This is a remarkable story from one of my mom's co-workers.
A Trip to Biloxi
September 5, 2005, 6:00 am CST my wife, Tiffany and I head for Biloxi, MS loaded with food, water and supplies that we collected from our neighborhood. We’ve formed our own mini relief effort for those affected by hurricane Katrina.
Traveling out of Pensacola, I spot a fuel truck replenishing a Shell station on Pine Forest road, the line is already a half mile long. Later, we see another. It’s a sign that help is on the way for the gas shortage here in Pensacola.
As we exit the on ramp and start heading west on I-10, we immediately notice the hundreds of vehicles heading to the Gulf Coast to assist. There were emergency vehicles, power trucks, and debris trucks all in row. As we passed them, we read out loud “North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, New York, and Ontario.” We owe a lot to these people.
Heading into Mobile, the hurricane debris and damage is already apparent. There are signs down and things all over the highway. As we passed the USS Alabama, it’s quite obvious that its listing do west. Cranes are already on site to try and get it repositioned.
The damage begins to worsen as we near the Pascagoula Bay; road signs are completely missing or hanging in the trees next to where they were. Crossing the river, you soon realize they are no traffic on I-10 east bound. It soon becomes obvious why. There are several boats, barges, and cranes wedged underneath the bridge. Some hit so hard that they knocked the pillars out from under the highway.
We pass the Keesler AFB exit on I-10. I really wanted to take that one, but I was looking at things and missed it. So, I take the next exit and head south. We pass huge lines of cars waiting for gas; little do they know there isn’t any. We continue driving south and I come to a “T” in the road, I head east and turn into the first subdivision I see. Rolling down the windows we were immediately met with a smell that nearly brought us to vomiting. It’s nothing like either of us has even had to deal with, we’re not sure what it is, but later find out while talking to an old man.
Tiffany gets out of the truck and starts knocking on doors, “We have supplies, do you need anything?” she tells them. Soon we have several families around my truck. Tiffany climbs in the back and starts handing things out. A young man comes up with his puppy. The dog was obviously starving. He said they ran out of food 3-4 days ago. I handed him a bag of dog food, he did his best to hold back the tears and shook my hand and said “Thank you so much.” He immediately headed to the house to feed his dog. Meanwhile, Tiffany is going through all the boxes, “Do you need Band-Aids, mouthwash, or toothbrushes,” she asks. People are subject to say, “Someone has it worse than me; I don’t want to take anything.” Tiffany keeps handing them things, and they smile and take it. “God bless you,” they tell us as we drive toward the next group of people we see.
I spot a dog lying underneath a Jeep and stopped. All I have left now is cat food. Funny, you know we never saw a cat. Who’s the smarter species? Anyway, I began dumping the cat food on the ground and dogs came out of nowhere to come eat. I dumped half the bag, gave them a few pats on the head and back in my truck.
We now are approached by a young woman with thee kids, “I’ve got those teenagers cleaning,” she said and we give her some basic supplies and moved on. Not exactly friendly, as she kicks the poor dog I was just feeding.
I’m now in the last row of houses before the bayou, these houses are completely lost. I took what would be the last picture I could get myself to take and continued trying to navigate down the road. As we approach some people, I jumped out and asked, “Where are all these people?” They replied in a shaky voice “We don’t know.”
“They didn’t evacuate,” I asked. “No,” they replied.
“They are either in the bayou or under their house.” they said.
Nearly in tears, I got back in my truck to try and find more people I could help.
We left that subdivision and headed to the one right next door. Again the streets were littered with appliances and carpet, not to mention the shingles off of everyone’s houses. We came across several people as we entered the main driveway, We kept handing out supplies, everyone wanted to tell us their stories, all you could do is listen. They just needed to tell someone and hear that someone else understands. We took the time to listen to everyone, shook hands or hugged and went on our way.
Driving along I passed a woman on her front porch, her head between he legs and her hands on her head. She looked exhausted and overwhelmed. She had three small children inside. Tiffany quickly handed her coloring books, stuffed animals, and crayons for the kids. The husband was a Navy man, who said they lost everything. He lost his car because the Navy suggests that you drop coverage on you vehicles while out to sea to save money. He wondered how this was saving him anything. I shook his hand and said, “Good luck, my friend,” he grinned and said “Thanks and God bless.”
In the same cul-de-sac, a couple with a two year old girl came over to the truck. The man immediately noticed the tarps I brought with us. I told him “Hey man, these are Ivan traps,” he laughed and told me he’d been watching Pensacola get hammered with storms. He said, “I bet you know exactly what we’re going through”. I said “Yes I do, and it will get better with time,” knowing in the back of my mind that I not comprehend the damage they had, but the fact they have people missing 4 houses down just blows me away. I didn’t want to burst their glimmer of hope so I mentioned none of this. The little girl was drinking one of the drinks Tiffany gave her. She had the mother loaded up with baby wipes, bubbles, band-aids, salve, and a whole bag of other stuff. The children here are so oblivious to what is going on around them. Giving these children toys to play with was probably the most rewarding part of the trip thus far. I carried over a box of MREs left over from Ivan too. Getting back in the truck, Tiffany and I wondered why these people didn’t have MREs yet. Hell, its day seven, where is the support? No FEMA, no National Guard, no nothing…
An elderly man and his wife appeared out from behind a car, we stopped and he came and looked and said he didn’t need anything, but really appreciated what we where doing. I got out of my truck and starting putting gas in it with a five gallon gas can I have carried along. He asked me “Do you have enough gas to get back to Pensacola.” I replied “Yes sir, thank you.” As we passed his garage I noticed he had gas in cans and I’m sure he was going to give it to me to get home. I then noticed a young child, no more than six, with red braids. I yelled “Come here sweetheart,” as my wife was finding toys and getting a Kool-aid out of the cooler. She ran over to the truck and I handed her the stuffed animal and Sponge-Bob sucker my wife found. She was so happy, said “Thank you” as she skipped back to her grandparents. Tiffany smiled at me and said “She was so cute.” Indeed she was.
