water damage

Thursday I met Dong and his family. He and his wife bought their house 2 months before the storm hit. Their entire one-story house was flooded. Although they received very little help from FEMA and had no insurance they have been able to rebuild entirely due to support from volunteer groups and donations. Dong is now single-handedly building an addition to his house for extended family members who need a place to live. Dong has no construction experience, but that doesn't deter him - he is doing what he can with the materials he has.
Dong is a Vietnamese man who does not speak much English. His 3rd grade daughter Kathy has learned English at school and translates for her father. While his wife works he takes care of their two children, Kathy and Kevin and builds as much as possible. Thursday Bill and I helped Dong put up three walls of the addition. The job took more time than it normally would due to the language barrier - lost translations, gestures and pictures. It was amazing, however, to be able to work with such a generous, hard-working man who is so determined to do what he is able for his family. Dong made us egg-rolls for lunch and while I played cards with Kathy and Kevin he told us (through translation) about his struggles in the past year as well as all that has been accomplished.

I also recently met Ron, a retired man who has been taking photographs of Katrina's damage and the area's recovery since 2 days after the storm. He and his wife's home, in the first block from the ocean, was washed away by Katrina. Ron grew up two lots away from Persevere Headquarters, in a home nearly 3 blocks away from the water, which was also washed away by the storm. He and his wife are rebuilding a further inland according to the strict new building codes in the same area where they used to live. While they build they are staying with an elderly friend in his home. With all the work in dealing with the loss of their home and rebuilding anew, Ron and his wife are doing everything they can for the man with whom they are staying including asking Persevere to do a tree job on the man's property. The trees had been officially identified as a threat but since they were not falling or leaning, Ron had been told that they were not priority. Saturday we went over to the man's house where we took down the two rotted trees.

It was very hard for me to comprehend the damage water can do. It still is hard to imagine how so much water can travel so far inland and move so fast. Storm surge facts: the storm surge was 27' high (some people guess as high as 40' in some areas) and went as far as 6 mi. inland along the Gulf Coast and up to 12 mi. in areas along rivers and bays. "More than half of the 13 casinos in the state, which were floated on barges to comply with Mississippi land-based gambling laws, were washed hundreds of yards inland by waves" (CBS News article below).

CBS News: "Mississippi Coast Areas Wiped Out" http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/09/01/katrina/main810916.shtml
Video from Beau Rivage along the water - keep in mind that the opening in the Beau Rivage sign you see is about one story high
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5954521938928173924&q=Hurricane+KAtrina
Mississippi Public Broadcasting video (here you see the barges on land and great birds-eye view shots)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8004256799851293431&q=Katrina+mississippi