Mennonite Central Committee

MCC relief materials reach southern Louisiana

October 10, 2005

MCC relief kits, hygiene kits and canned meat have reached families in southeastern Louisiana, where homes were flooded by Hurricane Rita or damaged by Hurricane Katrina's high winds.

Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) workers Don Barnhill and Jim Shelly delivered relief materials house to house Oct. 5 on Isle de Jean Charles and Pointe-aux-Chene. "We've been supplying it wherever it was needed," Barnhill said.

MCC also provided funds to purchase 175 mattresses and is providing blankets with them.

Community leaders and those who've received kits expressed their thanks, particularly praising the relief kits. "Everybody really appreciated them," Barnhill said. "It's really something the people need."

Barnhill is a member of Poarch Community Church, a Mennonite congregation on a Poarch Creek Indian reservation in southern Alabama. He moved to southeastern Louisiana to serve as a project coordinator for MDS after Hurricane Katrina. He stayed in the area during Hurricane Rita, watching floodwaters rise within two feet of the house where he was staying, a home that was set on 10-foot-high pilings.

Of the 38 houses that need work in Isle de Jean Charles, 31 had flood damage from Hurricane Rita, Barnhill said. Another 28 homes were damaged in Pointe-aux-Chene, and Barnhill said there are 38 homes needing work in Oak Point Drive.

The shipment included 597 health kits, 229 relief kits and 10 cartons of canned turkey, as well as other items such as towels and blankets.

Volunteers Leon Janzen and Lee Wheeler, of Hesston, Kan., drove a 27-foot U-Haul truck from the MCC Central States warehouse in North Newton, Kan. They left on the morning of Oct. 3 with relief kits that had only been packed the evening before.

"We didn't even have half of them in our warehouse the week before," said Dave Gerber, warehouse supervisor for MCC Central States. Supplies came in from outlying areas during the week after Rita. On Sunday morning, Oct. 2, Gerber put out a call for help from his congregation, Whitestone Mennonite Church. That night, more than 50 people packed and checked kits — which were sent out to Louisiana the following morning.