Friday, 6/15 – Randy Guptill

Lights came on sometime after 6 AM and our last work day at Kenyatta’s arrived.

We had very specific chores to complete so we could be out before lunch. Sue, Maggie and myself set to work on the last bits of baseboard while the rest of the crew worked on the last few parts of the floor. I tinkered with the plumbing (still couldn’t get that darn down tube to stop leaking !@#$%^!!) and was given the task of putting the trim back on the doors. Andy and I discovered that the doors had been installed wrong when the house was built. The trim had separated from the door jambs because the jambs had not been nailed down. Andy was very firm about getting it done the best we could or I would have been futzing around with it all day! (Thank you Andy!!)

It was quite a sight for awhile with Maggie holding down the transitions while the glue set, Chris touching up the stain on the floor while Sue measured and I cut baseboards and Rebecca and Andy fit floorboards, all while the family moved around us preparing to return to Panama City!

We spent the afternoon touring the coast. We crossed the Bay Saint Louis bridge, which is still under repair and drove around the town itself. Our Lady of the Gulf RC Church and St. Stanislaus College received a lot of damage and are still under repair. We returned to Pass Christian and drove around, checking out the tent city for relief workers.

Much has changed since our first trip, but the miles of slabs, FEMA trailers and destroyed businesses are still evident. There’s still debris in the woods and the live oaks are sprouting new leaves. Waffle Shops have made a big comeback (with new brick stores on elevated foundations!) and the casinos and beaches are reopening. My worry is that “Katrina Fatigue” has set in and the needed resources are never going to get here.

We circled onto the interstate from 90 past a gutted high rise apartment building that still has “Mom we’re OK” spray painted on a balcony and made our way back to McElroy’s On The Bayou in OS for supper. There was a group there from Camp Victor/Biloxi that was from PA, so we briefly compared notes. There are still pictures on the wall in McElroy’s with water marks almost 5 feet off the floor.

I invited Jim (Jimbo) Williamson to join us. Jim is from Tennessee and is one of the construction supervisors. When Rebecca asked the question so many have asked “Where was God in this storm?” Jim replied that God was definitely there. A family was leaving their flooded home through a window and found a boat there. A house they worked on was so rotten you could put your hand through the walls. (Jim said they jacked up the roof and slid a new house under it!) The only reason it didn’t collapse in the storm was because God held it up. I was reminded of the Cajun joke about the old man who wouldn’t leave when a flood was coming. The sheriff came by in a 4x4 but he said “I trust the Lord”. Later a guy came by in a canoe but he said “No, I trust the Lord”. Finally a helicopter came to pick him up off the chimney and he said “No, I trust the Lord”… and drowned. On reaching Heaven the old man storms up to St. Peter and demands to see God “rat now”! St. Peter says “God wants to see you too”, so the old man starts yelling about how he trusted Him and how could He let him drown like that and on and on. God finally interrupts him and says “WHAT are you talking about? I sent you the sheriff, a canoe AND a helicopter!”

God is definitely at Camp Victor.

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