By Michelle Steinhebel, Lebanon Express writer | Posted: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:00 am
Five homes and an office in Port Arthur, Texas have been improved, thanks to the work of 23 Lebanon church members who visited the area last month to help with Hurricane Rita relief efforts.
It was the second trip for Gwen and Bruce Grohn, who helped organize the trip for volunteers from two Lebanon churches: Bethlehem Lutheran and Our Savior's Lutheran.
While in Port Arthur, the Grohns worked on a home owned by Patricia Parker. When the hurricane hit, Parker had her two children living in the home, including one with multiple sclerosis. Now she and her eight-year-old son live in a FEMA trailer alongside Parker's home.
"She was struggling to make it and then the hurricane hits, and wipes out what little stuff she does have," explained Steve Latimer, a member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church. Latimer is a semi-retired contractor who worked primarily on Parker's home during the two-week trip."They couldn't get back into their homes right away, so the rain came in and the wind tore the roof up and soaked all of the sheetrock and her belongings," he said. "When she did get back in to try and salvage some of their belongings, they put everything in the garage and then everything got stolen."
The volunteers remodeled her front room, bathrooms and bedrooms until only work in the kitchen, and utility and back room remained. "She was just beside herself in thankfulness and tears all of the time. It was really neat to be able to help her," Latimer said.
Volunteers also worked on another woman's home, known as "Mrs. Barnes" to volunteers. She is an elderly lady who had three grandchildren, ranging in ages from two to seven, living with her when the hurricane hit. The family continued to live in the home, although the upstairs section of the house needed a lot of work.
"They were finding places to sleep on the floor [of the house]," Gwen Grohn said. The Grohns and other volunteers worked to refinish two upstairs bedrooms. They tore out and replaced sheetrock, finished flooring, repainted, and built a space for a closet. The remaining two rooms upstairs had already been completed by a previous crew, meaning when the Lebanon volunteers left, Mrs. Barnes' home was finished.
A Lebanon crew of about seven volunteers worked on a third house, owned by Hannah Rocio. She has been on dialysis and volunteers wanted to get her out of her FEMA trailer and into her remodeled home. They completed finish work on her home, including painting and caulking. Rocio's house should be ready for move in by now, Bruce Grohn said.
The volunteers didn't just leave with sore muscles, they also left with bonds that will last much longer than the pain in their backs. "It was an excellent experience," Latimer said. "Not only to really do something that has immediate results for someone like helping her, but working with people you go to church with everyday was great. You don't really know them really well, but to go down there and live with them and work with them, you get to know them really well."
The volunteers worked with SETIO (South Eastern Texas Interfaith Organization) which recorded 1,700 hours for the 23 volunteers. The Texas Labor Commission values their volunteer labor cost at $27,000. The organization focuses on helping rebuild homes for people with disabilities, seniors, uninsured and single-parent homes.
At the final house they worked on, the Lebanon volunteers gutted all of the sheetrock inside the home and took out the carpet, which was still caked in debris. The teens worked the most on this house, since they enjoyed the demolition part of the work, Bruce said.
"We all walked away feeling really good," he said. The group also gave 10 quilts to the homeowners and occupants. "Each person whose home we worked on received a quilt or two. They were thrilled to get those - it meant a lot to them," Gwen said.
They also retiled an office in the Sheppard's Inn, the building that houses volunteers who travel to East Texas for relief efforts. Volunteers tiled until the final minutes before leaving for the Houston airport. The Lebanon crew was supposed to leave the Inn at 1 p.m., but hit the road 40 minutes late because they were finishing up setting the tile. They jokingly asked Inn volunteers what could be done in the last five minutes, Gwen said.
John and JoAnne Pearson, who are members of Bethlehem Church, left Port Arthur almost a week after the other Lebanon volunteers. "They were planning on coming back, but wanted to see Patricia's home get done," Bruce said. "He's a retired contractor and knows what needs to be done." The home was completed two weeks after the majority of volunteers left.
Some of the residents live in their homes, while others stay in FEMA trailers on their property. It's more challenging to work on homes while people are living in them because belongings have to shift from one room to another while tearing down sheetrock or doing other work.
The future of SETIO is unknown. Two and a half years later, FEMA is releasing funding to Texas, but where the money will go, and the criteria for its use, is unknown. "FEMA wants to demolish affected homes and build small ones for about $75,000 each," Bruce explained.
He says it costs SETIO between $10,000 to $15,000 to remodel a home, and sometimes there is an emotional attachment to the home because generations of the same family may have lived in it. "SETIO is not sure if they will be able to keep going," Bruce said, adding the organization may cease to exist by late spring if they can't receive FEMA funding.
On top of the worry of FEMA funding, residents are having to move a second time to apartments because some of the FEMA trailers contain carcinogens which are detrimental to a person's health. Parker was one of those people who was supposed to move to a nearby motel, which is why the group wanted to get her home completed so she would not have to endure a second move away from her home.
SETIO Construction Superintendent Terry Linn Hamilton praised the Lebanon contingent for their help. "If we had to put on a scale from one to 10, they were like a 19," he said. "They really got us a long way to closing some homes." He said the group finished one home and closed a second home, Patricia Parker's, two weeks ago.