Published in The Post-Star (B1)
1/20/06
When the winds and waves of Hurricane Katrina ripped through Gulfport, Miss., leaving roofs on the ground and refrigerators in the road, few residents were prepared to rebuild their homes without outside help.
For Jehovah's Witnesses, help was soon on the way in the form of their "brothers and sisters."
Congregations of Witnesses in the Adirondack region took the disaster as a call to action. About 50 members of local Kingdom Halls -- including Glens Falls, South Glens Falls, Warrensburg, Saranac Lake and Cambridge -- traveled to Gulfport in December to spend two weeks replacing shingles and Sheetrock for fellow members of their faith.
"We see ourselves as a spiritual family, and we really do feel that way," said Linda O'Neil, 58. She was among five members of the Warrensburg Kingdom Hall who made the trip to Gulfport.
She said the Witnesses are used to building entire Kingdom Halls in a weekend, so the prospect of rebuilding hundreds of homes in a few weeks wasn't too daunting.
"We're already organized to do building and relief work, so when there's an emergency situation, we're available to go on relatively short notice," O'Neil said.
In Orange Grove, a suburb of Gulfport, where the workers set up a makeshift headquarters, at least 280 of the homes damaged by Katrina belonged to Witnesses or people who were considering conversion.
After three months, two-thirds of those homes had been rebuilt by volunteers from Kingdom Halls around the country.
"We accomplished so much because this is a group of people that went there with the idea of following direction and being true helpers," said David O'Neil, Linda's husband.
The couple volunteered on a roofing crew that repaired six roofs in seven days. They aren't roofers by trade -- they own a heating equipment business -- but said they learned on the job from other volunteers who had already spent a week there.
"As a woman, I love it, because I'm not treated any differently. I'm looked on as another willing worker," Linda said. "It was hard work, and we were exhausted at the end of the day, but we all had such fun together."
One of the things that stood out to the visitors at first glance was the visual chaos left behind by Katrina. Everything was in the wrong place -- washing machines beside the highway, bed sheets in tree branches and boats on dry ground.
"It's very hard to mentally handle all the stuff that's out there," David said. "Your mind just wants to get a big Dumpster and clean it all up."
Although their religious beliefs prohibit them from political commentary, it was hard to ignore the sight of hundreds of unused FEMA trailers when so many residents still lacked permanent shelter. A county supervisor told them some people were still living beneath the drive-through overhangs of fast-food restaurants.
A FEMA employee explained to the volunteers that before victims could receive a trailer, their property had to have a working septic system, clean water and electricity.
"A lot of people just didn't qualify, and I guess their hands were tied," said Linda. "Personally, I was shocked to see entire parking lots and fields full of empty trailers."
Her husband's response was more cautious.
"I know you can only do so much so fast, and it's a lot of work to install each one," David said. "We don't know who was making the rules."
The group drove their own cars down, stayed with host families and ate meals prepared by a volunteer kitchen crew that included Bolton Landing residents Harold and Barbara Detrick.
"It was a real privilege to be able to go down there and help," said Harold, 64. "No matter where we go, we can get along with other Witnesses, because they're family."
All the volunteers met at 7 a.m. each day to discuss Scripture before going to their assigned work sites.
"Our spiritual purpose was to encourage the friends and neighbors who had been devastated, and to show love," Linda explained. "We believe that Jehovah does things for his people by means of his people."
For the O'Neils, the trip meant spending their 30th anniversary in a laundromat, washing their dirty work clothes, but they didn't mind.
"We are the ones who receive just as much, if not more, than we give on a project like this," David reflected.
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