[Home]   [Katrina News]   [08 Sep 05]   [18 Sep 05]   [20 Nov 05]   [09 Dec 05]

December 9, 2005

Church visitors!  Two women, seven men, three vehicles, and two trailers arrived here this past Monday evening for a week of labor and fellowship in Christian love.  For them, it was warm here - a balmy 47 (or so) degrees.  When they left Pontiac Bible Church in Pontiac, Illinois, it was, well... cold - single digit temperatures.  They quickly settled in from their drive, unloaded their supplies, and aired up their mattresses.

Tuesday morning, the crew got their drive-around orientation and sight-to-behold tour of the local area.  I guess us locals, after a hundred days, are starting to take it all in stride... but to newcomers, it is still as stunning as it was to us three plus months ago.

They set to work after breakfast Tuesday morning, and decided "divide-and-conquer" would be effective.  The group had set their immediate sites on one re-roofing, one in-home electrical repair job, and one... well, partial interior re-construction (terminating wiring and mudding-and-taping (also called floating) walls in a home that sustained significant damage).  Depending on progress and supplies, more sheetrock work loomed before week's end.

Though tired, sore, and exhausted, after a full days labor, they were back on the jobsites Wednesday.  Pastor Brian and his bride flew in from Pontiac for an overnight, and also mentioned the 50-degree differential between Biloxi and Pontiac during his devotional at Wednesday night prayer meeting.  During the day, most of us were in sweatshirts, jackets, or coats, but the Pontiac crew was enjoying the t-shirt weather.

Thursday afternoon the re-roofing was completed, with the exception of putting the ridge vent and ridge cap on - that'll be done over the weekend, as some rain and wind has made roof-top work uncomfortable, undesirable, and a little unsafe.  There is enough inside work to keep them busy though.

Local News!

Mark your calendars - December 15th may well prove to be one of those 'landmark' days in the recovery:  Highway 90, the main beach-front artery along the coast, is scheduled to reopen completely through Biloxi and Gulfport!  While it still terminates at the county line in each direction (by two missing bridges), the nearly 28 miles of highway will help the traffic situation immensely.  The Gulf Coast was already well behind on highway construction keeping up with growth, so losing highway 90 and both bridges (to Hancock county to the west and Jackson county to the east) has made getting around... let's just say 'difficult' is not nearly strong enough.  Words like 'taxing' and 'infuriating' are frequently used now.

If anyone is interested in getting pictures for posterity, our local newspaper is publishing a 120-page tabletop (coffee-table) book of pictures from before, during, and after the storm.  Here is a link to the book(*).

* This is not an endorsement of the book or the publisher, nor is it intended to show favoritism - it's simply a book about the hurricane we know is being produced, of which some percentage of the sale is purported to be going to help the recovery effort.  We will list others if they are made known to us and are likewise charitably minded.

[Home]   [Katrina News]   [08 Sep 05]   [18 Sep 05]   [20 Nov 05]   [09 Dec 05]