With the holidays approaching and the length of time people have been living like they have, it is quite obvious many are losing hope. With the exception of the first week or two this has been the toughest week emotionally.  I had two vehicles with gentlemen, probably in their 50-60s, come through the line this week.  You could tell they were use to having things and were coming through just to ask for some food and supplies (not an easy thing for them to do). Both of them broke down and sobbed while talking to me. 

We saw so many come through still living in tents and look as if they can't take much more.  One of the families had 4 teenagers and another was a pregnant lady with 2 small children.  We took another pregnant lady with 4 small children to Wal-mart for 2 of her children to get some school clothes.  They had been living in shelters and a tent and had just recently been put in a motel.  The girls had not yet been in one place long enough to get back in school and were preparing to start next week but had nothing to wear...we got them some school clothes and a stroller for her to push her youngest one in.  The husband had said he couldn't take it any longer and left them.  Another lady cried to me, her husband has their 3 children in another state and said he woouldn't bring them back until their house was cleaned out and livable.

She told me the kids are not doing well. They are crying for her while she's back in Mississippi trying to get it all done on her own for them.  I sent a pastor out to a FEMA trailer to counsel with another family.  When the door-to-door assessment was made the couple answered with "help us", they had been fighting and said they couldn't go on like this any longer.  We are starting to see people homeless again because they've been living in with other families and those homeowners are tired of other people living with them.

We ran out of food one day and one girl cried when I asked her to come back tomorrow when we'd have some back in.  I found enough to get her by for the day because she knew of no other means and the family was hungry.  One little boy, about 4 years old, jumped out of the car, when we opened the door to put some food in. He ran over to the blanket box, grabbed a blanket and held it to his chest. The toy box was next to them but he wanted a blanket.  These stories repeated themselves all week long. The "end of the rope time" that everyone knew would come seems to have arrived. According to most the news across the U.S. one would think things are getting back to normal but they are a far cry from it.

Everyone, including the church, says they don't know how the operations will run once we leave because we have been the backbone, the consistant volunteer group, of it all.  I remind them God will make it happen.

Below are CAP stats through December 3, 2005.

All the numbers below reflect work we have either done on our own, or have led other volunteers in doing (assisted with).

• 14,460 cars have come through the distribution line and been loaded with needed supplies. (most of these had multiple families in them.)
• 30,750 people have been fed and served meals.
• 70 houses have been cleaned out, gutted, and/or repaired by CAP
• 80 outreach trips were made taking supplies into neighborhoods to hand out supplies to those unable to get to the distribution centers.
• CAP set up a network between all the bay area distribution centers (from Pascaqoula to Waveland) and ours became the “staging area”.  CAP loaded and sent over 200 box trucks and vans full of supplies to them for them to distribute.
• CAP worked and helped organize and set up 2 new distribution centers, one in Waveland and one in Pass Christian.
• Door to door assessments were made for 70 FEMA trailers to assess the family’s needs.  After the assessments CAP shopped, purchased (or helped the church purchase), and delivered the needed items to the families.
• CAP assisted with some of the casework and started delivering furniture donated by CAP to the homes of the families that came through the caseworkers.
• 150 meals were delivered to a blind man referred to us by the Red Cross for assistance.
• CAP transported several evacuees for the Red Cross Shelter.
• CAP assisted a family of 3 with reunification with their children by flying them from Lexington, Ky. where they were evacuated to, back to Houston, Texas. (This was a referral made to us by Red Cross and FEMA)
• CAP assisted in volunteer group orientations and led most all of the other volunteer groups that came through Christus Victor Lutheran Church as Lutheran Disaster Relief volunteers.
• CAP has had an Operation Sharing Truck deliver supplies to the area on a weekly basis bringing in over $2,000,000 worth of needed supplies.