Presbyterian Disaster Assistance launches week-long “Biloxi Blitz” to repair, rebuild storm-damaged Mississippi homes

December 30, 2005

In its largest single response to aid survivors of Mississippi Gulf Coast hurricanes, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) launched a “Biloxi Building Blitz” the week after Christmas to repair homes damaged by the storms.

More than 500 volunteers, some coming from as far away as Ontario, Canada, participated in the $250,000 Blitz, which was funded and coordinated by PDA, the Mississippi Presbytery and

Volunteers in force served the Biloxi area during the week following Christmas. Photo: Nicole LaCour Young.

Westminster Presbyterian Church. Repair activities focused on homes in Biloxi, East Biloxi and Long Beach areas.

Beginning December 28, teams of volunteers spent seven days replacing or repairing roofs of more than 60 homes and making other repairs to make the homes habitable again.

“We’ve been here four months, and we expect to be here for years to come, but this will be our most concentrated effort to date,” said Pastor Mark White, manager of the PDA’s Volunteer Village camp in nearby Orange Grove.

Blitz volunteers included a group of 190 from the East Tennessee Presbytery that included students from campus ministries at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and Chattanooga, 150 high school students and adults from Hamilton, Ontario, and a group of 85 members from churches in the Chicago area.

White said a secondary goal for the Blitz was to emphasize the church’s commitment to helping rebuild the communities even as the story drifts from news headlines.

“The clean-up, rebuilding and restoration of lives will go on for years, but hope has to be sustained daily,” he said. “We wanted to send a message that our faith in this effort is unshakable.”

The Orange Grove Volunteer Village is one of 10 created by the PDA to manage its long-term response to storm damage throughout the Gulf region. The Villages provide room, board and work assignments for teams of volunteers from Presbyterian churches around the country as they rotate in and out a week at a time. Each Village can accommodate up to 150 volunteers. During the Blitz, Westminster Presbyterian Church and other churches provided additional quarters.