Situation Update - Thursday, May 11, 2006

Lots of things going on in Pearlington, as always.

Jennifer Johnson will be in Pearlington this weekend. She reports:

"I will assess the job situations. We probably will not need to work on the Ladner’s, Bell’s, Breshears’ and only minor things on Susie Sharp’s home. We will work on the following homes if needed: Dawson, Hipps, Barnhart, Moss, Breckley, Verden, Diaz, Kutz. We will check with the church to see if they have any work that we can do (painting perhaps) and with Laurie at the distribution center to see what she needs us to do.

We now have 26 people going on the trip May 26-29 weekend. I expect a few more to be added."

Tom Dalessandri of Carbondale will also be in town next week. He is bringing six senior high school students for their Senior Project and will be accompanied by a carpenter who also happens to own a construction company. Everybody suck up to this man - we need people like him. Tom is also bringing a van to be donated by Vicki Podulak to Laurie Spaschak, to enable her to get around and to keep on keeping on.

Things are also hopping at the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance Camp 6. The last couple of weeks they have had a total of about 140 people through. Camp Director Mary Wityshyn reports:

"They have been great and have worked on at least 15 different work orders. We have been sheetrocking, framing, roofing etc. Also my group from NY Rich Rockwood has donated 5,500 to the Hancock Volunteer Fire Department. Kim Jones was pleased to receive this. Kim also had a group from Bristol, PA that came down to help him with training on the ladder truck they sent him. They all joined us for supper here Saturday May 6. A group from Ripley and Oxford,MS cooked us a great feast of shrimp, steak and all the trimmings. Not that volunteers can expect that ALL the time! We all had the pleasure of having Jeff and Bridget Johnson and Willie Santiago and his wife join us for supper along with many of our friends from Pearlington. It was wonderful. Bill Connelly and his group from MS out did themselves.

We have had so many wonderful fortunes the last few weeks. Monday I had a chance to get to the job sites and my volunteers have outdone themselves. Tim Blackwell in Oak Harbour now has most of his electrical wiring in, thanks to Ron, Ryan and Alec from New York. Jeff Johnson and Wallie are working hard on their homes over in Belle Isle, thanks to Ken Webber's group. Willie has almost all his sheetrocking completed, thanks to Rich Rockwood’s group. Rianne Kelly almost has her sheetrocking completed thanks to Jim Kyser’s group. Additionally, Sherry Logan's group managed to just about complete her new roof. Ken and his group are going to try and complete it this week."

Bob Putnam is working on some seriously good things. We will keep you posted. Laurie is meeting today with the Governor’s office.

"FEMA officials announced today that they’re

closing their New Orleans field office.

A FEMA spokesman said,

‘There’s nothing left for us to do in New Orleans.

Now could someone please get my car out of that tree?’"
- Conan O’Brien