Katrina Relief - From the Front Lines
An Email from Rev Marian Fortner while on the front lines with St. Patrick’s Episcopal Church in Long Beach, Mississippi:
"It’s about 5 PM and I am sitting here with Lynn Hart after our second day on the job and things are winding down for the day. We are in a gym with cots lining the floors about 1 foot apart. Don’t talk to me about snoring…
Actually, it is not a bad set up at all. The camp is so well organized that everyone acclimates quickly. There are jobs for everyone: I’ve done parking for 2 days; Joan has done registration; Nancy, Lynn and Georgia-the-personal-shopper have done clothing and food. Others have gone out on work sites. Their time is spent inland on houses that were flooded, damaged by the wind, but still standing. They pull out drywall mostly.
Several of us rode down the beach at noon today towards Gulfport. We were in awe of the power of the hurricane. We saw cars in swimming pools, slabs of large beachfront homes, entire apartment complexes gutted to the steel pilings. A couple days ago, I saw a house sitting on the railroad tracks. It is surreal.
Tomorrow we will have Eucharist with the parishioners of St. Patrick’s, who have been holding services at the camp. We will give them the check we brought for $2300. It is so needed. Pat Hoyt has been working in the medical clinic and said they were having to do a lot of substitutions on drugs. With money donated by people at the camp, we made a run to Walmart to buy basics — cough syrup, soap for head lice, lip balm and other items — so the tent would be stocked for Monday.
Stories abound. In the parking lot I saw all kinds of faces: weathered and beaten, young and old, black, white and asian, seemingly affluent and dirt poor. We parked Cadillacs and clunkers and lots of F-150s. One tough piece today was that the medical tent was closed until Monday. We sent away a woman seeking prenatal care, a man with a bad bug bite on his head, a grandmother with a child in a neckbrace who had been in an accident the day before.
We turned away people fighting colds and one person who would have to make do on her asthma medicine until Monday. Another had stepped on a rusty nail and needed a tetanus shot. When we think about the ones we turned away, it only goes to show how great the service is when the clinic is open. By and large, the people we have seen are resilient and surprisingly optimistic.
We have met people from New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Minnesota. Most of the volunteers have gray hair. I’d say our group is about average in terms of our ages.
God’s peace,
Marian
