The Year After Katrina:

In the year since Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf coast, Presbyterians have contributed more than 23 million dollars to relief efforts through Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA). The Presbytery of Mississippi has received $876,000 through PDA. Over 1400 work teams made up of well over 20,000 volunteers have visited the region, as well.

On August 29, 2005, Katrina hit.

With sustained winds of 145 miles an hour and a storm surge approaching 30 feet, Katrina was more like a tornado, one hundred miles across, combined with a tsunami.

Destroyed home in Gulfport

Six days later, Linda and George Bates made their way to Diamondhead Community Church, to help with the installation of a Living Waters for the World purification system. Of the eleven churches on the Gulf Coast, Diamondhead was the only one accessible from the west. Upon arrival, they found Pastor Chas Jones and the congregation already preparing to help their neighbors. While at Diamondhead, the Bates met the first volunteer teams to reach Mississippi from Maitland, Deland, and Bonita Springs, Florida.

Next, the Bates moved to Bay St. Louis to host the first team there at First Presbyterian Church. Just a half block from the beach, First Presbyterian was not supposed to have been there. Early reports were that it had been destroyed. Instead they found that barely a shingle was blown off and only one small window had been blown out while buildings all around it were flooded or blown away.

Work team members remove sheetrock

Through the furnace-like heat of September, team after team came to remove debris, muck out houses and canvass the neighborhoods of Bay St. Louis. During that time, Sam Thompson showed up to be the site manager at Bay St. Louis and is still there!

October found the Bates working in Gautier with Pam Martin and Fred Hunt and later at Westminster, Gulfport. All these places had many things in common: streets lined on either side with debris so high that you couldn't see over it; downed trees lying atop each other like jackstraws; houses one after the other with no roofs, no windows, and no people.

As October passed to November and November to December, teams from across the nation continued to arrive. The Bates accepted full-time positions, and developed a systematic approach to scheduling teams, purchasing building supplies and receiving work requests from residents. A construction grant proposal was accepted by PDA, allowing continued work.

During Christmas week the first roofing blitz took place. More than 400 college students showed up to roof 43 houses. Since that time, hundreds of houses have received roofs. The March roofing blitz was about ten times as large. During the entire winter and spring, God provided mild dry weather, great for working outdoors and especially for roofing!

When May drew to a close, an accounting revealed that 1370 teams made up of 20,465 people had visited the region! These came from many states and presbyteries, and put aside any differences they may have had to simply serve others in Christ's name. June brought a new season of hot weather and lots of wonderful youth teams. Due to the heat, roofing slowed down and we moved inside the many houses previously roofed to re-wire, put up new insulation, hang and finish sheetrock, and paint.

Over the year we have discovered something very dear. If we work together, concentrating on our commonalities rather than our differences, we are unstoppable. This is a message the entire church needs.