A Return To Mississippi Brings Hope To Biloxi,

And Gratitude To Two Newtown Men

By Shannon Hicks

“Hands That Are Willing To Help … Need Your Help!”

That was the motto used by Newtown residents Don Singer and Dave MacKenzie when they decided to travel to Biloxi, Miss., to help with the still continuing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts earlier this year. Both men had been to the Gulf Coast before, but this was the first time they went to the city together and they knew from the moment they decided to take the trip that they were going to need some help to get there.

“The thing to remember is, this is a long-term thing,” Mr Singer said in February before heading south to help others who are still recovering from the major hurricane of August 2005 that became one of the five deadliest of all recorded hurricanes in United States history. The city of Biloxi, which is right on the Gulf, lost at least 52 of its residents to the storm and continues to rebuild lives and homes even now.

“The greatest thing is to let folks down there know that they aren’t forgotten,” continued Mr Singer, who has been to Florida for hurricane relief twice and now to Biloxi twice as well.

Both men wanted to help others, but neither is in a financial place where it was easy for them to take time off from work, never mind cover the airfare it takes to get down to southern Mississippi.

“Work has been really tough. It’s been a real struggle for all of us,” Mr Singer said recently, having returned from a March 14–21 trip to Biloxi. “But we have Cadillac troubles compared to what these folks are going through. We wanted to go, we knew we could help, we just couldn’t afford to go on our own.”

So the men turned to their church family at Newtown United Methodist Church, and asked for some help.

“We asked for $1,000, which would cover our airfare and the fees to stay at SUMA [Seashore United Methodist Assembly], and the church members ended up donating more than $1,600,” said Mr Singer, who said that the additional money has been put aside for use by the next group from NUMC that heads to Biloxi.

“This as a chance to get out of yourself,” he said. “What’s going on in your life doesn’t seem that important when you talk to someone who climbed out an attic window and onto a tree in the middle of a storm to save their life.”

“I needed to get a dose of gratitude. I needed to see somebody in worse shape than I was,” admitted Mr MacKenzie, who went to Biloxi for the first time in November 2007. “I needed to help someone.

“I didn’t have the money, but I had the time and I thought I should do something of use rather than sit around and watch insanity all around me.”

In the days after the storm, the entire stretch of US Highway 90 — a major thoroughfare that runs the length of Biloxi, with homes and businesses on its north and the Gulf of Mexico literally on its south — was barricaded. Road builders were needed to repair many huge voids and collapsed sections of the highway, and the Highway 90 bridge that connected Biloxi to its eastern neighbor, Ocean Springs, was wiped out. It was more than two years before the bridge was rebuilt.

Hundreds of workers, using dozens of pieces of heavy equipment and more than 300 dump trucks, worked 12-hour days, seven days a week, just to begin moving debris from city streets and major thoroughfares.

Many homeowners took advantage of Operation Blue Roof, a US Army Corps of Engineers program where blue tarps were installed for free until permanent repairs could be made. Making do and temporary fixes became the norm, and are still seen in many parts of eastern Biloxi, where the majority of the destruction occurred.

“Still now, three and a half years after the storm, they still have temporary pumps for sewage everywhere,” said Mr Singer. “Also, the first few blocks from the beach, many of them are still vacant.”

Mr Singer also noticed that many of the lots where homes had been destroyed on his previous trip are now just empty.

“They’re cleared out. The families are gone,” he said.

Among the most exasperating things the men heard was the amount of reconstruction money that seems to be held up by a lot of red tape.

“We heard that $3.5 billion is at the state capitol, being held up,” said Mr Singer. “That’s the frustrating thing: you’re there but there’s no funds. It seems like many groups file their applications for grants or loans only to find out that the criteria has changed.

“You have to remember, it’s casino central down there. [Biloxi is home to at least nine casinos, which accounts by far for the largest employers in the region and the strongest tourism draw.] It’s like the state thinks if it holds on to the money long enough the single property owners will walk away and developers will come in,” said Mr Singer. “But still, you go there and do what you can.”

Working through The Hope Center/East Biloxi Coordination, Relief & Recovery Agency, the men worked with a group of people under the umbrella of the New York Methodist conference. They met and worked with residents of Thomaston, Litchfield, and Middletown, as well as from Dutchess and Westchester counties. As a team, the 14 people worked on four different projects during the week.

One house needed exterior scraping, painting and siding done, framing finished, caulking, and fire inspection prep work. Another house needed a platform built to hold its heating and cooling unit in place.

The third house was a one-day job, with painting finished. And the fourth house, where Mr MacKenzie spent a day working with team leader Judd Ranamaker, needed a ditch dug so that the home could be tied in to the city water and sewer lines, and then the ditch needed to be backfilled.

“Talking to people, they’ve probably told their stories a hundred times, but they’re still so emotional about what they’ve been through,” Mr MacKenzie said.

Emotions are still near the surface and some wounds are raw, but the people of Biloxi are resilient. They are making progress. It’s slower than anyone would have expected, but it is happening.

“What struck me this time was people were on the beaches, and the parade,” said Mr Singer, who watched the city’s St Patrick’s Day Parade with the others in his group while in Biloxi, complete with floats, beads being thrown, and food vendors.

“They threw a ton of beads, but we also saw Irish Spring soap coming from some of the floats. There were onions and cabbage, and I think I saw a turnip coming my way,” he laughed.

“Life goes on, you know? These people know that. Life goes on.”

For Mr MacKenzie, the trip reminded him that while things at home are not always great, there is always something to be thankful for.

“I came back with gratitude of what I should be thankful for,” he said. “I will definitely go back if we do it again.”

“No,” Mr Singer said, “you’ll go when we do this again.”

Don Singer and Dave MacKenzie will be the guests this weekend when the NUMC Men host their monthly breakfast and program. The public is invited to Rauner Hall at Newtown United Methodist Church, 92 Church Hill Road in Sandy Hook, for breakfast at 7:15 am, to be followed by a presentation by Mr Singer and Mr MacKenzie about their mission trip to Biloxi.