This is a letter from one of our contact people in Buras- her name is Lynn-
Hey Pastor Chris,
I'm glad to hear your group is planning a return trip to Buras, the area can still use all the love it can get.
I'm wondering how your Mother's surgeries went, and hope this message finds everyone happy and well.
Below is a list of people who have endeared themselves to me, and I pass them along to you in case you're able to help them, 'cuz I'd like to if I could...
John Soileau is at 37389 Hwy 11, (right next door to Faith Temple and Pastor Jessye) has a dead tree on his lot he'd like taken down and removed. Its a smallish oak, I think. Anyway, he's 70some, and a good guy on Social Sec. He's also wanting to plant a satsuma tree planted over his septic tank so that no one drives over it. p: 985.855.7176
Poppy and Jane have been moved out of thier FEMA trailer at Cop City and someone donated them a green 1976 motor home that they're living out of across the street from the Black Velvet and the Buras Volunteer Fire Dept. They have their lot fixed up really cute. They're not going to rebuild, insurance is going to be just too high, but, they are hoping to recieve one of the FEMA trailers coming down from Arkansas (god knows when), and to build a deck out in front of it on top of the slab of their old foundation. She'd also like a green house as they're avid gardners. They've started an outdoor shower, but, Jane doesn't feel safe using it when Poppy's not home...its a fenced enclosure on three sides with the open end facing the back of their lot and shed, with some concrete bricks they plan to mortor in on the ground and a hose with a shower nozzle connected- with plans for brick benchwork in the back of it. They've been scavenging lumber, bricks, and windows for these projects for a while and have amassed a tidy heap of stuff. They're waiting until the FEMA home arrives, if it arrives, before getting a washing machine and dryer...now that EC's closed the only public laundromat between Venice and Belle Chase is in Port Sulphur with only 4 machines...its tied up all the time...most people drive to Belle Chase. I'm really hoping you can help them if you come down, the area is a lot better for the people they are and for them being there. Jane kinda' runs the show on the home front, her cell is: 601.447.1210
J.U. is another good guy, he grew up split between his strict grandmother who loved him immensely- and his father who owned and operated a dance hall with a whorehouse in the back. He seems always to be busting his ass the right way to get ahead...and all that history seems to work against him often times. I'm not sure where he's at currently with his rebuilding plans, but, his number is: 504.912.2383. I think he's in Sunrise, one town north of Buras.
AC is retired army, and a master mechanic. He and his wife Diane are waiting for their Road Home money to come through at which point they plan to relocate to Florida to be nearer a daughter there. In the meantime they have another daughter in Washington State with a granddaughter who is just coming out of treatment for Meth use, they're trying to bring them both down to Buras to live with them there until they either get them on their feet, or possibly I guess move them with them to Florida. They're currently in what looks like a FEMA trailer at the North end of Hwy 11, and they drive to Belle Chase to do their laundry. address: 129 Brown Lane 850.238.9559. Its not a rebuilding thing, and I know whole families live up in those tiny FEMA trailers, I just don't know how they do it...and I'm wondering how they'll manage if and when they get their daughter and granddaughter there. anyway, it'd be nice if you just dropped in to say hello.
Ed Wilkerson is just a nice guy caring for his elderly father who is a WWII Airforce vet, he never lets on that he needs anything, and he may not, but, I know after caring for my parents by myself that its a hell of job some days...and well, being in Buras I'm sure doesn't make it any easier. They are both delightful men. Ed's p: 504.274.7677
Amongst the many challenges People for Plaquemines is facing, funding is the major one. I'm finding that two years after the storm the general consensus outside the area is that if they haven't gotten it together by now, they never will...and inside the area we have the looming grey cloud of EC to overcome, not to mention we're a start-up. The Committee for Plaquemines Recovery, commonly referred to as CPR still isn't clear if its stepping out on its right or left foot...and is just tripping over itself in my opinion, and causing everyone else, including us to be "off-balanced". The United Way said they were behind us, but, after EC, its clear they're holding us at bay with a 10 foot pole.
The council woman's distaste for EC can not be understated, and she jammed up our permitting process to the point that now it can't be easily undone...even if now she feels we have an iota of good intention and the intestinal fortitude to go along with it. As a result we have to hire a professional architect to draft renovation plans for the site, have worked performed by licensed contractors (they're a dime a dozen in these parts) and the site has been declared overall unstable, flood plain elevations...blah,blah, blah, Pete's considering getting around it in what I deem various "back door" tactics, the main reason I got behind him is he's relentless, however, at this point I don't want to get muddied up in the process of his bulldozing around, and to top it off, CPR had put in their minutes that we're living together "out of a camper"...we're partners in the non-profit only...and that wasn't the only inaccuracy...and I'm not driving and paying the gas to Belle Chase and back for one more meeting in which nothing gets done, and not much is even recorded correctly, and so far they've done a better job at putting people into mobile homes due to the fact that they can't get their stuff together to build or rebuild the stick built ones. And I let fly at the last meeting, I was so put out with it all...and that, well, probably didn't really help us- because down here in the South a woman isn't supposed to say s*** for a mouthful of it...she's supposed to find a way to spit it out so its foil wrapped candy kisses...something I just never figured out how to do very well, I just don't have the patience for it.
As I see it, for me to stay and get this off the ground would mean me deciding to relocate to the area, and I'm not in love with the mosquito ridden, levy locked, sand bar enough to do that. I'm just not willing to fund Plaquemines recovery out of pocket...I'm willing to bust my tuckus for a year in order to get something churning that would help these folks get back on their feet, but, my basic expenses have got to be covered in the process- otherwise I just don't feel I can afford it. Pete's willing to put everything he's "got" into it, but, he honestly doesn't have a pot to piss in, he's using volunteers to gut two homes of a relatively wealthy business man in order to have a place to live and to house a few volunteers, with the idea that this business man "might" help P4P down the road..., in the meantime, he's worried that he might get evicted for housing the volunteers there...I'm just not comfortable with any of it right now on any front...and there's simply too many fronts. this is just a synopsis of the half-time highlights of late.
Anyway, probably a whole lot more than you wanted or needed to hear...needless to say, I'm frustrated and feeling thwarted, because I can see a whole lot to do, and a whole lot that needs doing, and I feel that the most effective thing I can do is to leave and try to raise funds for P4P and Pete someplace where I'm settled feeling. So, I'm going over to the Beaumont Texas area where I can help in the rebuilding efforts there and have a full hook-up for my RV and have some internet access all of which I don't currently enjoy in Buras. If that doesn't work out, although, I'm not foreseeing any reason why it shouldn't, the National Parks like RV'ing long-term volunteers...so there's options...
This has become an unintended novel...irish gift of gab I guess...anyway, glad to hear from you, thank you for all you do, and continue to do, and if I can help anyway from where ever I end up, let me know.
*´¨)¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)(¸.•´ (¸.• Best, Lyn
