By Sarah Schulz
sarah.schulz@theindependent.com

If the funds and volunteers keep coming at their current rate, it will still take the greater New Orleans area six years to recover from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, which hit the Gulf Coast in August 2005. The Category 5 hurricane was the sixth-strongest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded and its strength contributed to the collapse of New Orleans' levee system, causing extensive flooding.

That was a fact learned by the members of one mission team that recently returned from Slidell, La.

"They're rebuilding a city," said the Rev. Dale Lambert, pastor of the Cairo and Boelus United Methodist churches.

Lambert and his wife, the Rev. Nancy Lambert, who is a pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Grand Island, accompanied 19 others to Slidell in early February to help rebuild four houses in one week.

Slidell is on the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain and the group worked through North Shore Disaster Recovery.

The group from the Lamberts' churches, along with one person from Omaha and another from First Baptist Church in Cairo, included four people with construction backgrounds. The remaining group members had little to no experience in home renovation.

"We laid and grouted tile," said LaNita Roeser of Grand Island.

Both she and Lorene Culler of Cairo laughed as they recalled the chore that was a first for them.

To make the most of their construction workers, the group split into four teams and each took on a house. Chuck Rodeman of Cairo said the women outnumbered the men and, having only one person with a construction background per house, he didn't know what to expect.

But everyone went at it," he said. "They exceeded expectations."

The group's members had "no clue" what they would be doing when they set out, said Doris Klausen of Boelus.

But Sherry Cook of Grand Island said skill levels didn't matter.

"Anybody can sweep a floor," she said. "Or tape around windows."

None of the group leaders ever made any of the volunteers feel stupid and everyone felt appreciated as they worked toward the goal of getting people back into their homes, she said.

Rodeman said he had small houses in mind, but he and Klausen said what they found were four homes that ranged in size and pre-hurricane conditions from substandard to fairly nice.

One of the houses was a two-story dwelling built on 8- to 10-foot stilts above a canal. The woman who owned the home was disabled and had lost her husband since the storm. The team assigned to her home helped hang drywall, redo cabinets and paint, Rodeman said.

Vicki McDermott of Grand Island helped with priming, painting and texturing walls and ceilings.

"I was a little apprehensive, but we all seemed to find our little niche," she said. "It was such a good feeling to help out. It was a wonderful experience."

The group was pleasantly surprised by the attitudes of the people being helped. Ilene King of Grand Island said they had heard stories about people sitting back and watching the volunteers work. Instead, they had a legally blind man help with a deck and one homeowner learn some renovation techniques so she could lend a hand.

"It was totally not what you'd expect," King said.

Rodeman said that though it has been more than two years since the storm, people are still struggling. Those who had the money to get repairs done did so almost immediately. Now, the available contractors are booked up for several years, so the area needs volunteers to keep coming, he said.

"These people really appreciate not only us, but everyone who goes down there," he said. "We were given a workload, but being Midwesterners, we just did it because it was what was on the list. We had a lot of paint rollers and brushes flying."

Dale Lambert said it was important to remember not to be judgmental. Many of the people stayed during the storm to try to protect their homes. The group members said they heard numerous stories about people losing friends, family and neighbors and having survivors' guilt.

"It's people's homes," Nancy Lambert said of the reason for staying.

Most of the people who went on the mission trip didn't know each other before they set out, but by the end of the week, they had built a camaraderie.

Cook said they stayed together in a building owned by a man who used to run a limousine service. He remodeled the structure after the hurricane so that volunteers could stay there. The group slept on triple-decker bunks, had access to showers and laundry facilities, and took along two cooks to prepare the meals. Each evening, the group gathered to discuss their days' work.

"It was hard to say goodbye," Klausen said.

They're already talking about going back and want to take more people with them.

Like many of the others, McDermott is already looking forward to another trip.

"I'd do it again in a heartbeat," she said.