Katrina hit land on August 29, 2005, at 6:00 am and lasted 10 hours with winds up to 174 miles an hour. The entire 60-mile coastline of Mississippi was obliterated.
The First Presbyterian Church (FPC) on 114 Ulman Avenue was spared from floodwaters because it sat just inches higher than the surrounding area. It was like an oasis for relief. Pastor Richard Jones said, “It was the church that God changed in an hour”. It became a haven for volunteers. The first volunteers stayed in tents but then Sunday school rooms were turned into men’s and women’s dorm rooms, and groups stayed inside or outside. Makeshift showers were plumbed outside along with supplementary santi-cans as FPC housed an average of 30-100 volunteers a week.
Rev. Benny Hartley from North Carolina was the first volunteer I met. He told us how he talked to his wife and two kids about coming to help the people that suffered so much loss from Katrina and came to Mississippi the day after the hurricane hit. Benny opened the only place you could get food. He started a soup kitchen with the support of his church who sent with him a pig roaster, three turkey roasters, food, and some men to help him. They started at Winn Dixie just down the street and later moved to the Big K Mart. (On top of the Big K Mart seven dead bodies were found.) They fed 2300 people in one day and Benny shook the hand of every person. He said he didn’t want to just give them food he wanted to give them hope and love.
Benny made a one-year commitment to stay and help the Bay St. Louis community. He kept us focused on why we were there and it wasn’t to build houses. It was to build lives, to give hope to people who have lost hope. To talk to people and listen to them. We were there representing First Presbyterian Church, it would be in the community long after we left. He also reminded us that, “You’re not looking at debris, you are looking at people’s lives, their possessions, all that they had.”
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