Gulf Coast Works weblog

To rebuild a home on the Gulf Coast is work enough, but then the homeowner, who lost everything in the storm, needs everything replaced…from sofas to sponges, bedrooms to bric-a-brac. Friends of Bridge To Biloxi helped Cynthia and family with a hodgepodge of housewarming gifts back in November and December, but we didn’t provide any sort of coordinated program.

Our friends at Wayland To Waveland, a small group doing fantastic work rebuilding homes from the ground up in Waveland, Mississippi, have a very unique solution to the fitting the last pieces of the reconstruction puzzle together. They hold a virtual “Move-In Shower” via an online gift registry at Bed Bath & Beyond, where donors can buy a $5 washcloth, a $280 comforter, or anything in between.

Just this month, Wayland To Waveland finished Hazel Tracey’s home and they’ve got a shower underway right now. If you like a good party, why don’t you stop by (click here) and offer something to help Ms. Hazel make her house a real home again.

With the scores of medium to large scale volunteer relief and recovery groups working on the Gulf Coast, it’s a surprising rarity to find well-produced video that tells the story of the ongoing struggles facing the victims of Katrina and the uplifting and hopeful stories of everyday volunteers who’ve gone to help. One of the best I’ve seen is from the Lutheran Episcopal group Camp Coast Care in Long Beach, which is between Gulfport and Pass Christian. This organization houses up to 150 volunteers in a gymnasium facility and has a separate but affiliated youth group facility in Bay St. Louis.

Here are two different videos that illustrate nicely what volunteering on the Gulf Coast is like, both in the work to be done and the rewards to be enjoyed…

Bridge To Biloxi does not have a current relationship with this organization…if you have any experience with Camp Coast Care, please tell us about it so that we can better our efforts in organizing work groups.

Bridge to Biloxi has explored many ways that we can offer support to folks on the Gulf Coast, and one of the most important is in the realm of legal advocacy. There are a variety of reasons why this issue is a specific concern, including the fact that many of the victims of Katrina are poor and under-educated, but they happen to own some of the most prized real estate in the South, especially since gambling has come to the Gulf Coast.

Many residents live on land that was bought and paid for generations ago and it’s their family’s only anchoring possession and asset. Immediately prior to Katrina, these families could hardly consider selling their properties…they had no mortgage and their subsistence level jobs were right there in the community. They didn’t have much, but what they had was theirs, and they were getting by.

Since Katrina, there are many monied interests hoping to get a great deal on this prime real estate, and they’re willing and able to wait to get it. The longer the poor property owners have to wait for relief and recovery efforts, the longer insurance companies delay paying or litigating claims, the more red tape that is thrown at them by federal, state, and local government…the less likely they will be able to hold on to the one thing they have left; that paid-for plot of land where their flooded house stands (or stood).

We recently met with Kathleen Johnson in Waveland, MS to discuss the dire situation in that community. One of the topics we got into was the need for legal advocacy, which can be done remotely via a number of Mississippi-based groups, such as the MS Center for Justice. Kathleen is an amazingly committed organizer of volunteers in Hancock County, and it’s revealing to hear her speak of the desparate need for advocates for folks who are being ignored, forgotten, or take advantage of…it’s best to hear her tell it…

Pardon my frustration here, but I cannot let this pass. This week, over 18 months after Katrina, leaders in a certain political party are still blaming everyone but themselves for the gigantic failings that Katrina exposed. The sound-bite below was recorded at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) circus of Conservatives throwing red meat (or is it chum?) to other Conservatives.

Click this: NEWT BLAMES THE VICTIMS

Though it’s true to character for Newt, I still find these comments offensive and strong evidence of the complete failure of his humanity, civility and, yes, patriotism…to cast such aspersions on fellow Americans devastated by the greatest natural disaster this country has ever experienced is bordering on demagoguery. His comments are not only a self-serving slap to the face of a community in which he would find few constituents, but it’s also a huge insult to all those, regardless of political affiliation, who have strived for the last 18 months to help those he labels “failures”. Both he and his audience, which no doubt lapped up every word in a sycophantic stupor, are guilty of shameless, divisive race and class warfare that is hard to stomach.