Posted on 02/15/2008 11:55:31 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Tom Kauffman thought that once a storm blew over people could go home, clean up a few things and return back to normal, everyday life. But two mission trips to Biloxi, Miss., changed his thinking. People are still recovering from the impact of Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.
"A storm doesn't just blow over and people don't go back to their homes the next day," said Kauffman, 69, of Manchester Township. "There's a lot of pain and suffering and a lot of waiting. I opened my eyes up."
Kauffman plans to return to Biloxi a third time, with 11 other fellow members of Zion Lutheran Church in Manchester Township. They will leave York County Sunday and return Feb. 23.
The church has teamed up with Camp Biloxi, a distribution center run by the Lutheran Disaster Response program of Austin, Texas-based Lutheran Social Services, Kauffman said.
To prepare for the mission trip, Zion Lutheran is collecting Lowe's and Home Depot gift cards that will be used to assist Biloxi residents who are trying to rebuild their houses.
The church group will be doing some plumbing and electrical work, as well as painting, drywalling and cleaning, said Kauffman, who helped coordinate the upcoming trip.
This will be the church's fifth mission trip to Biloxi.
Paul Hoover, a Zion member going to Biloxi for the first time, said he is impressed with how churches have kept up their commitment to assist Hurricane Katrina survivors.
"I hope to gain some insight as to what really happened in that area," he said. "I know that if I go down there, I can do good for somebody that really needs the help."
How to help
Zion Lutheran Church in Manchester Township is collecting Lowe's and Home Depot gift cards to help Biloxi, Miss., residents who are rebuilding homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
A mission group from the church will leave for Biloxi on Sunday and return Feb. 23.
Cards can be dropped off at the church at 2215 Brandywine Lane. For information, call the church at 767-4673 or Tom Kauffman at 968-4026.
You may want to mention the Mississippi received more money from the Feds per capita than Louisiana.
Biloxi’s coastal area will come back, but it will be a lot different than pre-Katrina. It will be a a small coastal version of Las Vegas. You will see high rise Casino/Hotels, Golf courses, restaurants, condominiums and beach resorts. Gone will be the single family housing (which will be pushed further inward) and small businesses. The state will reap huge amounts of tax revenue from the new developments. The developers have already bought up most of the land. It’s just a matter of time.
Have you been there? Most of the Mississippi Gulf Coast was WIPED OUT like a nuclear warhead had been exploded there. If MS received more per capita than LA there was probably a good reason, beyond the fact that Governor Haley Barbour used to be a lobbyist and RNC Chairman.
How much did Mississippi get? Louisiana just got another shot of cash to the tune of $127 billion.
I have been to the Mississippi Gulf Coast as well as Plaquemines Parish where Katrina first came ashore. Both areas were devestated by the storm.’
However, New Orleans was not destroyed by storm but rather by The US Army Corps of Engineers whose levees failed due to poor design and construction.
And you know what?
It’s going to happen again
Do you have a source for this information?
Could you please link that source?
LLS
Come on, it’s more fun to just bash N.O.
Are you saying there were less than 200,000 homes destroyed in all of the State of Louisiana or are you simply comparing the State of Mississippi with the City of New Orleans?
I’ll get the source and you get me your source for your statement.
I just talked to a woman from Covington LA north of the lake. She said she was in the French Quarter a week or so ago and the FQ is back in business. The shops, restaurants and street vendors were doing a good business and there were tourist everywhere. That is good news, I love the French Quarter. Also back were street gangs trying to get their territory back but you don’t see that if you stay in the FQ.
You are the one who is posting an actual dollar amount of an additional 127 billion for Louisiana.
I cannot provide an article of a Government document stating that the Congress approved and the President signed a bill granting 127 billion to Louisiana.
So, you need to provide a link that Louisiana was recently given 127 billion or admit that you are simply spewing BS.
I don’t know why it matters. Any money given to LA will be squandered, siphoned off to crooked politicians and contractors and wasted. At least in Miss. they have a savy Governor who knows how to take advantage of the money and use it to enhance his state. Now that LA has a new Governor, hopefully things will improve, but it will take time for him to weed out the crooks in their beauracracy.
That's your statement, where is your source? As for my statement the $127 billion was for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.
So where is your source?
In Post 5 you state "Louisiana just got another shot of cash to the tune of $127 billion."
However, in Post 16 you claim "As for my statement the $127 billion was for New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region."
So which is it, is the statement made in 5 true or is the statement made in 16 true?
Or is it that you were not aware that the Gulf Coast Region includes more area than just the State of Louisiana?
We can hope that "Bobby" will able to weed out the corruption.
I meant to say in the second post that I corrected my statement to include the Gulf Coast region.
Now where is your source?
I worked some of the immediate stabilization efforts in Pascagoula, Gulfport, and Stennis.
Seeing those large billboard poles bent along I-10 and the boats in the trees was pretty impressive, but not as impressive and the asphalt that was scoured clean from the road path at an elevation of 29 feet and the water lines hip high on the buildings nearby.
Parking lots had cars piled up like a child piles his toys.
The coasts along hwy 90, when one could get there, was simply devastated, wiped nearly clean.
From 20005-2007 I worked three hurricanes, Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina. Wind and storm surge do very odd things to structures.
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