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Tuesday, 18 October 2005 |
Editor’s
note: The following is a first-hand account of the Mississippi Gulf
Coast from sports reporter Donny Wisor, who traveled to the area with
Campus Crusade, one of several campus groups who made trips to the area
over Fall Break.
by DONNY WISOR
Sports Reporter
I am standing in a field. To my left, there is a bus with most of its windows blown out.
Sitting in a ditch about 15 feet in front of me is another bus turned
on its side. When I look down the field another 50 yards, I see a bus
with the roof of a house on top of it, surrounded by piles of debris.
Beside the bus, a boat rests on dry land.
Behind me is a truck, the top completely smashed in.
No, I am not standing at a junkyard, nor am I shooting a scene for some
action movie. I am in Pass Christian, a small town of about 6 500
people on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi.
The area was one of the hardest hit by Katrina a little over a month
ago, and I got the opportunity to go down there over Fall Break with
Campus Crusade to help with relief efforts.
I was not prepared for the sites I saw. Since it has been a month
since the hurricane, I expected very little damage at this point, and
besides, all I heard about was New Orleans from the media.
As I look around, there is almost nothing standing. The only thing that
I see is the local school gym, so I decide to go in and check it out.
 | Donny Wisor | The Appalachian
Freshman music industry major Luke A. Mitchell carries debris from
inside a house in Pass Christian, Miss. Mitchell went to Mississippi
with Campus Crusade over fall break to aid in relief.
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Inside it looks like a war zone. Cinder blocks are scattered all over the place, weight machines are thrown throughout the gym.
Trophies that students, including “Good Morning America” Host Robin
Roberts, worked so hard for are broken and thrown to the floor.
Football uniforms and pads are barely recognizable in the piles of debris.
The town was a victim to a surge from the hurricane that reached
heights of up to 35 feet. The surge wiped out 98 percent of the homes
in the town and structures that were left were damaged so much from
flooding that they had to be completely gutted and the residents had to
start over.
As I walk through the gym, I am overwhelmed.
This town, which was founded in 1699, has not seen devastation like
this since Hurricane Camille hit in 1969. Many residents tell me
Katrina is much worse as far as damages go.
The damage in the town is noticeable as soon as one drives into the
area. Although it is still dark, the chaos is everywhere. One of the
first things I notice as we drive in is a minivan sitting on top of a
toppled tree. Even the darkness cannot hide the fact that every leaf
has been blown off every tree.
However, with all this damage and wreckage around the city, one cannot
help but notice the positive attitude many in the region have.
There are signs around town saying things like “paradise will return”
and “survive Pass Christian.”
We worked with a couple in the Belle Rose development. Their house was
submerged in water for over eight hours, everything was ruined and we
had to gut the house. By the time we were done all that was left was
the roof and the frame of the house.
Even though they lost all their possessions, their spirit was upbeat.
We camped out near Trinity Church. Once a beautiful structure, it is now reduced to bare wood.
I talked to a man from the area, Tom Sugar.
“My house is gone; every home in my neighborhood for four, maybe five
miles is completely destroyed,” Sugar said. “It looks like a pile of
trash.”
Sugar added that his neighbor’s house floated above his house and
landed on top of it, crushing it. Sugar’s boat ended up atop power
lines.
“It once was and now it’s gone,” Sugar said.
Today things in Pass Christian are in shambles, but every day, with the
help of volunteers, the place is slowly coming back and will return
someday.
Volunteers like Travis Todd, a man who does mission work in China, are
down there in full force doing everything they can to help these
people.
The American Red Cross continues to provide shelter, showers and food. The money we have donated is being put to great use.
Churches are down there providing a simple can of soda to those who are
cleaning debris. There is even a man named Jerry that will fix
chainsaws for free so people may continue to remove downed trees.
I cannot begin to put into words what the experience was like.
If you ever get a chance to help with the hurricane relief efforts, I
strongly recommend you take that opportunity. It could have an impact
not only on those you help, but also one on yourself that could last a
lifetime.
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I grew up in North Carolina and have lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for 37 years.
The destruction that Katrina dealt the Gulf Coast went far beyond the physical. While the South Mississippi people are by nature and necessity very resilient, the emotional toll of such severe destruction was almost as catastrophic as the physical toll.
A good friend of mine was 80 years old and comfortably retired on August 28th. On August 29th, he was 80 years old and suddenly had absolutely nothing. An insurance check can't begin to put his remaining life back together.
What he has told me gives him hope and it gives all of us hope are people like Donny and the other students and people from all over the country who have come to help. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to.
You probably didn't feel like you made much of a dent in overcoming the physical destruction but you did more than you will ever know to help heal the emotional destruction.
Thank you.