The pulse of the Church's response to Katrina's devastation in the Gulf Coast of the United States emanates from the hearts of its members.
In addition to the 5.6 million pounds (2,800 tons) of food and supplies sent into devastated areas, Church members have contributed, as of Sept. 13 more than 9,200 manpower days to help 1,606 fellow Church members and 3,226 others. In addition, they have reached out to evacuees and given service in countless other ways.
The Church News has compiled some of their stories:
HOUSTON, Texas — Bryce Graves of the Silverlake Ward, Friends-wood Texas Stake, lives about 10 minutes from the Astrodome and Reliant Center in Houston, where more than 25,000 refugees are being housed.
On Sept. 1, Brother Graves went to the Astrodome to try to help evacuees arriving by bus. He determined to look for people who "for one reason or another could not help themselves."
Immediately he saw a large man — who because of health problems could not walk more than a few steps — sitting on the curb crying. The man's wife and nine children had gone ahead, promising to return with help. But after 11 hours, help had not come.
The man was sunburned, dehydrated and scared. Brother Graves moved him into the stadium on a flatbed hand-truck, helped him shower and found him clothes to wear. He posted a note for the man's family and promised to return the next day.
The following day, Brother Graves returned to the Astrodome — only to find others with emotionally and physically challenging needs; at one point he tried to help a woman only to discover she had already died. As he started to leave the stadium, he remembered the man he had helped the day before. He prayed to know if he should visit the man — even though he felt there was nothing more he could offer him. As he sat pondering, he saw a woman out of the corner of his eye. The woman was holding a sign with the man's name of it. She too was praying.
She had been searching for her husband, hoping he had been sent to a medical facility. Brother Graves took the woman to her husband — the man he had helped the day before.
The family cried together and invited Brother Graves to pray with them — thanking the Lord for the man who had helped them.
PAYSON, Utah — Under the leadership of Kaisa Lee, Young Women president of the Mountain View 5th Ward, Mountain View Stake, six young women gathered pledges for hurricane survivors for every mile they hiked on Mount Timpanogos.
Each of the young women reached the summit, and they collected $1,323 to donate to the survivors.
GILBERT, Ariz. — Rachelle Mariner, 11, and her friends Mikayla Pack, 14, and Linsdsey Pack, 12, all of the Mesquite Ward, Gilbert Arizona Stake, found a way to help hurricane survivors who were staying in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
Rachelle's family owns a T-shirt company and were willing to donate 400 to the survivors. So Rachelle designed a patriotic shirt. After the young woman printed a number of shirts, they began to sell them to raise money for the cause. From their proceeds, they printed 500 shirts and passed them out to the people in the coliseum. One of the shirts was given to Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano. On television, she asked who had donated the shirts so she could thank them.
The young women have since been the subject of news stories for their generous efforts.
NORMAN, Okla. — When a Church member in Norman, Okla., received an e-mail from Midwest City councilwoman Ruth Cain requesting help for Katrina victims relocated to Midwest City, she knew this was an area where the local members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could be of great help. She called the Norman Oklahoma Stake president who was able to use the Church organization already in place to get the ball moving. In just a few phone calls, contacts throughout the metro stakes and wards were working to provide meals to Katrina victims already settled in Midwest City and to those still arriving.
Nearly 400 victims from Katrina had found new homes at the Sunrise Park Apartments in Oklahoma City. Donated by Eli Hadad, a member of another church from Florida, Katrina victims now had access to 250 apartments free of rent for as long as their personal situation required.
The most urgent need facing Councilwoman Cain, however, was the need to feed more than 300 people each night — a task the Church, with the help of the local bishops' storehouse could handle. "While the apartments provide needed privacy and security that these people have been lacking, they have no means of cooking or eating in their apartments as yet," she said.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Wake County, N.C., was charged with handling some of the Katrina evacuees, and so the capital city of Raleigh set up a receiving facility in a 100,00 square-foot training building owned by Nortel Networks, and 385 Katrina evacuees arrived Sept. 5.
Two members of the Apex North Carolina Stake and a former bishop in the Raleigh North Carolina Stake already had Red Cross emergency training, so they were able to work with the Katrina survivors inside the Raleigh evacuee center. With firsthand information regarding the immediate needs inside the center, the Apex North Carolina stake president approved a service project for stake members to assemble 500 hygiene kits, each consisting of a hotel-sized shampoo, conditioner, lotion, deodorant, a toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss, and — something the evacuee center didn't have — a washcloth. The items were gathered, donated, sorted, and put into plastic bags within 12 hours.
Randolyn J. Emerson, multistake director of Public Affairs for the Apex, Durham, Goldsboro and Raleigh stakes, delivered the kits and was allowed by Wake County officials to stay and work in the evacuee center. "It was a wonderful feeling to see those kits placed into the hands of the evacuees as they loaded the buses that were to take them to the location where they are able to shower," she said.
CYPRESS, Texas — Troy Smith of the Cypress Texas Stake was born and raised in New Orleans, La. So, after a disaster affected his home town, he and his wife, Kris, began to collect toys, baby necessities and hygiene products for hurricane evacuees living in Houston. "We asked for these items specifically in response to requests made by shelters to the local media," they later reported. "We also felt as a family a particular urgency to help meet the immediate needs of children affected by this disaster. The project quickly took on a life of its own."
Within a few hours of sending an e-mail to friends, their living room was filled with many of the items they requested. They also received phone calls asking if they had friends or family who needed a place to stay. "With each ring of the door bell, our living room continued to fill," they reported. "We tried to keep an inventory of the items brought in but quite frankly lost count after about 2,000 diapers and 3,360 baby wipes."
They didn't know, however, that they would be able to help a family they knew from New Orleans. When an evacuated bishop from the affected area stopped by, they were able to load his truck with some of the items.
Then the Smiths visited a Red Cross shelter housing 285 people. Their donation doubled the shelter's supply of diapers and baby wipes. Next, they visited two local motels where dozens of Louisiana families are living.
There is a story and a real person behind every item that was donated, Sister Smith said. "I do not know all the stories, but each story is an important one."
