Work day number one--Katrina clean up

We woke up at around 6:30 in the morning to begin our day. We met another group from Kentucky (Don the pastor, Mike, Jim, Mac, Janice, Susan, Sheri, Ken, and Rhonda) who we followed down to our clean up "headquarters" at the baptist association office in Pascagoula, TN. We received our job that morning, and then we followed the Kentucky group to a home not too far away from the office. Originally our plan was to just watch this group for about an hour, and then take the assignment we received and go work on another home. Helped the Kentucky group get started, and then the four of us (Debbie, Ron, Karissa, and myself) and two gals from the Kentucky group drove with us over to the other home. We arrived and the homeowner was nowhere around, and we found out he was at work. We waited for him to show up for about 30 minutes, and when he arrived he said he had already made a lot of progress on his own and just intended on finishing it on hiw own, and wanted us to be able to go and help someone else who needed it more than he. Wish I could remember his name. Oh, we fed and gave water to his dog while we were there; his dog's name was Mike Tyson (boxer). Returned back to the original home, and jumped in helping out the KY group. I got to know the homeowner's daughter, Carla, who is 34, and her home WAS in Gulfport, MS. She said the hurricane totally destroyed her home, and her vehicle (which was sitting on the lawn). She was in such good spirits though, and just keep saying that being a Christian is helping her to be able to get through this. She was an encouragement to ME! She worked as a dealer in one of the casinos down in the Biloxi, MS area. She was going to be staying with family while she looked for a new home, car, and job. Her parents Alter and his wife (can't remember her name) were just as gracious, offering chairs for everyone to take a break, offering us ice and water out of their fridge. Unfortunately we discovered while we were pulling off drywall in their home that a previous contractor, who had helped them with repairs from another hurricane (Dennis I believe), had incorrectly repaired it and therefore there was tons of mold. I felt so bad that they were going to have to deal with that on top of trying to get FEMA help and such. We got huge hugs from them when we left. I hope to hear someday how Carla is doing. After finishing up, the KY group called a sheriff's leutenant in the area whom they had helped previously with his home. He had promised them a sighseeing trip of the damage from the hurricane. He sent one of his troopers named Terrance down to take us. We got to ride in his car! It was quite the ride too....traffic was NO object to him as he took us around traffic, down the shoulders of roads, even used his siren a time or two to get us through. We ended up in Biloxi, MS, where a huge portion of Katrina's wrath was taken out. Seeing it on television does not do it justice. There were homes that had floated into one another. Three floating casinos had been lifted across beach, a 4 lane road, and left to sit next to or on top of buildings. The storm surge was 25 feet high, so these huge barges did no damage to trees because they were so far above them! We stood in an area where President Bush himself stood to speak to the people of Biloxi. This neighborhood didn't have a home left. We stood among piles of rubble, personal belongings, etc. The only remains of homes being there at one time was a stairway or path here and there. Emotionally I am still heartbroken for these people and what they had to go through...how real the terror was for them. Funny enough though, there were still people who had stayed, either pitching tents in their front yards of homes that had somewhat remained standing, or another gentleman who had pitched a basic canopy in the middle of a pile of rubble, but had the American flag flying. These are proud people. Their spirit and strength are unimaginable. Went back to the church to shower and change, and then went to eat with a few people from the KY group, and then crashed around 10 or so.