A tree in Pass Christian at Sunset.
Photography by Katie Roupe
He came to and realized he was hanging in a tree. For a second he thought it was all really a dream. Looking around, he couldn’t believe the devastation: houses completely gone and others mostly destroyed, trees covered with clothes and debris, bodies lying haphazardly on the street. He glanced down. His breathing stopped as he took in what he saw below him. He had found his family. They were lying underneath him on the ground. They were dead.
Hurricane Katrina had killed them.
Brenda Trehern, Director of Long Beach Senior Citizen’s Activity Center for 19 years, recounted this story and several others to the group of college students as they listened intenetly. Brenda had been there when it happened and watched the lives of many get destroyed. "It’s indescribable," Trehern said. "You know how you see pictures, but it just isn’t the same as seeing it in person."
Hurricane Katrina formed August 23, 2005, and hit landfall five days later. Ninety thousand square miles were hit by the storm, directly affecting 1.5 million people and killing 1,604 people, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, over a thousand people are still missing. Hurricane Katrina hit the Bahamas, South Florida, Cuba, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Though Katrina was the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded, it was the deadliest since 1928’s Hurricane Okeechobee.
Katrina hit seven months ago, but the damage is ongoing. Over 400 Kent State volunteers ignored the regular spring break trips and decided to take more challenging trip. The students traveled to Pass Christian, Biloxi and other surrounding Mississippi neighborhoods to clean up, help out and listen.
"It was worse than I thought," Junior Family and Consumer Studies major Kathy Schanz said. "Seeing it is different then hearing about it."
Trehern showed Schanz and her group around the Senior Citizen’s Activity Center before they cleaned the area.
The center was ruined. The floor, covered with insulation and ceiling tiles, looked like dirty pink cotton candy. The smell of mold and rotten food permeated the air and forced the students to wear masks. Broken glass and other debris made the volunteers thankful that they wore work boots. Before the cleaning process could start, the group spent the day heaving furniture and debris out of the center.
Trehern looks over the debris volunteers cleaned.
"You just have to keep going," Trehern said with a strained smile as she readily showed the volunteers pictures of what the center looked like before Katrina.
Trehern said even though Katrina brought a lot of devastation, the hurricane still brought some good. She said that a lot of good things had happened, as she pointed to the group of volunteers.
Three days before Katrina hit Long Beach, Hallmark donated gift bags, small plaques, and other various items to the center. Most of the donations had been entirely ruined, except for several boxes of small plaques.Trehern gathered the boxes of plaques, at the end of the day, and passed them out to the group of volunteers, encouraging each volunteer to take a few.
"Open up to each day like a daisy- let the sun fill your soul with light!" the plaques read.
The Senior Citizen’s Activity Center was only one of the 90 projects completed by the Kent Volunteers. Ron Perkins, assistant director of Dining Services, reported that the volunteers completed 90 projects including child care, home repair, cleanup, assessments of future jobs, and even moving debris.
"At first, jobs came to us from groups in the area, but we soon took over and found our own jobs and furnished materials," Perkins said.
In addition to the projects, the volunteers cooked 4,000 meals, distributed clothing and household items for people in need.
"We were a large group and like a swarm of ants, we were everywhere," Perkins said.
Ginna Roth cleans up drywall debris in Biloxi.
For some volunteers, of the sight of the devastation was overwhelming.
"It was nothing compared to what was on TV," freshman nursing Major Kristen Prowant said. "It was worse than what they depicted."
Clothing and other debris still hung in the trees like a sign of surrender. In some areas, staircases were the only remnants of houses. A complete palm tree was a rare site, as most were snapped off at the top.
The volunteers’ place of residence for the week was called The Village; they spent their nights strolling on the beach, hanging out or fighting for a shower.
Since there were only six showers (only open at certain times) for 400 volunteers many students, like Schanz, found themselves only taking two to three showers the whole week.
"One time I even snuck into the guys showers when they were empty, so I could take one." Schanz said.
Other students, like Prowant, resorted to water bottle shampoo sessions and baby wipe baths.
Even though the students gave up good hygiene for a week, they were glad for the opportunity to help others.
"The trip made me more grateful for what I have," Prowant said. "It reminded me of the things I take for granted, like electricity, bathroom, showers, cell phones. I’d love to go back again. I was grateful to be able to give up my spring break. I knew that if I would have gone home, I would have sat around all day and done nothing, so I thought: why not volunteer my time and efforts to rebuild people's lives and make a lasting impression on people?"
A ruined house in Pass Christian.
The volunteers from Kent were dedicated to rebuilding lives, but some wondered if the government was as dedicated as the volunteers.
"They haven’t done anything or at least not enough," Prowant said. "They are building up places that are about beer and money and leaving out the poorer communities, which need the help desperately."
Other students were disconcerted by the lack of government presence in the Gulf region.
"I saw FEMA trucks when we first got in and haven’t seen them since," Undergrad Art major Jessie Haas said.
Since Hurricane Katrina hit land, the government’s response to the emergency has been criticized. According to an article from the New York Times, hundreds of firefighters that responded to a call of help for the disaster were held for training on community relations by the federal agency in Atlanta before being sent to the devastated area. Some volunteers complained that the delay meant lives were being lost in New Orleans.
The article also stated that William D. Vines, a former mayor of Fort Smith, Ark., helped deliver food and water to areas hit by the hurricane. But he said FEMA halted two trailer trucks carrying thousands of bottles of water to Camp Beauregard, near Alexandria, Lousiana. Vines said FEMA wouldn’t let the trucks unload. FEMA said they had to have a tasker number, which apparently is paperwork.
A man in Biloxi who helped a group move
a shed off of a fence.
In addition, even after Katrina made landfall as a category four hurricane, Bush participated in a birthday cake photo-op with Senator John McCain, according to the White House Web site.
Even now as relief efforts are in full swing, FEMA has only been approving continuing rental assistance applications at a rate of 20%, according to the FEMA answers website.
FEMA trailers line many roads near houses that seem to look okay. Once inside the houses, it is evident why the occupants need a trailer. The walls are ripped out and everything is gone, except the main framework of the house. A member of AmeriCorps in Pass Christian said the estimated time for total recovery is 13 years.
It’s been seven months and debris still hangs in trees, houses are still infested with mold, wreckage still lies sprawled over yards, and bodies are still turning up. It has been only seven months and many people have already pushed Hurricane Katrina to the back of their minds. But for 400 Kent State volunteers who spent their spring break dirty, smelly, helping out and seeing the devastating effect of the hurricane, the stories and pictures of Katrina’s impact and those that it hurt will never go unremembered.
