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Special to the Gazette
By David Williamson, News Services
Broken mirrors and window panes reflecting slimy carpets; a coffee table;
a wishing well and long johns dangling beyond reach from willow oak trees;
houses resting in roadways; plasterboard walls the consistency of putty;
muck-soaked, sodden family Bibles; school photos; China dolls; Disney
videotapes; and thousands of other modest treasures now worthless in chest-high
heaps.
Three-week-old dead fish on mattresses and similarly aged Tar River water
shimmering from every trophy, kitchen cup, pot, pan and jelly jar; an all but
overpowering miasma of mildew and mold odors; sopping-black Wonder bread;
mosquitoes; and somber, masked men and women wading through and working in the
abominable mess.
Cherry-red, spray-painted "Xs" on home after home after home meaning that
no babies ever would be conceived and reared there again. No Christmas
celebrations and no noisy birthday parties, many of the structures' only future
growling bulldozers spewing their own diesel stench.
Blue skies belie devastation
Nearly exhausted volunteers, including Peace Corps veterans, hauled
memories of those images and countless others back to Chapel Hill on Oct. 8
after a School of Public Health-sponsored day trip to Tarboro and Princeville,
two eastern towns among those Hurricane Floyd hammered hardest. Although spared
the most gruesome sights emergency crews dealt with during and after the storm
-- flood victims and bloated animal carcasses -- no one who went will forget
what they saw.
"The trip was a very valuable experience for our students, who saw a
public health crisis one could not appreciate from just the classroom," said
Rachel Stevens, deputy director of the School of Public Health's N.C.
Institute for Public Health. "All the students I talked with were sorting their
own feelings but valuing the experience."
Other participating public health faculty and staff included Dianne Ward,
Lisa Katz, Donna Davis, Karl Umble and Zeke Graves. Others were Lynn Knauff of
the medical school's International Training in Health program, and Hillel Koren
of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Students, faculty and staff drank steaming coffee and ate apples and Nabs
in the darkness while sorting themselves quietly at the Friday Center parking
lot. A busload rolled out soon after 6:30 a.m. and headed east through a foggy
Triangle dawn past pine trees, Raleigh and eventually cotton fields and tobacco
stalks. Trying to lighten the mood, someone sang the first verse of 100 Bottles
of Beer on the Wall.
Three vans -- driven by Janet Porter, Bob Schreiner and Sarah Strunk of
public health -- left about the same time for Duplin County.
Sunny, forget-me-not-blue skies on one of the prettiest autumn days so far
belied what was to come. "Where's all the damage?" many thought. "This doesn't
look too bad."
First stop was the county health department in Tarboro for the briefest of
briefings. Area L AHEC director Janice Cutchin welcomed the group.
"Be careful of water moccasins in people's houses," said Harry Whitley,
N.C. environmental specialist. "Use a broom handle to turn things over before
you pick them up. Use your mask. Wear rubber gloves."
Boxes bearing Red Cross logos and others crammed with food, clothing and
paper products filled rooms in some of the churches, such as Union Baptist,
near where volunteers worked.
The Duplin County crew's job was to distribute fliers to remote houses
with useful information in English and Spanish. Included were emergency
telephone numbers and health and safety tips, such as the need to throw away
all medicines, cosmetics, foods -- even canned goods -- and to get tetanus
shots and boil well water.
On the ground
The Tarboro team cleaned out, but couldn't possibly clean, the
downtown Just My Style Beauty Salon and two homes, one formerly inhabited by
Kenneth Pittman and his family. Church vans from Greensboro, High Point, Union
Grove and a dozen other towns attested to other volunteers who wanted to help
and just showed up.
Although from the outside most flooded houses did not look ruined, looks
were deceiving. Everything inside that could absorb water -- rugs, mattresses,
books, etc. -- had sucked it up and was far heavier than its dry weight. Every
loose item had to be hauled through the stinking wet and into the sunshine.
Because sheet rock had turned almost to mush, earlier plans to scrub walls with
detergent and then bleach solutions became something of a joke.
Moisture from perspiration impeded airflow through the masks. The work
made normal spring cleaning seem fun. A few middle-aged backs tightened into
knots under the heavy lifting. Renter Pittman and his son Kenneth Jr. showed up
looking shell-shocked, and the boy forced a half-smile when we found a prized
medallion he'd asked about. He said he and his family were moving to
Raleigh.
By lunch time everyone was hot and ready for a break.
