Storm Sickness

I just returned from a meeting of ministers from our city. The meeting updated us on relief efforts in our Parish since hurricanes Gustave and Ike came calling. Over 1500 homes were lost in Cameron Parish alone. All the churches there, most of which had just been recently rebuilt, are ruined again. Many people have had enough of hurricanes and are not planning to return to Cameron Parish. Ever.

The city of Hackberry, also in Cameron Parish, has been hit hard with flooding. The same is true of Bridge City, Texas which was almost completely covered by storm surge. Neighboring Orange, TX has also suffered massive flooding.

In our area, places that no one remembers having ever flooding were under water after Ike hit. In fact, the storm surge from the massive hurricane arrived some 20+ hours before the winds and rain did.

All of this has left many people dazed. Some had flashbacks of the aftermath of Hurricane Rita, which hit three years ago. People evacuated for Gustave, but had no money to evacuate for Ike. They couldn't afford the gasoline, food, and other expenses of such a trip. Others were without work during the periods of these hurricanes making landfall, and thus were hit doubly hard.

Added to these facts is the perception that Southwest Louisiana and Southeast Texas didn't get hit very hard because the storm damage is not as visible. You can pass by houses and outwardly, they appear fine, but inside they have mold, water damage, bad smells, and who-knows-what kind of creatures inside.

All of these events and much more has brought our area a massive case of storm sickness. To be sure, many folks have not had damage, and have gone right on with their lives. This week, the Red Cross is shutting down its feeding operations after providing thousands of hot meals.

Folks are still living in motels. Some landlords have evicted their tenants in order to raise the rent and take in new tenants. Some people, barely scratched, are lining up for food stamps and other amenities believing that they are owed such. Some people have even taken to selling relief items to family members. Every church leader this afternoon had some sort of storm story to tell.

But despite the shenanigans, there remains great human need. Thousands of homes need to be "mudded out." It takes a couple of days for a crew of 4-5 people to do the work, meaning that a team sent to spend a week working will only be able to do a couple of homes per crew during that time.

In short, hurricane relief for Southwest Louisiana is going to be a long, long haul.

The ministers and church leaders discussed action plans, expressed their frustrations, swapped stories, and organized for the long haul today. Long after the last chain saw crew packs up their cases, there will be people attempting to get back on their feet.

Which leads me to the real point of this post. Not only is the toll great physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Imagine having everything you own taken in one fell swoop. Imagine being left homeless, jobless, and having a family to feed and clothe. Imagine having to stand in long lines for supplies, and even face the humiliation of even having to ask for help. Imagine the helpless feeling when you don't know what you are going to do. Imagine doing that twice, three times, in three years.

If you can only imagine, you are getting to close to understanding the psyche of folks in our area. To be sure, many are doing just fine. But many others aren't. Many of them are proud and independent, never expecting, nor asking for help. But remember, fatigue makes cowards of us all, and we have had our share in this area of storm fatigue.

Our churches and people are working together to help as we can with the limited resources we have. I left the meeting thinking of the story of Jesus and crowds of people who had listened to his teaching and by the end of the day were hungry and tired. Jesus asked his disciples to go through the crowd to scare up some food. What they brought back was a few loaves and fishes. The comment made was to the effect, "what is so little among so much?"

We have a little. But we have a lot. We have strong people. We have a strong faith community. We have a sense of helping our neighbors and being independent at the same time.

And we have faith. Those loaves and fishes, given to Jesus, blessed and distributed, fed over 5000 people with plenty left over.

In ministering to the storm sickness of our area, I'm praying for another miracle just like that.