submitted by Pastor Kathy Haueisen
A year after Katrina and Rita pelted the Gulf Coast with devastation from Beaumont, TX to Biloxi, MS and beyond there is much good news and much sad news to report.
First, the good news: Millions of donor dollars and thousands of volunteer hours have been recorded. An estimated 700 volunteers are at work every week somewhere along the Gulf Coast mucking out houses, repairing leaking roofs, providing a Camp Noah Day Camp experience for a traumatized child, and doing other disaster recovery work. Last March 1,100 college students from 54 different schools took part in the “What a Relief!” spring break project sponsored by Lutheran Disaster Response.
Lutheran Disaster Response IS the ELCA’s way of responding to a major disaster. They do this by contracting with the nearest Social Service Agency. In our case, this is Lutheran Social Services of the South. When Katrina hit, there was one full time staff person in Austin, who had as one part of his work the task of responding to disasters. A year later there is a full time Executive Director for Gulf Coast Disaster Response (The Rev. Tom Minor) and a team of other staff, each responsible for specific parts of the long term recovery. There is now a Lutheran Social Services of the South Disaster Response department within LSSS.
Next the sad news: The damage caused by Rita is equal to the total damage caused by the 4 previous hurricanes that hit Florida a year earlier.
The damage caused by Katrina and the resulting break in the levees in New Orleans is 11 times greater than Rita.
Help is needed on many fronts, including:
Spiritual and emotional care: Hundreds of residents along the Gulf Coast are understandably clinically depressed as a result of loosing not only their homes and all that was in them—but also their way of life and their communities.
Construction: It is estimated it will take 5 to 10 years to get all the people impacted by these hurricanes back on track. The Gold Triangle Area alone has 52,000 houses that need to be repaired.
Case Management: A team of trained social workers and other professionals are at work in Houston, Golden Triangle, New Orleans, and other places to help individuals decide how to put their lives back together and access resources. People still need everything from appliances to school supplies.
To answer the commonly asked question, “Are things getting back to normal?” NO. The Gulf Coast of the future will not resemble the Gulf Coast before Katrina and Rita.
What you can do:
Several books are being released about the experience. A short list includes:
Voices of Faith in the Midst of the Storm, a collection of reflections and sermons prepared by the ELCA Clergy in Southern Louisiana. It’s available via www.futurewithhopepress.org. Their goal is to provide 2,300 complimentary copies—one copy to every ELCA Lutheran household impacted by Katrina.
God in the Raging Waters, by Bishop Paul Blom (and edited by Pastor Kathy Haueisen): The story of the Lutheran community’s incredible outpouring of love and service after the storms. Available from Augsburg Fortress.
1 Dead in Attic, by Chris Rose. A series of his columns in the New Orleans Picayune from the day after Katrina through the end of 2005, it captures the despair and hope of the citizens of New Orleans. Available at www.chrisrosebooks.com.