A few more houses down, I see some guys up on their roof, they we putting new shingles down. Tiffany gave who we found out to be their mother, four cold drinks. I asked her if they needed sun block because they we on the roof with no shirts on and would surely be sun burnt. She said “I can take it but I can’t make those boys wear it.” I smiled and said “Go up there and smack them around a bit, they aren’t too big to take orders from their mother.” The young man on the house yelled down to me “Don’t make this coon arse come down off this roof,” with a big grin on his face. We exchanged laughs and a wave and continued on. It was uplifting to share laughter out of all the things we’ve seen this morning.
We now came upon a man hanging what’s left of he clothes outside to dry. His house had four feet of water in it. He was an old man, in his early 70’s, retired Army. He said he wasn’t feeling very good and asked if we had any fruit. Tiffany sprung into action and found some fruit cups. She handed them to him, smiled and said “I hope you feel better,” she continued handing things out to the other people that arrived at the truck. I stayed and talked with this man, his name was Billy. Billy was in Vietnam in 1969, “The worst time to be there;” he proudly reminded me and said he had never seen anything like this in his life. With his arm around my shoulders he pointed toward his neighbor’s house and said “Do you see that hole in the roof over there?” I replied, “Yes, sir.” He continued to tell me that the family punched a hole in it from their attic to escape the rising water. They then sat on their roof in a circle as the winds were blowing, “It’s a miracle that they survived,” he said. As we stood there talking, a swirling wind began to blow. The smell was just horrific. I asked him what that was and he look me straight in the eye and said “Young man, that is the smell of death, a lot of people never made it out of those homes,” pointing towards the bayou. “I would recognize that smell anywhere,” he said. I was silent for what seemed like five minutes, I said I was sorry. He said “So am I son, so am I,” as he squeezed the back of my neck. I shook his hand told him I hoped he was feeling better and got back in my truck. I sat there a few minutes and watched Tiffany gathering people up for me to come to. Her waving hand brought me back to reality and off I went.
We seen a bunch of boys out on their bikes, they all stopped at a house where they parents were. They didn’t want anything, but we gave them all some cold drinks. No one wanted water. They were tired of drinking it. We had some Capri sun and Kool-aid and they we glad to get it. As I’m getting back in the cab I hear Tiffany yell to the boys, “You guys want this bag of candy?” They said “No ma’am, but you could tell they wanted it. I laughed and said, “Come on now what kid doesn’t want candy?” Tiffany threw it over to them and we shared a smile.
We continued to hand what supplies we had left out to whoever needed it. Rounding the last bend on the road, I notice a Vietnamese couple washing dishes in their driveway. I jumped out of the truck and said, "We have a few things left come see if you want any of it." The gentlemen in desperation told me that everything is gone in the house and my car too. Out of the corner of my eye I see four small children inside. I walked back to the truck and told Tiffany, they have nothing. We took everything we had and gave it to them. The woman wanted to know if home owners would cover their car and where was help. I had no answers. Tiffany has some ice left in our cooler and asked them if they wanted it, she said “Yes, but I have no cooler.” Tiffany took the cooler off the truck and put it on the ground. “It’s yours,” she said. In disbelief he exclaimed, “God will do you good, he know what you are doing.” His English was broken, but his face got the message across.
The ride home we noticed the National Guard sites where they were handing out ice, water, and MREs. We both looked at each other and said, “How can those people we just left get here?” The fact is they can’t. Their cars are flooded; some sunk two feet into the ground. Those troops need to load that stuff up and deliver it. The line was short and probably will stay that way.
The rest of the trip we didn’t say much of anything. I think we were just in shock and we both were just trying to process what we just saw. I know we helped, I know we made a difference to those people, but there is so much more to do. I can only hope these storms stay out to sea and that we don’t have to deal with this again. We’re planning another trip for this weekend. We’ve had great support within our community, I can only imagine how many other people and groups are doing the same thing. It was a depressing journey to see the destruction and loss of life, yet rewarding to know that two people can make a difference.
A trip to biloxi
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That is Xster's exit (I think). Was it Cedar Lake Rd and then you turned on Popps Ferry Rd? From the newscasts I don't think you could have gotten near his house because the bridge is out over Biloxi Bay.
I actually got Johns voice mail twice last night, it was the first time I didn't get a busy signal or one of the automated messages. Both times my call was dropped before it got to the beep though.
I actually got Johns voice mail twice last night, it was the first time I didn't get a busy signal or one of the automated messages. Both times my call was dropped before it got to the beep though.
Wanted: to set up a tank again.
As I first read this story, I was so greatly touched as well. I usually don't cry but there is something in that story that made me cry so hard I didn't want to read it anymore. I also felt the pain and suffering that people are going through over there. When my parents read this article they wanted to cry too, but they decided the only way they could help was to take off of work at their own expense and spend a day in the disaster zone giving out food, toys, and other necessities that people so desperately needed. I thank you for sending this out to others, and I encourage others to share their stories as well.Jahdiel wrote:I just want you to know that I have sent this out to others in hopes of spuring on more helping hands. This touched my heart greatly. Thank you! I feel we need more stories like this one to give a healthy balance to our spirits. It is so easy to get wrapped up in only the negative out there.
reefer21
