Water Stories from Pensacola

On April 29, 2014 Pensacola received a record amount of rain, being doused with over 22 inches in one day. The result was the worst flooding in a 24 hour period ever recorded. It is because of this unprecedented rainfall that we are here to help in repairing some flood damaged homes. We are told that on April 10th they had a rainfall that had the soil saturated so when the rain came on the 29th it had no place to go and the people had no warning except that the weatherman called for rain that day. However as it became night and the heavy downpour continued hour after hour the run off began flooding homes in lower areas - even areas that had never flooded before.

We heard the story of Mr. Frank and Ms Mary who are in their 80's. They were at home and their house seemingly being the lowest place where the water gathered and started coming in. When the water reached the height of the electrical sockets they decided they better get out while they could, even though it was four in the morning. They waded to their truck, but the truck got stuck in a sink hole. So together Mr. Frank and his wife walked through fairly deep water to the end of the street where their son was waiting for them. She said her husband hung onto her because the water current was pulling them the other direction toward the drain. They have been staying with a daughter a few streets away. They lost all of their furniture to the flood water - none of which was covered by their insurance. Their house was mucked out about a week later by another organization. After that it had been cleaned, rewired, insulated and was now ready to have the drywall replaced. They are eagerly waiting to get back into their home.
In our conversations with Ms Mary and daughter Brenda we heard the comments "Thank you Jesus" and "Your such a Blessing" numerous times.

 The front porch area was great for coffee and lunch breaks.

We are a small crew of 3 couples. So far we have been mostly installing drywall and have started the mudding. On Thursday end of the day we had two rooms left to complete with sheetrock.

One of the curses of a warm climate is insects. Bites from fire ants or termites in your walls. Jim needed to plane down a stud that was not flush. This revealed the holes chewed into the wood by the exterminated termites.

Our MDS base camp is located at Heritage Oaks RV Park here in Pensacola. The park was purchased by one of the partner organizations who are assisting with the flood recovery. When they took over the park lots of maintenance was required as it had become a real eye sore. The lot rentals are being kept low so that people with limited means are able to live here in their own RV's. Although many have old and shabby accomodations for them this is home. We felt a bit apprehensive about our neighborhood, thankfully it has been quiet and peaceful. About half of the property has house trailers (formerly used by FEMA as emergency housing) which are now rental units.

This office trailer was a park model which had been donated and was converted to suit the needs of MDS.

We moved our trailer across the yard next to the MDS trailer when that spot opened up. We will now be able to open our awning and enjoy the outdoor space.

One of our first stops in a new community is at the welcome center where we get maps and information about the area.

We are located just north of the Naval Air Station out of which the famous "Blue Angels" acrobatic team are based. On our exploratory drive Friday we came upon this security check point before entering the Naval base. We will return here to check out their musuem in the future.