A Week on the Coast in Pearlington ... Adam Daniel

Pearlington: The Lost Town
Alright, I'm back from my excursion down on the coast in Pearlington. Talk about a trip! Pearlington is right on the coast, and the Mississippi/Louisiana border. It's a small town of no more than 1,500 people, and was completely wiped out.
I got a really cool story of living at the Pearlington Recovery Center and becoming a volunteer for seven days. Little did I know that Pearlington has many problems that other towns along the coast are not facing.

When I arrived I was taken back that the town looks in a condition of about two months after the hurricane! I met up with Laurie Spaschak the Director of the volunteer center and learned that it has been an uphill battle for these folks. Working for a state government agency I felt frustrated with the lack of government support on the national, state, and even local levels.

I met people who had just gotten into FEMA trailers not two weeks prior in June or July. Some were still living in tents. I also met people that the regulations and rules ended up hurting their everyday lives. One woman could not use the bathroom in her trailer because her new home had just been put on a foundation. Since plumbing had not yet been hooked up to it she had to use her sister’s trailer just for water! One man, who was a WWII vet and a police officer for 50 years lost everything, used a cane and they had to fight FEMA to get him a handicapped trailer.

Now I’m not blaming the government agencies for their work. They’ve had their work cut out for them during this crisis. But the general distain for government in Pearlington is quite high because of the lack of effort after a year, especially since they are seeing Biloxi and Gulfport getting the aid.
On the plus side though, Pearlington has a high influx of volunteer work coming from other states. While I was there I tagged along with two church groups, Wesley United Methodist Church from Mason City, Iowa, and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church from Ankney, Iowa. They did everything from installing drywall, roofing, construction, plumbing, and a ton of other projects in Pearlington that was quite helpful.

Laurie the Director of the Recovery Center was great. She gave me a lot of interesting projects to do. I was able to meet local residents who all had interesting stories to tell. Even though I was able to help out for only a week I felt like I had made a difference in someone’s life.


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