Screed

Much as I hate to link to anything FEMA, there is a solid article about what's been going on in D'Iberville on their website. What they neglect to say, although it's there if you read between the lines, is that FEMA and the rest of the "relief" organizations pretty much showed up late and with little to show. Every single repair that has been done has been done by volunteers outside of those agencies. There are loads more stories from volunteers. Aside from individual names and specific stories, they tell the same history that we saw.

I will say this: Ed Cake and Irene McIntosh are the personification of dedication and love. They have worked non-stop on rebuilding D'Iberville from the first day after the storm. Ed is at the camp about 18 hours a day, 6 1/2 days each week. Irene has continued to work as a professor at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, commuting 2 hours each workday, while supervising breakfast and dinner each day. Their lives ARE recovery. Irene houses mental health volunteers in her house; last week she had about 20 people staying with her as they assess the needs of the people of the community.

In the first days after the storm, China sent tents: massive 20-person tents (which is where the volunteers now sleep). South Korea sent mattresses. The U.S. Government sent...nothing. And no one. For weeks after the storm, the people in this town waited for help while they tried to organize their own recovery. The people have received FEMA trailers, and that's about it. And now the push is starting to get those people out of the trailers (each family is allotted 18 months in which to redirect their lives). People who didn't receive a trailer until February '06 are being harrassed about losing it after only 4 months.

The Gulf Coast of Mississippi is a beautiful place, and the people are great. Go visit, support the economy with your vacation money, and/or send anything extra you have to any non-governmental disaster relief agency you choose. There are hundreds of other towns in the same situation as D'Iberville. Every dollar, every hour of work, every hug helps these folks find their way falteringly back to dignity and hope.