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Mississippi Freshman Cut Off From Home
by Matt Welch
For three weeks I was not able to talk to my parents. The soccer season had just started, and I was just beginning to get in the groove with my classes. Everything about the college experience was becoming my own, and then Katrina hit my home in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
I thought it would be just like any other hurricane. Being originally from Gautier, Mississippi -- our backyard was Mary Walker Bayou, which ran right into the Gulf-- I had been through enough hurricanes and tropical storms to know the drill. We would watch the weather channel intently to know the severity of the storm and prepare accordingly. If the storm was really bad, we would go to my grandparent's home in Jackson, Mississippi. But we had never been forced to do that. When we moved from the coast to Hattiesburg we thought that hurricanes wouldn't really affect us anymore. My parents didn't even leave when Katrina hit.
Being over ten hours away from home in such a trying time was really hard for me to handle. I didn't know if my home was devastated like every one I saw on TV. I couldn't get my parents or sister on the phone; they all live in Hattiesburg. I couldn't even get my brother or grandparents on the phone, and they live in Jackson, which is three and a half hours from the coast.
After the first week of being left in the dark, everything changed for me. I was no longer worried about the soccer season or my classes. I remember apologizing to my coach for not having my head in the game. He said, "Take all the time you need. Your family is the most important thing." I was stuck in Mars Hill, isolated from the ones that I loved the most, just as they were trapped in Hattiesburg. And literally they were stuck.
After three weeks I received a call from my mother and sister telling me that everyone was okay. Our house was not washed away or damaged beyond salvaging. We did have water come into our house because of the intense rains, and we did have a large tree fall on our home, but my family was alive, and that was the most important thing.
"We had to wait five hours to get gas to run the generator one day," my dad told me, "and we could only get $20.00 worth of gas. There were no lights, no power, and no running water. We were basically camping for a month in our own home." People were killing each other for supplies. "A man shot another man over some lumber at Lowes. It was horrible to see people struggle so badly to survive."
From talking to my dad, I learned how our neighborhood came together despite all of the turmoil and despair. "Our neighbor who is an active military officer brought cases of water to each home in our neighborhood," my dad told me. "We would grill out in the middle of the road and take turns with all of the neighbors providing the meat. All we had was on ice in coolers, and we could not let anything go to waste because we did not know the next time we would be able to go to the store."
The men in the neighborhood took turns keeping watch. There were a lot of people stealing, but our neighborhood stayed safe. My mom actually ate deer meat. My dad laughed as he recollected the story. "I knew she would love it if she ever had to eat it. She never complained about anything, and that really surprised me."
After hearing how everyone came together in the midst of such a disaster, it really changed my perspective on a lot of things. People here at Mars Hill banded together and prayed for me. I remember checking my email one day and seeing a prayer request sent out on my behalf. People would always come up to me and ask me if I had heard from my parents. Everyone at Mars Hill, even people that I did not know, showed they really cared and were genuinely interested. I guess the experience embedded in me a great love for my peers and the staff here at Mars Hill.
But just as the people here were wrapping their arms around me through the trying time, the people back home were working together to provide for each other. My home church suffered over half a million dollars in damage, but they still put together trips to the coast to provide supplies for others. I went home over Christmas break and made a trip with a crew from my church that gave out over fifty large appliances to families.
Katrina did do a lot of damage and is the worst hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast to date, but I know my family wouldn't trade the experience for anything. In our area, the government did pull through and help many people, despite what the mass media portrayed. No one really prepared well enough to face the storm because a hurricane of Katrina's magnitude had never hit. But FEMA was quickly on the scene providing shelter and supplies. My youth minister, Byron Maloy, said, "After the storm, it was like angels from all over the United States came to heal our land. Private organizations, churches, and the national government all banded together to help the people of the Gulf Coast and Louisiana."
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