Volunteers sat in the grass, eating thoughtfully, drinking bottled water
and resting against the Union Baptist wall. Some exchanged stories they'd heard
about snakebites, people trapped and drowned in attics, airtight coffins rising
from graves and floating around and getting mixed up. One woman said she and
her farm family rescued 5,000 baby pigs with pontoon party boats.
After lunch, a smaller group hit the houses again, while others chose to
bag and hand out groceries. Everybody worked hard.
Heading home
In mid-afternoon, volunteers re-boarded the bus for a tour of
Tarboro and, across the Tar River, Princeville, much of which was under water
for two weeks. Only emergency personnel, reporters and homeowners had been
allowed in before then. Almost every house the bus passed bore the telltale
"X," along with a notice that the dwelling was not fit for human habitation.
People tried to stifle emotions.
"For me the trip was deeply meaningful because I was able to see firsthand
how devastating the flood had been and talk with people who were affected by
it," Ward said. "Princeville made me cry ... worrying about whether these folks
could ever return to the place they called home. There, but for the grace of
God, go I."
At first she thought the efforts were useless because nothing seemed
salvageable, she said. Then she realized that the refuse was all the residents
had left to pick through.
The last stop was to drop off more emergency fliers at a crowded new
village of several hundred small trailers full of people on the outskirts of
Rocky Mount. Then a ride back to Chapel Hill that felt something like a sports
team riding back from a hard-fought defeat against an overwhelming
opponent.
Several days later, a volunteer who asked not to be identified echoed what
many undoubtedly thought.
"Probably a lot of us when we got home -- after we'd washed and evened out
-- wanted to throw out or give away half of what's in our closets and rooms,"
she said. "I still feel that way. It's a combination of feelings. The reality
that there's too much stuff and that sooner or later it will have to be emptied
out wet or dry by family, friends or strangers and guilty feelings of having an
abundance of what a lot of people in the east don't have anymore."
At least one Tarboro homeowner had salvaged part of his sense of humor,
another volunteer recalled. A hand-painted sign in his front yard read, "Now
Available for New Occupants."
Anyone wishing to contribute to flood victims in the Tarboro/Princeville
area can send checks to Union Baptist Church Relief Fund, P.O. Box 121, or the
Princeville Relief Fund, P.O. Box 560, both in Tarboro, N.C. 27886.
Greenville and Windsor say: 'Thank you, Carolina'
Following are excerpts from phone interviews with organizations that
received services from University faculty, staff and students as part of the
"Alternative Fall Break" bus trips for Hurricane Floyd relief.
"The University sent about 25 kids out to help us and in one word I can
tell you they were terrific. They got here about 9:30 in the morning, broke up
into five groups and dug right into what we call `rip and strip.' That means
tearing down insulation and walls, ripping out carpet and floors, and throwing
out contaminated furniture and household items. It takes about a day to do just
one house so with your help we were able to do many over the two days. I don't
know if the students could tell, but a lot of the people here whose homes they
were working on are still in a state of shock. It's hard for them to throw out
their own belongings that they treasure. That's why the kids' help was so
important -- it had to be done. They accomplished a lot, didn't waste any time
and were extremely caring. ... Our next phase will be to dry out and then
rebuild. I hope you can come back."
-- Linda Walsh, director,Interfaith Disaster Recovery Center in
Windsor
"We would've been hurting without that group! About 32 kids and adults
came on Saturday [Oct. 16] and worked in our building, which is as big as a
Wal-Mart. ...We get anywhere from 200 to 1,000 clients in a single day so we
really needed the help. Your crew was great. They came ready and able."
-- Major Fred Carver, commanding officer,Salvation Army in
Greenville
"We split the group into two teams. About 14 of them helped unload and
sort 10 tractor-trailer loads of mattresses donated by Sealy. It was a big job
to go through them by size and get them ready to distribute to the flood
victims. The rest of the group assisted me in distributing over 26,000 gallons
of water to the community. Because of Hurricane Irene, we opened for
distribution at 10 a.m. on Sunday [Oct. 17]. By about 4:30 p.m. the waters
started to rise again and roads were starting to close. We didn't want your
group to get stranded so we had to get them on the bus and send them back. They
were all so great; they even offered to stay. It's tough to get volunteers now.
The community of Greenville is really getting burned out, so we really
appreciated getting some fresh workers to help us out."
-- Tony Morace, co-chair for disaster services, American Red Cross in
Greenville
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