Who: Denise\r\nWhat: Hurricane Katrina Relief\r\nWhen: October 2005\r\nWhere: Waveland, Miss.\r\n\r\nOn Oct. 18, 2005 my husband and I joined a group of volunteers who left the Chicago area by bus on a five day round trip to \"Camp Katrina Disaster Relief\" in Waveland, Miss. When our group arrived in Waveland, we were given a brief bus tour of the area so that we could get an idea of what the people we would be serving were going through. The devastation was greater than words could describe or pictures could show - the eye of Katrina had gone through Waveland followed by 30 feet of water. Where once there were homes, was either just a foundation or a pile of rubble for about three quarters of the town. The people had literally lost everything and had spent the last seven weeks trying to dig out. Electricity and water were just starting to be restored. Camp Katrina provided hot meals, basic groceries, clothes and linens to people for many miles around. I was responsible for distributing linens in the clothing tent where presorted donations from all over the country were provided to customers (a.k.a. Katrina victims) in a respectful way. In three days, almost 2,000 people were served. There was a pretty constant flow, as only 40 customers were let into the tent at a time so that each could get the attention the or she needed. The living conditions were primitive for the volunteers. The camp was set up on the parking lot of what used to be a K-Mart and strip mall. The volunteers all slept together in a huge tent and we used porta potties. A nice surprise was that there were showers. Groups of volunteer teams were rotated to maintain 80-100 on the ground. It was a warmly rewarding experience, as the people from Waveland were incredibly appreciative of both the items they received and for the presence and order that comes with the almost 100 volunteers serving at Camp Katrina. It was also sad and frustrating as the clothing tent ran out of underwear, socks, jeans, pillows and blankets. Trucks arrived several times a week, and the hope was that the most needed items would be replenished with the next one. Stories from a few of the people being helped:\r\n\r\n * One lady was disappointed when the supply of blankets ran out- but \r\n\r\nwas very appreciative of the sweatshirt and jacket that would keep her warm sleeping in her car until she got a FEMA trailer.\r\n\r\n * Another family asked for only two sets of underwear socks etc, \r\n\r\nbecause they had a washing machine. When asked if the house was okay - the answer was no- but they had a FEMA trailer and water hook up- so the washing machine is set up on the slab where their house was, with an awning to protect it.\r\n\r\n * A nurse told us that her husband had to work seven days a week at \r\n\r\nthe shipyard - so she and their 12-year-old son were clearing their property. She and the other hospital employees had worked for weeks to clean out the sludge from the first floor of the hospital, including the emergency room. She was excited that they were now able to reopen but said that all of the equipment had been destroyed by the flood and they were waiting for replacements.\r\n\r\n * Yet another lady said that the paperwork for the pancreas transplant \r\n\r\nthat she needed had been lost in the devastation. Yet she was hopeful that it would get straightened out in time. She, her husband and five of their 10 kids (the others were grown) were living in the one room of the house that they had been able to clean. She was not sure if the house was salvageable or not: the water took many of the houses that had been left standing off of their foundations and these houses will end up being condemned. \r\n\r\nOriginally posted on the Memory Archive: http://www.memoryarchive.org/en/Hurricane_Katrina_relief%2C_Oct._2005%2C_Waveland%2C_Miss.%2C_by_Denise