News From Our Adopted Town

January 25th, 2006, 1:11 pm · Post a Comment · posted by lindapaul

As you may know, the City of Mesa, Mesa Public Schools, Mesa United Way and other civic organizations banded together after Hurricane Katrina to adopt a city in the Gulf region. The town of Gautier, Mississippi was chosen on the recommendation of Mesa firefighters who volunteered there shortly after the hurricane struck. With waves as high as 30 feet rushing as far as two miles inland, flood damage in Gautier was extensive. While life is far from normal five months after Katrina, there are signs of recovery in Gautier. The Gulf Coast Orchid Society’s 26th annual show and sale will open in the town’s Singing River Mall this weekend. Organizers expect a smaller crowd than usual, but they’re counting on brisk sales as residents replace their beloved plants lost in the storm.Another, admittedly bleaker sign of recovery are dozens of lawsuits being brought by residents against their insurance companies. Many of these residents claim to have been led to believe that they were covered in the event of storms. When it came time to pay up, however, the companies argued that their coverage included wind storms and not floods. I’ll be a while before that legal mess can be sorted out.Speaking of messes, much of the temporary blue roof sheeting provided to Gautier residents by the Federal Emergency Management Agency has proven to be defective. Provided under FEMA’s Operation Blue Roof, the material was supposed to shelter area homes until residents could permanently replace their roofs. In reality, much of the material began shredding within two weeks of installation. On a brighter note, volunteers from as far away as Cincinnati have converged on Gautier to help clean out and rebuild homes. Some of these volunteers have bunked up in the Winnebago Chieftan which was donated to the town by Tempe resident Bud Schall and driven there by Mary Hutchinson (right) and Margie Frost (center) of MesaCAN and Darlene Duncan (left) of Mesa United Way. While in Gautier last November, the trio brought a check for the funds collected to date. We recently learned that the money was used to purchase refrigerators, stoves, washers and dryers for 143 households under Whirlpool Corporation’s hurricane relief program.One of the town’s biggest needs is for sheetrock and nails. When the local Lowes receives a shipment, they sell it on a first-come-first-served basis, and customers must haul it themselves. This has proven to be very difficult for Gautier volunteers, who cannot provide the necessary transportation. If you know of anyone who can purchase and haul sheetrock for the people of Gautier, please let Darlene Duncan at Mesa United Way know. Click here to send her a message.