Rick White (left), a member of North Stafford Church of Christ, talks with Slidell, La., homeowners David and Christy Guastella after assessing the time it will take to muck out their home, damaged by flooding after Hurricane Katrina. View More Images from this story Visit the Photo Place

View the Stafford County community page

Putting faith to work

After Katrina: Volunteers answer the call. Fredericksburg-area church volunteers flock to Gulf to rebuild houses, live their faith

Story by Rusty Dennen
Photographs by Rebecca Sell

Date published: 12/19/2005

By Rusty Dennen

SLIDELL, La.--Across the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, the faithful gather from every corner of the country to help strangers in Louisiana and Mississippi in their time of need.

Among those answering God's call are dozens of volunteers from the Fredericksburg area. They've loaded up church buses and vans, personal cars, business vehicles--even tractor-trailers--to do their part in the biggest disaster-relief effort in American history.

Rebuilding efforts often begin when someone in a congregation has a relative or friend in the stricken areas. Calls are made, supplies purchased, tools gathered, trucks loaded and off the workers go.

The floodwater is long gone and the tense helicopter rescues and body recoveries have been replaced by arguably the most difficult part of the job--cleanup, demolition and rebuilding.

Twelve members of Salem Fields Community Church in Spotsylvania County recently spent a week in this southern Louisiana community, working on several houses in a middle-class neighborhood. A suburb of New Orleans, it's one of the areas thrashed and flooded by the storm. The wind blew so hard that in some places, signs are bent at right angles.

One afternoon the church volunteers were finishing up work on Julie Hymel's two-story brick house, which had been flooded with 31/2 feet of water from the nearby Pearl River. Pointing to the rear of the home, she said, "There's a swamp back there" that flooded the neighborhood, "and we had a tornado in the back yard" spawned by the storm.

A single parent with two daughters, Hymel, 43, is now living with relatives in Kingwood, Texas. She comes back home when she can, and thanks to the generosity of strangers, hopes to be back in her house by Christmas.

Carl Pates, 39, a mechanical engineer from Spotsylvania, headed up the Salem Fields crew.

"We've been putting in insulation and by the end of the day, we'll be doing drywall mud and finishing," he said during a break.

The sound of hammers, saws and battery-operated tools echoed throughout the house. Chalky particles of drywall hung in the air as the workers went about their assigned tasks of measuring, cutting, taping and running into town for supplies. It's hard, tedious, dirty work.

Follow us on

Date published: 12/19/2005