“Most residents suffered a total loss, and some of them have no other place to go,” Wade Leonard of Mauldin said, observing that this was indeed the case for one woman in Biloxi, Miss., who was among those helped by the staff of First Baptist Church, Mauldin.
“Imagine sea water and sewage in your house up to the ceiling for over a week. After the water receded, the mold began to build up,” said Wade Leonard. Team members wore masks due to the smell and mold allergens.A 12-member team, comprised of the church’s pastoral staff and their spouses, went to Biloxi Sept. 12-17 to help residents clean mud and mold out of their homes. The team, which assisted six residents in carrying debris out of homes that were nearly submerged by the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina, was among many from South Carolina Baptist churches volunteering with feeding, chain-saw and recovery units.
“Each home we went to had to be completely cleaned out,” reported Leonard, associate pastor at Mauldin First.?”Not only had the water come in and covered the house, but it was also mixed with sewage and other contaminants and had been in the homes for more than a week.?After we cleaned out the debris, we had to pressure wash the walls to remove mold that had built up, and then scrub the walls with bleach.
“With all the stagnant water, the smell was awful,” he said, adding that the Mauldin team wore surgical masks and protective gloves while they carried clothes, furniture, books and appliances to the street to be taken to landfills.
Another woman whom the team helped stayed with a friend during the storm, but all the contents of her home were destroyed, Leonard recalled.
“She was sleeping on a cot given to her by the Salvation Army, and she had a cooler with some ice and water.? Each day, she relied on assistance from the Salvation Army and the Southern Baptist Convention’s disaster relief team for food. Even though she is more than 80 years old, she had to walk more than a mile to get these basic supplies,” Leonard said.
“I won’t miss all this stuff,” the woman remarked to the Mauldin team.? “I’m just thankful to the good Lord that he spared my life.?He’s always taken care of me, and he’s not gonna stop now!”