Gulfport Mission Trippers 2008

Gulfport Mission Trip - 5

Before construction can ever begin, the flooded/damaged home must be removed. Some of the residents we worked with lost their homes due to rain after the roof had been blown off by the wind. They may have had black mold growing, making it unsafe for habitation, or the home may have been blown off of concrete pillars and damaged beyond repair. Keep in mind, these residents own their property.

At this particular site, our volunteers, Scott and Jimmy worked with a youth group from a community center in Toledo, Ohio. The resident here had been living in a tent, as the second FEMA trailer provided to her was contaminated by formaldehyde and she was only able to stay inside for 5 minutes at a time without becoming ill.

The youth finally over powered the trailer, got it torn down and all the debris stacked into dumpsters. There being a shortage of dumpsters and an obviously high demand, sometimes they had to wait for the dumpster transfer to occur. While the photos are out of order....you can see....they got the job done! Now, construction crews can come in and get the foundation ready and work can begin and this homeowner should be in a new home with in the next 2 months!

Gulfport Mission Trip - 3

Twenty-two homes were started in November 0f 2007 through a partnership between Presbytery of MS Disaster Recovery (PMDR) and International Relief and Development-US (IRD-US) formed through the Harrison County Long Term Recovery Coalition ( HCLTRC).

The IRD case managers work with homeoweners and present cases to the HCLTRC Unmet Needs Roundtable. PMDR manages new home construction projects from start to finish. PMDR works with volunteer labor and funding from HCLTRC funding partner agencies to payu for construction supplies and subcontractors for HVAC, plumbing and electrical work.


The funding partners for these twenty-two homes include The Gulf Coast Community Foundation, The American Red Cross, The Salvation Army. Lutheran Social Services Disaster Response, and local Presbyterian Churches from around the country.

More than 3,000 Presbyterian Volunteers from seventeen US states spent a week at a time working on various stages of the homes, including adding landscaling and their own personal touch to some of the homes.

Our team added their own special touches to the Spaulding home, flower boxes and a door mat....we hope the flower boxes last a long time and look forward to the Spauldings adding their own "Welcome" mat when they move in!