LOUISVILLE — A volunteer village operated by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) in Pearlington, Miss., is once again hosting work teams after a blow from Hurricane Gustav in September forced the camp to shut down.
The news comes as workers have started rebuilding a PDA volunteer village in Houma, La., that was also battered by the storm. The hurricane-whipped villages were among five sites established by PDA to house volunteer work teams helping to rebuild the U.S. Gulf Coast following hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. On Oct. 19 the refurbished Pearlington village took in its first volunteer work teams since Gustav slammed the Gulf Coast on Sept. 1. “With the exception of the Houma camp, all villages are up and running,” said Leslie Fedo, PDA’s volunteer village coordinator, who oversees the five camps — three in Louisiana and two in Mississippi. Gustav destroyed six temporary housing units known as “pods” at the village in Pearlington, located about 25 miles west of Biloxi, Miss. The small community near the Gulf of Mexico was all but destroyed by Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005. Some devastated pods at the site, which also took on a lot of floodwater, were replaced with new ones by staff and volunteers. Others were replaced with units left over from a volunteer village that PDA closed down about a year ago in Gautier, Miss. About 75 people, primarily Presbyterians from Philadelphia Presbytery, made up the first wave of volunteers when the Pearlington village reopened last month, said Frank Vardeman, PDA’s Gulf Coast hurricane response manager. The group from Philadelphia finished making repairs to a home in Pearlington then held a house blessing to mark the occasion. “We’re very appreciative of the work of the volunteers in helping us rebuild the camps,” Vardeman said, adding that some 45,000 volunteers have stayed at the five PDA villages since the sites opened three years ago. The most severely damaged village was in Houma, where all 47 temporary housing units were destroyed at PDA’s “Good Earth” site. The category 2 hurricane landed a direct hit on the small town in Terrebonne Parish, about 30 miles southwest of New Orleans. Shredded remains of pods ended up in trees or were strewn across the grounds of the village, Fedo said. The Houma area is still recovering from Rita, which flooded an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 homes when it swept through the area on Sept. 24, 2005. A team of 20 volunteers from the Presbytery of Giddings-Lovejoy arrived at the Houma site on Oct. 26 to help restore the village and work in the community. About half the group helped reconstruct 20 pods at the camp as the rest of the team worked on a storm damaged home in Dulac, La., performing such tasks as installing dry wall and restoring electrical power to the residence. Staff will finish rebuilding the Houma village, which is expected to be operational in time to host work crews on Nov. 16. “I’m really proud of the group that’s come down because they’re really working hard and we’re making it happen,” said Dick Glassey, a retired homebuilder and elder from Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery who was among the volunteers helping to rebuild the Houma site. Gustav did not level everything at the Houma village, which could accommodate more than 90 volunteer workers at a time. A permanent structure housing a dining hall and kitchen survived the storm, as did the camp’s office. Trailers serving as staff quarters and others with showers for volunteers remained intact. The volunteers from Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery slept on cots in the dining hall, which was completed last year by another work team from the same presbytery, said Glassey, who was also in that group. The one-story frame building with vinyl siding is 25 feet by 100 feet and constructed to withstand 140 mph winds,
Glassey said. No injuries were reported at either volunteer village when Gustav struck; the camps were closed at the time as part of a regular seasonal break. The two sites join PDA’s other volunteer villages in New Orleans; Luling, La.; and Gulfport, Miss. “As far as the work in the community you just have to be here and see the people and their appreciation for the work that all the volunteers do in this community down here,” said Glassey, a member of St. Mark Church in Ballwin, Mo. “It’s just phenomenal the response we get from the people who live here and the people who we helped.” Vardeman said much work remains ahead along the Gulf Coast of Mississippi and Louisiana especially when it comes to rebuilding and renovating homes and encouraged people to volunteer at one of the PDA villages. Work teams interested in staying at one of the camps to assist with hurricane rebuilding efforts should register with PDA’s national call center located at the Ferncliff Camp and Conference Center in Little Rock, Ark., by calling (866) 732-6121.
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