a great job distributing the funds. We found families who had literally lost everything, and had no resources. We found families that didn’t have anywhere to turn. 

Though we were not able to fix everything for even one family, we feel that we made a significant difference to a number of people. The average grant that we gave out was around $1000.00. We did give more when it was really needed, and less at times. We also were able to help several people when they had to evacuate and had no money to do so. We were able to help some families get set up in new living quarters. But we were finally getting down to the last of the money.

Then this week we received a check for two thousand dollars from the Church of the Brethren, then a $300.00 check from an ACIM group in Denver, and another check from the father of a Pathways minister. We are back in business! How wonderful people are! I had just spoken to a woman about a family in great need, and that need was answered. We are looking for another family to help now. I cannot think how to express my gratitude to all the people who are helping.

I am also excited about all the boxes of clothes and other useful items coming out of Wisconsin. Linda Ledbetter just keeps shipping box after box. We are setting all of the goods up in the church and we are inviting people to come get what they need. Linda said that she did get some snow boots donated, but I told her to find another home for them. We are still using our air conditioners here!

Speaking of snow, my son has been going to school at Loyola in Chicago. He had never experienced snow before, and he has really mixed feelings about it. He calls one time to tell me how beautiful it is, and how amazing. Then he calls to tell me that it is insane to live in weather this cold! He says that it is so cold that it hurts. Toby will be coming home next week. He doesn’t feel that he can afford to stay in Chicago, and will be returning to Loyola in New Orleans. I am having a hard time not judging that decision. I would feel better about him being in Chicago at this time. I am using this situation to practice surrender.

Here is a prayer I got in my email.
Listening to Me is a surrender
in which you are willing
to not listen to your self.

Even more,
you place that desire
to trust your self
completely aside
and put all trust
for everything
completely in me.

This is what I mean
when I ask that you
listen to Me.
…Our Holy Guide

This is what I am trying to do with the situation with Toby. I am using it to practice that kind of surrender, and to choose the Holy Spirit over the ego. I am trying set aside what I think should happen, and place my trust in the Holy Spirit instead of in myself.

December 9

I have mentioned before that I work with water systems. This week I was listening to a presentation by Louisiana Rural Water Association. These guys advise rural water systems, and help in many other ways. They are a terrific bunch of men who do a vital job. Lately they have been doing way more than advising. They have been working with rural water systems that were affected by the hurricane, and when I say work, I mean they are down in the ditches replacing and repairing water lines, getting needed equipment and helping the water operators set it up, and doing whatever needs to be done.

They all looked like they were exhausted, with dark circles under their eyes and a shell-shocked look about them. They started this when Katrina hit, and they are still doing it with the Rita systems. There are only a few of them. I don’t know how they do it. When asked what really stood out to them, they said it was when they got to a system that had been devastated, and the operator would be so relieved to have someone to help him that he would just hug them and cry.

Right after the storm, the two operators from Johnson Bayou went home to find they had no homes. They could not even find a sign that there home ever existed except for the slab. The water system was nearly as bad, and they were at the point of giving up altogether. After all, no one else had a home left either. What was the point in recovering the water system. The Rural Water guys helped them to start looking forward to a future for their community, and then got out the shovels and helped them rebuild their system. They are now on line with potable water. This is the story I am hearing all over Cameron Parish which is one of the hardest hit areas.

You have maybe heard that there is some disaffection with FEMA down here. These guys have been closely associated with all phases of rescue and rehabilitation, and they are completely disgusted with that organization. An example they gave was that FEMA told them that if they needed help getting the systems going to just ask. Whatever they needed would be provided within 24 to 36 hours. They submitted a list of 124 items they needed. FEMA provided 4 of them.

What Louisiana Rural Water did instead, was to call on other state Rural Water organizations for generators, pumps and other necessary items that were unavailable here. These states sent not only the equipment, but often their own men to help. Once again, I see the joining in love that would have gone unrealized if it were not for this storm. While it brought up much grief, pain, and fear for the people involved, it also brought up the best in folks, and so many opportunities for joining.

I am continually amazed to see how these water operators, having lost everything they own, are putting all of that aside and working endless hours doing back breaking work to provide safe drinking water for the people who are working to restore their communities, and for the community itself when it eventually is able to return. Right now people are not allowed back into Cameron parish because it is still too dangerous. But folks are working to get it back to normal, or as normal as they can.

<< Back to main page of The Way Home: Hurricane Relief

By Rev. Myron Jones

Most recent entries

• February 19, 2006
• January 8, 2006
• December 13
• December 9
• November 25, 2005
• November 18 Visiting Cameron
• A Thank You
• Blessings From Hurricanes
• Blessings From Hurricanes-Sunday’s Sermon
• October 28
• October 22
• October 19
• October 9,10
• October 8
• October 7

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