The roofs on the houses slowly change from black to a mix of black with some interspersed blue as you get closer to the coastline. Some of the roofs are completely blue. They flap slightly in the salt-tinged breeze. The blue tarps are the best protection some residents of Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, West Orange and Bridge City Texas have against the rain and the oncoming hurricane season.
The blue poly tarps are the only option some families have to act as alternatives for a roof. Other roofs feature a combination of shingles and tarp to defend against leaks. These hybrid roofs are just another part of the southeastern Texas landscape. Mary Young’s roof was blue after Hurricane Ike damaged her home in September 2008. Young, a 64 year-old African-American woman from Beaumont, Texas, is recovering from the damage Hurricane Ike caused to her home.
On first sight, Mary Young's house looks as if there is nothing wrong with it. In fact, the neighborhood Young and her family reside in appears to have not been affected at all by the hurricane whatsoever. The inside of the house however, tells a different story. Entire portions of the ceiling in various rooms of the house are missing and were temporarily replaced with plywood sheets. Young recalls the hurricane like a thief in the night.
“Ike came, he saw my little house and decided to take it,” Young said.
While Hurricane Ike did not take the entire house, Ike took some big chunks with him. Young said that when she returned to her house after a month, she could stand in her bedroom look up out of the hallway, through the ceiling and roof and see the sky. Water from the hurricane and every rainstorm after the hurricane damaged most of the furniture inside the house. Young said when she returned from her evacuation that many of the mattresses in the house were soaking wet. The carpet was drenched. A portion of the roof collapsed on her dining room table, which was lost. To some extent, Ike damaged everything in the house. In addition to the destruction of her house, she was not insured and was laid off just before the hurricane hit, leaving Young in a bad spot financially.
Due to her economic circumstances and the condition of her house, Mary qualified for assistance from Disaster Recovery, an organization that supplies mission groups with work sites, tools and materials to help families affected by hurricanes to mend and restore their homes. Susan Smith, site leader for Disaster Recovery in the Beaumont region, said that Disaster Recovery has helped 721 families that have been affected by Hurricane Rita. In addition the organization has also assisted 160 families affected by Hurricane Ike. Approximately 30 families are still on the list for assistance from Disaster Recovery.
However, “That number lessens everyday,” Smith said.
Young filled out an application for assistance from Disaster Recovery to replace her roof and finish construction work on her house. Makeshift repairs were put in place. A blue tarp was installed but leaked. Young battled the rain by placing buckets and blankets on the beams in her attic to catch and absorb the leaking water from the storms. She continued to live in her home, plywood and all, from October 2008 to February 2010 when her new roof was completed. Young relied on her faith and prayer to get her and her family through the hard times.
“I prayed. I knew I had to have help, so I kept praying. I tried not to get discouraged, sometimes I did. But I kept praying that I would get assistance and it's coming,” Young said.
The help did indeed come. A mission group comprised of college students, the young adult mission trip from FUMC of Keller, answered Mary’s prayers. A crew from the mission group answered the call on March 17 and repaired Mary’s ceiling. Young was overjoyed as the sheet rock was installed and her ceiling restored. Bruce Bacon, leader of the young adult mission trip, commented on Young’s house.
“The house was a very neat house. She has a lot of pride in it. To be able to help her and her family…the least we could do for her right then was to help her house become whole again,” Bacon said.
In addition to helping Mary Young, the mission team from FUMC of Keller assisted six other clients during their week of missionary work over spring break.
No comments:
Post a Comment