Moses Lake residents return to the disaster
Moses Lake residents return to the disaster
Church organization travels to Mississippi for relief
MOSES LAKE — Loren Hill remembers many stories she heard while helping with Hurricane Katrina disaster relief last April in Mississippi.
When the hurricane hit, a tree crashed through an elderly woman's home and water started rushing in. To avoid being swept away, the woman hooked her cane onto the tree and hung on. Another story involved a family finding a sea lion from a local marine center in their front yard. The sea lion's companion was discovered in a neighbor's yard. Both survived.
Loren Hill and her husband John Hill are returning to Long Beach, Miss., on Saturday as part of a team of about 20 from First Presbyterian Church in Moses Lake. They are staying for a week.
"A lot of these people didn't have much to begin with, and now they have nothing," John Hill said.
John Hill is coordinating the crew as it repairs homes damaged by the August 2005 hurricane. Loren Hill is making house visits to put work orders on a list for later crews. The crew from First Presbyterian is continuing where earlier crews left off.
In April, a crew of about 40 from First Presbyterian helped repair four homes. One was repaired by the group from start to finish. Work includes wiring homes for electricity, roofing, insulating walls, installing rafters, making house visits and cleanup.
First Presbyterian Church is one of several groups from Moses Lake helping with disaster relief, John Hill said.
"For our size, I think we've done really quite a bit," he said.
The two are returning because they saw such a strong need in the community. The first few blocks in from the beach, houses were completely wiped out or condemned. The next area saw homes that were livable but in need of extensive repair. Those are the homes First Presbyterian worked on, Loren Hill said.
"It's the overwhelming need," she said. "The pictures from the news have never done it justice. When you stand there and look at total destruction and people whose lives have been just totally uplifted, how can you not help?"
For John Hill, the most memorable part of the trip was watching a woman return to her home after the crew finished repairing it.
Loren Hill said she is interested in seeing how much improvement has occurred since April. She hopes it is significant.
"We didn't even make a dent when we were there the last time," Loren Hill said.
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