York Town News
After Katrina: York resident helping to build homes and hope in the Gulf Coast
By Jennifer L. Saunders
Katie Gilroy of York poses with her AmeriCorps teammates after a day's work building a house for a Mississippi woman who lost her home after Hurricane Katrina made landfall more than 19 months ago. The volunteers have teamed up with Habitat for Humanity for this project, and will soon be working with the Red Cross outside New Orleans.
Courtesy photo
Along Beach Boulevard, Highway 90, in Long Beach, Miss., a tattered flag is all that remains of the buildings and homes that once stood here - before Hurricane Katrina.
Courtesy photo
A view of the Bay of St. Louis shows the slowly reconstructed Highway 90 bridge from Waveland, Miss. The prairie grass in the forefront of the picture was once a stretch of historic shops and entertainment venues that were completely washed away in the storm. Only grasses and rusted debris remain more than 19 months after Hurricane Katrina.
Courtesy photo
What she did not realize then was that her desire to help others would bring her face to face with the devastation left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Katie is a member of AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) a full-time, residential, national service program in which approximately 1,100 adults between the ages of 18 and 24 serve in communities across the nation.
More than 19 months after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, the devastation remains, Katie said in an interview last week. She explained that as her graduation from Colby College loomed last May, she decided to apply for the NCCC.
"I really didn't know what I wanted to do after college, but I knew that I really wanted to do something helping people," she said. "This is an awesome opportunity that I could do now, while I was young, to help others and meet great people my own age."
When Katie found out she had been selected to serve in AmeriCorps she did not know her destination would be the Gulf Coast, and in spite of the extreme loss and poverty she has witnessed there, Katie said she loves her new home-away-from-home.
"I've always lived in Maine, so this is great. I am learning so much," she said. "I can't believe I ever hesitated about doing this. I would recommend it to anyone."
In recent weeks, Katie and her fellow volunteers have been working with the Harrison County Long Term Recovery Coalition and Habitat for Humanity, building homes for people in need in Long Beach, Mississippi.
"This is similar to the Peace Corps, but within this country, and only a 10-month commitment," she explained of the National Civilian Community Corps.
It is hard work, she said, but in return, "We have our food, our housing, our clothes - everything provided for us," with stipends and the opportunity for an educational award at the end.
Katie said her parents, who still reside here in York, were completely supportive of her decision. The experience has been incredibly eye-opening, she added.
"I feel that a lot of us had no idea that it was still so bad down here. This is the worst hurricane damage that they've ever had," she said.
And, she said, she learned why some residents did not flee their homes with the warnings that a hurricane was imminent.
"We heard people talking who hear about hurricanes, they evacuate, and nothing happens," she said, explaining that many residents have told her they did not expect Hurricane Katrina would be as bad as was predicted.
Instead, she said, as she and her team work to help Habitat for Humanity provide a home for a Mississippi woman, they learned that her next-door neighbor drowned in the storm.
"It's terrible," Katie said. "It's stories like that everywhere. … It has been well over a year and a half, and there are still some houses that haven't been cleaned out yet. … The beaches here are gorgeous - absolutely gorgeous - but you look back up to the land and there's a few scattered buildings, trees are bent in half, and there's just nothing."
Every six to eight weeks, NCCC teams move to a new part of the Gulf Coast to assist with a new project. Katie's next task will be working with the Red Cross in St. Bernard Parish, near New Orleans.
"We're going to be still doing disaster assessment with the Red Cross," Katie said, speaking of the magnitude of the disaster in the region that the full assessment is not yet complete.
Katie trained in Denver, Colo., with 250 others during the month of February, and then was assigned to the Gulf Coast with a team of 10 people.
"Habitat for Humanity is an amazing organization. I am super-inspired," she said of her work in Mississippi to date. "I never thought I would like carpentry or construction, but it is so much fun for such a good cause."
And, Katie said, it is inspiring to know that the NCCC only comprises about one percent of the total volunteers who have flocked to the Gulf Coast, but that statistics show NCCC has completed about 50 percent of the work undertaken in that area.
And what message would Katie want to share with her home town?
That the need is real, she said, and that there are opportunities for anyone and everyone to help the people of the Gulf Coast.
"It's so easy to do, and it's something I just wish I had done last year," Katie said.
This report marks the first in a series with Katie Gilroy as she continues her work in cities and towns throughout the Gulf Coast. To read more about Katie's experiences in Mississippi, in her own words, see this week's Letters to the Editor.
