[StBernard] Dale Huffman: Katrina's hardest-hit victims still need our help

[Westley Annis]

Dale Huffman: Katrina's hardest-hit victims still need our help
By Dale Huffman

Staff Writer

It soon will be one year since the hurricane winds and flood waters of
Katrina ravaged Chalmette, La., a suburb of New Orleans in St. Bernard
Parish, one of the areas hit hardest.

"People need to know that there is great need in Chalmette and in many other
communities in the Gulf area," said Laurel Smith of Springboro. "The new
hurricane season has begun, and yet there is still so much to be done in
Louisiana. I hope people don't forget."

Laurel, who turned 22 on Aug. 29, the day Hurricane Katrina hit last summer,
said she immediately knew that she wanted to do something to be of service
to those who found their lives disrupted by the tragedy.

"It took a while for it to fall into place, but I went online and found
Samaritan's Purse," Laurel said. "I lined up friends and family members, and
we took two vans of people and headed to Chalmette to meet up with the
Samaritan's Purse teams."

Samaritan's Purse is a nondenominational Christian organization headed by
Franklin Graham, son of the Rev. Billy Graham, which provides spiritual and
physical aid to hurting people around the world. They have been in the Gulf
area for the past 11 months serving Katrina survivors.

"I attended Miami University with friend Nicole DiNardo, and along with my
friend Katie Bergeron we made the plans," Laurel said. "We got it rolling,
and 12 of us from the Springboro area were off to Louisiana where we spent a
week in March doing heavy-duty volunteer work."

She said the first thing they found when they arrived was major debris
lining most of the streets.

"There were no grocery stores open in Chalmette, and very few businesses.
One make-shift school had reopened in a trailer classroom. A medical clinic
was operating out of trailers in the Wal-Mart's parking lot."

Laurel and her group checked in with Samaritan's Purse headquarters in a
tent and were given safety equipment and uniforms and sent to help clean out
damaged homes.

"We spent a lot of time filling wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with mud and
molded drywall," she said. "We found lots of waterlogged belongings that had
been left behind by those displaced."

One day, Laurel said, a woman heard the volunteers were stripping her house,
and she came by.

"When she entered her home we slipped off our rubber gloves and pushed aside
our respirator masks to circle around the woman," Laurel said. "One of our
girls handed the woman a family photograph recovered under the mud. She kind
of gasped as she looked at it. It was very emotional as she thanked us, and
held tightly to the photo."

As the woman left her home to return to an apartment she took time to hug
each one of the Springboro volunteers.

Laurel said, "She may not be able to rebuild her home, and maybe she will.
But at that moment faith blossomed in my heart as her hair brushed my cheek.
There were tears in my eyes."

It was a painful and emotional week, Laurel said. "But it was a time of
hope. I just pray that good people will continue to support relief efforts
in Chalmette, where it is a year after the storm, and so many still cannot
return home. We must not abandon our friends and fellow Americans who still
need so much help."


Dale Huffman wants your story ideas. This column is for you. Have you seen
the works of a Good Samaritan? Do you want to share a special day coming up
in your life? Send e-mail to dhuffman at DaytonDailyNews.com or write to Dale
at 45 S. Ludlow St. Dayton OH 45402. Fax: (937) 225-2489. Phone: (937)
225-2272.
   
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