Saturday January 5, 2008

Our fraternity friends left this morning and as Habitat does not work on Saturday, we joined with the group from Whitewater, WI. We went out to a home that was badly damaged by the storm and basically has been gutted and is being rebuilt. Dave and I built a new platform for the air conditioner (which will have to be replaced as it was also damaged in the storm. The old platform was built of pressure treated wood about 10 years ago, but was totally rotten in places - I don't know what was holding it up. We chatted with the owner of the house who is living in a FEMA trailer on the property. He and his daughter (about 8 years old) are so grateful that volunteers are helping him rebuild. It was a nasty job though as there was standing sewer water on the side of the house we were working on - we had to put down old planks to stand on to avoid sinking in. He said he has been waiting for quite some time for someone to fix the sewer line. The house is coming along nicely though on the inside - all new walls and another volunteer was putting down laminate flooring in a bedroom. This house has a good sized living room, eat-in kitchen, 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. We came back to have lunch and found that this group only works a half day on Saturday so we went to the laundromat and now have a fresh stack of work clothes for the coming week. When the laundry was done, we took a walk on Main Street in Bay St. Louis. There are still many houses and stores with extensive damage. We saw the steeple of the Methodist church sitting on the ground about a block from the church. We will have to come back to take photos. We chatted with one of the shopkeepers who is rebuilding on the beach front. Her house was completely destroyed in the storm - it had stood on 15 foot tall pillars, but the new code says she now has to be on 24 foot pillars! She says this is the last time they will rebuild - if something should happen again, they are out of the area. It is almost dinner time so will quit here shortly. We don't know what we will do tomorrow. Most everyone takes Sunday off, but we heard that the W to W group is working tomorrow so we may see if they want our help. Another new group came in this afternoon - they are a church group from Maryland who have been coming down since just after the hurricane.