TERRA HAUTE, Ind. – On my first day out in the affected neighborhoods to do assessments with OBI’s construction foreman, I could not believe that after nine days there was still standing water, roads washed out with water still gushing over them and water still seeping up from the saturated ground.

This disaster is very surreal and unique from others because as you drive through neighborhoods that only days ago had 3 to 5 feet of water, the homes now seem to “look normal” from the road. The only signs of “flooding” take a keen eye to see the faint water line on the homes (and cars), the plastic tubes running from the basement windows to the road, a faint sound of a pump in the back yard still pumping water out of the basements, and curtains flapping in the windows left open by homeowners to help circulate air.

When I first arrived to Terre Haute, Ind., a small farming community with a population around 60,000, my day was packed full of meetings with local Emergency Management, plugging in to the local Disaster Recovery Center, getting the word out regarding Operation Blessing’s services and connecting with local residents.

Bill Horan and I set out for the Disaster Recovery Center (where residents go during a disaster to register for services and FEMA funding) to meet the site manager and get damage assessments. As we met with the site manager, the American Red Cross invited us to set up a table to offer our services for the flurry of residents seeking help. We gladly accepted the invitation.

Two of our team members spent the day working at the DRC (Disaster Recovery Center) helping residents fill out “Work Request Forms” to register for Operation Blessing’s free services which include gutting flooded homes, draining basements and “mucking out” or getting rid of mud, water and other sediment.

Yesterday we traveled through a rural subdivision called Prairie Park, driving past the “No Road Ahead, Turn Around” signs to check on the residents who lived on this street. As we approached the bend in the road we were shocked as we saw water still rushing over the road that has been completely washed out. Joe spotted an elderly man standing on the other side of the newly formed creek so he ventured across the washed out road on foot to check on the man and his neighbor to make sure they had food and to see if they needed any volunteer help.

We ended our travels by going to a very poor community known as “Toad Hop” where we met “Sandy.” Sandy is in her late fifties, but because of her health looked years older. She is a single woman who suffers from chronic heart problems and has no one to help her clean up her home. Her small wooden home was flooded with approximately 4 feet of water, and she had been shut in for days with no one to turn to for help. The night the waters were rising Sandy was awakened by the neighbors knocking on her door. She didn’t even know the waters were headed her way. Her neighbors rescued Sandy and her two dogs, by literally carrying Sandy on their back through the rising waters. We committed to send a volunteer team to help begin “gutting” her home on Tuesday.

Before we left, her voice quivered with pain and fear as she shared about her loss. Sandy and the people of “Toad Hop” said they felt like they would be abandoned and that others would not care about them. They struggled with the thoughts that people would not fight to protect them because they were poor and that if their homes were destroyed it would not be a “big loss anyway.” “They don’t realize that even though we are poor, our homes are mansions to us,” she told us.

As we were leaving, Sandy latched onto me with a hug so tight that I will feel and remember for days to come . . . Operation Blessing is here in Terre Haute, Ind., fighting for the poor and demonstrating Christian compassion in very tangible ways!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Disaster, Jody Herrington, North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.