Shirley Scott can't believe her eyes as she meets Karen Lucas for the first time. Lucas had driven from DeLeon Springs, Fla., to meet Scott. Lucas had worked on Scott's new post-Katrina home in Gulfport.
Posted on Fri, May. 09, 2008
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Celebration of homes
Katrina recovery houses dedicated in West Gulfport
By JEAN PRESCOTT
jtprescott@sunherald.com
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GULFPORT --
Twenty-two new homes - Hurricane Katrina-recovery homes - were handed off to owners last week in a dedication celebration at the West Gulfport Community Park where West Side Community Center once stood on U.S. 90/West Beach Boulevard.The celebration brought together those who had qualified for new housing with the people who'd provided or accessed the needed grant money and those who actually put together the structures.
In fact, Karen Lucas, a volunteer from DeLeon Springs, Fla., came back for the event just to be able to meet the recipient of the home she had worked on. Lucas and Shirley Scott had an emotional encounter, one of many that took place last Friday afternoon.
"It was just so overwhelming," Scott said Wednesday, speaking about the events of the weekend. Her home was damaged beyond repair in Katrina, she said. IRD helped find the grant money for her new home, and in the interim - well, she was unable to get a FEMA trailer, so "I don't even want to have to tell you where I stayed," and she laughed at the thought of having lived like Goldilocks, one night in one place, the next night in another.
"I've worked with healing and ministry for 40 years," the 70-year-old woman said, "and there's a lesson in all this - to be a child of God. We have to take a lesson and learn to be better as human beings."
More than 3,000 such persons, Presbyterian volunteers from 17 states, participated in this lightning-quick project (six months, start to finish). They came for one-week stretches, many of them returning for multiple visits, and though code requirements prohibited their working on some stages of building construction, they were qualified to do other jobs and also participated in landscaping and in adding personal touches to homes' interiors.
Also among volunteers were members of the Mennonite Disaster Service Storm Aid Group, who installed foundations. Amish, Mennonite and Brethren volunteers also assisted with construction using frames and trusses prefabricated by Triple D Truss, an Amish construction company in Pennsylvania. IRD was able to buy the prefab parts at cost.
Lynn Lanier, construction manager at Westminster Presbyterian Church, said the added benefit of working so closely with Mennonites, Amish and Brethren was the learning experience of it, discovering more about brothers and sisters of faith.
Work on the homes started in November 2007, in a partnership between the Presbytery of Mississippi Disaster Recovery and International Relief and Development-U.S. formed through the Harrison County Long Term Recovery Coalition.
Funding partners for these 22 new homes include The Gulf Coast Community Foundation, The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response and Presbyterian church, both local and from other locations around the country.
