disaster-cleanup

A friend of mine has been doing
wonderful work with her church. They have been taking trips every few
months to Louisiana to help with disaster cleanup
and rebuilding in the areas destroyed by hurricane Katrina. She says
that it has been one of the most amazing and incredible experiences of
her entire life. She says that they have been able to not only provide
the physical help of rebuilding, but that they have also had the
opportunity to work side by side with the victims of this tragedy and
provide much needed emotional and moral support. She said she has never
seen anything like the devastation in this region and that the spirit
of the people after all they have been through is an incredible wave
that just sweeps you away.

She says that she was working along with this family who had lost
everything. They are currently living in a trailer and there are 7 of
them in this small trailer. She said that their house was completely
saturated with water, and they condemned it right after the hurricane.
They are still living in a small trailer, which now they are being told
could make them sick. She said that she never thought that the
government would allow this type of suffering of its own people, and by
natural disaster no less. She wanted to move in with family on the west
coast, but her kids begged to stay in Louisiana, so she stayed for
them. Now, she says the whole family is beginning to become depressed.
At first they were hopeful that this area would recover, but now they
are realizing there are way too many people who are still without homes
in this area, and still too much land that can't be built on.

She says she is grateful for the fact that everyone in her family
survived, and recounted the scary hours during the evacuation where she
could not locate her daughter. It took 2 days to find out that she was
all right, and she was frantic for that period of time. She says it is
wonderful the way people are still coming to the area from all over the
country to assist them, but they still feel that the government has let
them down, and quite honestly so do we all.