Once again, it is important to stress, the story I am telling here is the story of one community. I have no knowledge of what has happened in other parts of the region. I assume much of the story is the same, but I don’t know that for sure.
After Landfall
After the storm came pouring through the work here began. They lost all services here (phone, power), but they knew evacuees where coming. So they did it old school. They drove from friends house to friends house saying, “We are going to meet at this time, here, to talk about what we are going to do.”
By Wednesday people were starting to arrive in great numbers. At this point there was not outside help. No government. No Red Cross. No nothing. Just a local community, with evacuees coming. An just like every hurricane which came before, the local community put their heads and hearts together to start doing the work that needed to be done.
At first, they needed a place to stay and showers. So the local community opened the civic center, and the field house at the college. They built showers. Make shift showers wherever they were needed. For two days around the clock they build showers.
They needed food. At first people cooked at home, then they opened the kitchen at the civic center. Three meals a day. Three GOOD meals a day were shared.
They needed to talk to loved ones. The locals just walked around with their cell phones. Handing them to anyone who needed to make a call.
The Magnitude of the Situation
By Friday it was starting to become clear how bad it was on the Gulfcoast. People would not be going home soon. So my friends put their heads together to decide how they could help. At this point, there were two types of people, those in homes of friends and families and those in shelters. It seemed those in the shelters had the most pressing need. So “Project Starfish” was born. You know the story…
The Starfish Story
adapted from The Star Thrower by Loren Eiseley 1907 – 1977
Once upon a time, there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work.
One day, as he was walking along the shore, he looked down the beach and saw a human figure moving like a dancer. He smiled to himself at the thought of someone who would dance to the day, and so, he walked faster to catch up.
As he got closer, he noticed that the figure was that of a young man, and that what he was doing was not dancing at all. The young man was reaching down to the shore, picking up small objects, and throwing them into the ocean.
He came closer still and called out “Good morning! May I ask what it is that you are doing?”
The young man paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean.”
“I must ask, then, why are you throwing starfish into the ocean?” asked the somewhat startled wise man.
To this, the young man replied, “The sun is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them in, they’ll die.”
Upon hearing this, the wise man commented, “But, young man, do you not realize that there are miles and miles of beach and there are starfish all along every mile? You can’t possibly make a difference!”
At this, the young man bent down, picked up yet another starfish, and threw it into the ocean. As it met the water, he said, “It made a difference for that one.”
Sending them home
My friends decided the best thing they could do was to help people out of the shelter and find a way to a home. A home of friends or family or kind hearted strangers. They needed to get people off of air mattresses in a room with 900 other people and into a home.
One person and one family at a time, they started finding places for people to go. They collected information about family and friends. They found a way to contact them. Then they started moving people. At no cost to any of the evacuees they started moving them to homes. Found busses and vans and cars that would move people for free. They bought gas for families who just needed a few bucks to get to the next state. They bought plane tickets.
After 9 days they had moved over 700 people (of the 1500 in the shelter) to homes. They moved people all over the country and all over the world. They were able to get a family to Greece and the Philippines. All without help from the state or national government, or the Red Cross. They found money and resources from the local community and their friends around the US.
Example, my friends run a ministry called Adore International. Because their offices are in Thibedoux, they did not have power for close to a week, so “Mike’s Stake House” closed it back room and it became the head quarters for Project Starfish.
Other small steps
The whole community has pitched in, with what they can do best. I spent yesterday in the shelter and it was an amazing thing. Five main areas where set up.
1) Sleeping: the two big main halls were converted to sleeping quarters. The floor is covered with mattresses where people now call home.
2) Information: The lobby is home to all the information. Messages from around the country. FIMA. School Supplies. Pick up point for rides to work, schools, DMV, and bank. If you have a question, some in the lobby will have the answer.
3) Food: The kitchen fed up 2000 people a meal.
4) Medical: Three of the side rooms have become the medical center, providing everything from first aide to eye exams.
5) Clothing: Two rooms have all the clothing, baby formula, and toiletries. A guest at the shelter places an order in the lobby and a shopper goes back into the room to find what is needed. Clothing poured in all day yesterday and was sorted by type and size so it was easy.
Again, all of this was set up by the local community. I know I have said this a few times, but it is a very important fact (which will become more important in a following post).
The Perfect Metaphor
The Starfish Story is the prefect story for the work that I saw yesterday. Not just the work of getting people home, but all of the help. The local volunteers looked every person in the eye to do what ever they could for them. Each problem was different and needed to be solved on it own. One at a time. In that moment. They helped with joy and passion. Without a complaint. Anything they could do they did. A few examples:
There is a woman who spent the whole day just working with the sheets for beds. She made sure every set was a match set. She found mattress pads and dust ruffles for people who were staying in homes. She made sure the pillowcases matched the sheets and matched the blankets. It was not enough to give a family sheets, but nice sheets that looked like home. It wasn’t just about a problem, but about dignity.
There was a women who came in yesterday with a premi baby. The baby needed a very special formula. Anna made it here mission to find it. “She has to have this formula!” In the end I just went a bought some after a 4 hour search through the supplies.
One of the evacuees is deaf. No one spoke sign. A local man was found, who came and spent the whole afternoon with one young man to make sure he was taken care of. They created a whole system just make sure he was safe and at home.
All day, everywhere you turned around someone was picking up one starfish and throwing back into the sea.
After ten days there are still thousands of starfish on the beach, but many have made back into the sea, and it has made a big difference.
Must get dressed to get to the shelter. Many more details to come…

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