Today I went out and had an amazing day working at a new house Hands On Gulf Coast is working on. It belongs to Mr. Earl, who is 62 years old and uses a walker to get around. He has lived in the house for most of his life. Like a lot of the older residents of Biloxi, he survived Hurricane Camille in 1969, so decided he could stick it out for Katrina. Here is the story he told me as we sat on his porch and talked today...
Like I said, he had lived through Camille in '69, and the water had come up to the second step of his porch then. Like I have heard a lot of Biloxi residents say, they never thought anything could be worse than Camille. The night before Katrina was to hit, the power went out in his house and he used candlelight to get around. He went to bed that night, and woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. He said, "I stepped off the bed like I always do when I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but stepped knee-deep into water." He said he got up and moved around his house for a little while, and when he looked outside it was like he was on an island--there was water 360 degrees around his house. He said there wasn't anything he could do about it, so he went back to bed, but he was concerned about the water getting higher. When he got back in bed, he stuck his hand in the water off the side of his bed so he could tell if it got any higher and he would wake up. Fortunately, the water didn't get any higher. He did fall back asleep, and when he woke up again, the water was gone.
This illustrates how differently things occurred in Biloxi as compared to New Orleans. In Biloxi, the water came in and receded in a fairly short amount of time. In New Orleans, most of the damage was due to the breaking of the levees. When that water came in, it had nowhere to go, and the area was like a big bowl that held the stagnant water for weeks.
I had a great day talking to Mr. Earl and also getting some work done for him. I went there with my boyfriend Sam, who had gone through the house with Mr. Earl and made a list of all the things he wanted help with. Mr. Earl lives alone and doesn't have many people around him to help him work on his home. He has had both volunteers (other than Hands On volunteers) work on his home, and he has also hired people to do work. He says he trusts the volunteers he has had more than he trusts the hired help, and that probably 85% of the progress he sees around town is being done by volunteers. Mr. Earl had asked that a crew he had hired be very careful with an awning that had survived both Camille and Katrina. They were rough in handling it, and slightly backed into it with their truck. These are one of the things we are going to repair for him. I was walking through his house and saw a ceiling that had been painted by the hired individuals and they hadn't bothered to remove the light fixture from the ceiling--they just sprayed paint right over it, and the light from the lightbulb was barely coming through the paint. We took it down and I cleaned it with water to get all the paint off, and we put it back up. Mr. Earl has doors in his house that have been there since it was built, and I believe he installed them himself. When the crew that he had hired was working in the house, he asked if they could either cover or take down the doors before doing any painting in the room, as they were very important to him. They didn't do this, and there is paint all over the doors. Sam and I took one of them down today and I spent part of the day scrubbing the paint off the door and staining it. We put it back up at the end of the day and he was thrilled, and I said I would be back to do the same to the rest of the doors, and he was even more thrilled and so extremely grateful. Days like this confirm that this is where I need to be right now, and I couldn't be happier...
Like I said, he had lived through Camille in '69, and the water had come up to the second step of his porch then. Like I have heard a lot of Biloxi residents say, they never thought anything could be worse than Camille. The night before Katrina was to hit, the power went out in his house and he used candlelight to get around. He went to bed that night, and woke up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. He said, "I stepped off the bed like I always do when I get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but stepped knee-deep into water." He said he got up and moved around his house for a little while, and when he looked outside it was like he was on an island--there was water 360 degrees around his house. He said there wasn't anything he could do about it, so he went back to bed, but he was concerned about the water getting higher. When he got back in bed, he stuck his hand in the water off the side of his bed so he could tell if it got any higher and he would wake up. Fortunately, the water didn't get any higher. He did fall back asleep, and when he woke up again, the water was gone.
This illustrates how differently things occurred in Biloxi as compared to New Orleans. In Biloxi, the water came in and receded in a fairly short amount of time. In New Orleans, most of the damage was due to the breaking of the levees. When that water came in, it had nowhere to go, and the area was like a big bowl that held the stagnant water for weeks.
I had a great day talking to Mr. Earl and also getting some work done for him. I went there with my boyfriend Sam, who had gone through the house with Mr. Earl and made a list of all the things he wanted help with. Mr. Earl lives alone and doesn't have many people around him to help him work on his home. He has had both volunteers (other than Hands On volunteers) work on his home, and he has also hired people to do work. He says he trusts the volunteers he has had more than he trusts the hired help, and that probably 85% of the progress he sees around town is being done by volunteers. Mr. Earl had asked that a crew he had hired be very careful with an awning that had survived both Camille and Katrina. They were rough in handling it, and slightly backed into it with their truck. These are one of the things we are going to repair for him. I was walking through his house and saw a ceiling that had been painted by the hired individuals and they hadn't bothered to remove the light fixture from the ceiling--they just sprayed paint right over it, and the light from the lightbulb was barely coming through the paint. We took it down and I cleaned it with water to get all the paint off, and we put it back up. Mr. Earl has doors in his house that have been there since it was built, and I believe he installed them himself. When the crew that he had hired was working in the house, he asked if they could either cover or take down the doors before doing any painting in the room, as they were very important to him. They didn't do this, and there is paint all over the doors. Sam and I took one of them down today and I spent part of the day scrubbing the paint off the door and staining it. We put it back up at the end of the day and he was thrilled, and I said I would be back to do the same to the rest of the doors, and he was even more thrilled and so extremely grateful. Days like this confirm that this is where I need to be right now, and I couldn't be happier...
