Volunteers remember - and help - Hurricane Katrina's victims

Natural disasters come and go, but at New Creation United Methodist Church, members are still helping Gulf Coast residents recover from Hurricane Katrina, which hit three years ago this Friday.

Church volunteers labored in D'Iberville, Miss., in February, a follow-up to similar trips in 2006 and 2007. A fourth trip by the Chesapeake church is likely in 2009.

Once a national headline, the Gulf Coast recovery effort has lost the media spotlight to the disaster du jour, be it West Coast wildfires or Midwest flooding. But Gulf Coast reconstruction is a lasting priority for several South Hampton Roads congregations and denominations.

"You're not just rebuilding a house torn up by Katrina," said Luke McCoy, one of the New Creation mission workers. "You're helping a family bring a home back to life."

Two teams a week head for the Gulf Coast from the Virginia Conference of the United Methodist Church, which has 1,800 congregations statewide, said the Rev. Keith Mottley, the organization's volunteer coordinator.

"Just because it's not in the newspaper doesn't mean everything is finished, and folks who've been down and seen the damage understand that," he said.

McCoy said a total of 21 New Creation members earlier this year repaired a home that didn't have running water or a working toilet. Last year, a church team helped restore power to a family's house.

"It's awesome when you see people like that, who hadn't had electricity for 18 months, with tears in their eyes," he said. "They can't thank you enough."

First Presbyterian Church of Gloucester sent a volunteer team to D'Iberville in 2005 and to Gulfport, Miss., in 2006 and 2007.

"It's still on our radar," the Rev. Douglas Nagel said.

Nagel said his congregants' empathy for the Gulf Cost lies partly in their own battering and recovery from Hurricane Isabel in 2003 and Tropical Depression Ernesto in 2006.

"It's pretty fresh for us, and I think that has a lot to do with the perspective of people wanting to help," he said.

Other local churches with members who have joined the gulf reconstruction in the last year or so include Holland Road Baptist Church in Chesapeake, Simonsdale Presbyterian Church in Portsmouth, First Presbyterian Church in Virginia Beach and First Presbyterian Church in Norfolk.

A team from Great Bridge Presbyterian Church in Chesapeake made its third Gulf Coast trip in May, helping rebuild hurricane-damaged houses in Biloxi and Gulfport.

"I asked one woman, 'Why do you stay here? Why don't you move?' " team leader Bill Townsend said. "She said, 'I can't leave this home. My grandmother was born here. My mother was born here. I was born here.' "

The Great Bridge team was part of the denominational Presbyterian Disaster Relief, which plans to continue Katrina recovery through 2013.

Great Bridge Presbyterian is likely to send two more teams to the coast next year, Townsend said.

"I don't want people to forget there's still a tremendous amount of work to do down there," he said.

Steven G. Vegh, (757) 446-2417, steven.vegh@pilotonline.com