Project Tzohar: September 23, 2005

Like all their neighbors, members of United Synagogue congregations in the Houston area have been evacuated. The synagogues have been closed; the goal is to reopen them on Tuesday. In New Orleans, Shir Chadash remains closed. Shir Chadash members who were evacuated to Houston, like the other New Orleans residents who found a welcome there, once again have moved on.

We will provide updates when we get them.

On Wednesday, United Synagogue's Southeast regional director, Harry Silverman, flew to Biloxi, Miss., to get a first-hand view of the destruction wreaked by Hurricane Katrina. He toured the area and then met with members of Mississippi's only synagogue, United Synagogue-affiliated Congregation Beth Israel in Biloxi.

The United Synagogue Hurricane Relief Fund is still collecting money, which is still very badly needed. Click here to see how our first disbursements have been made.

His report follows:

At 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, September 21, Rabbi Sam Kieffer of B'nai Aviv in Weston, Fla., its education director, Melinda Kieffer, and I joined David Keller, the president of Temple Beth Israel in Sunrise, Fla., at Fort Lauderdale's Executive Airport. David had offered to fly us to Biloxi in his Cessna 210.

I was eager to meet with both leaders and members of Congregation Beth Israel in that flooded city; I wanted them to tell me how we could continue to help them. United Synagogue already had offered to provide Beth Israel with a rabbi and a cantor for High Holy Day services. The synagogue building has suffered extensive storm-related damage, and services cannot be held there. I also wanted to help the congregation to find and fund a temporary home for Shabbat services. Both United Synagogue and our member congregations want to do as much as we can to help.

The Kieffers and I loaded David's plane with a cooler of kosher meats and cheeses provided by United Synagogue; new mezzuzot for congregation members whose homes had been damaged or destroyed; apples, honey, and art supplies to prepare for the new year; and all the challah, wine, and boxes of Shabbat candles, donated by members of B'nai Aviv, that we could stuff into the small plane. At 9:15, we were in the air.

At 11:45 central time, we landed at Gulfport Biloxi International Airport. Beth Israel's president, Steve Richer, who also is the executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Convention and Visitors Bureau, and a Beth Israel past president, LoriBeth Susman, who also is a member of United Synagogue's Southeast regional board, met the plane. Sam and Melinda Kieffer went with LoriBeth to prepare for the day's program while Steve took David and me on a tour of the gulf coast.

First, we drove through some of Biloxi's "lucky" neighborhoods. Homes there still stand. Many are habitable but have been severely damaged. Most roofs are covered with the now all-too-familiar blue tarps. We drove down street after street and saw pile after pile of cut-down trees and the demolished remains of residents' belongings. Recreational vehicles were parked in driveway after driveway; they functioned as temporary homes as FEMA and insurance companies decide which houses will be rebuilt.

We drove to a lot owned by Beth Israel member Rayanne Weiss. An attached photo shows a pile of debris. It is all that is left of Rayanne's home. As Steve Richer described it, "It looks like the house was put through a blender." Rayanne has spent hours filling out FEMA applications, and she's still waiting for her check. She's living with friends, but she still has to buy food and clothing, and she has to put gas in her car. Gas lines are long; the wait can be an hour or more.

We continued our tour of the coast. On the way we saw several more RVs and some tent cities. In many areas, we saw workers wearing t-shirts saying "Relief Team." Steve told us that the city is full of volunteers who have come from all over the country to help with the clean up and relief efforts. Volunteers must get to Biloxi at their own expense and provide their own housing and supplies. There is little or no available hotel space. Many volunteers live in their own RVs or in tents.

A railroad line separates the coastal area from the rest of the city. Rows of barbed wire run along the tracks and armed police guard the few entrances to the coast road. Only drivers with special passes are allowed in. Steve, of course, has access to all areas of the gulf coast. We drove down Highway 90, which runs along the beachfront. The road is badly damaged -- in many places only one narrowed lane is open - and its traffic is controlled by military police and local sheriffs' deputies. On my last pre-hurricane trip to Biloxi, I saw some of the beautiful, stately mansions and historical buildings that lined the highway. Most of these structures have been destroyed or damaged severely. Much of the area's historic buildings, including Jefferson Davis' last home and his private collection of Civil War artifacts, were devastated. All the casinos were destroyed, and most hotels sustained extensive damage.

Next, we went to Congregation Beth Israel.

The resident manager's second-floor apartment was completely destroyed. There are major holes in the walls. A structural engineer will determine whether the building can be repaired or if it must be torn down.

Steve told us that there had been 150,000 buildings in the six counties that make up Mississippi's heel; 50,000 were destroyed and another 85,000 were damaged by the hurricane.

I went to south Miami in 1991 on the day after Hurricane Andrew struck, and I saw the extensive damage that storm had caused. I think that the damage in southern Mississippi now is worse than what I saw in south Miami then.

Despite the devastation, Steve is upbeat and optimistic. He is confident that the gulf coast will rebuild and once again will be a major American tourist destination.

After our tour, we rejoined LoriBeth and the Kieffers to meet with many families who belonged toBeth Israel. The group had gathered in the warehouse and store owned by congregants Wayne and Lorraine Lutz. The Lutzes' home has been destroyed. Their store, in nearby D'Iberville, Miss., was undamaged, so theyare living in it.

After lunch - deli that we'd brought from Fort Lauderdale -- we divided into two groups. Melinda held a High Holy Day workshop for the children; they made holiday crafts projects and talked about the season. At the same time, Rabbi Sam Kieffer and Rabbi Mel Sirner of Beth El Synagogue Center in New Rochelle, N.Y., who also came to Biloxi on Wednesday, met with some of the congregation's adults. The rabbis offered spiritual support and counseling, both individually and in groups.

Next, the group reformed for a special Mincha service of healing Sam Kieffer had prepared for Beth Israel. He and his wife had put together special prayer books for the occasion and used recordings of Debbie Friedman's MiShebarech and Barbra Streisand's Aveinu Malkeinu in the service. At its end, Rabbi Kieffer blew the shofar. After that, it was time to eat - the season's traditional apples and honey, direct from Fort Lauderdale.

I went to Biloxi to learn how we could best help storm victims, both Jews and those of other faiths. According to Steve Richer and many others, people need cash NOW. Most of the Mississippi Gulf Coast is working on a cash-only basis, and many banks were destroyed. Many stores and gas stations accept only cash. Workers clearing debris and cutting trees work only for cash. Even if people's homes are habitable, they face very large out-of-pocket expenses; they must pay cash to have trees removed, debris cleared, and their roofs covered with tarps. The cost of tarps to cover a whole roof easily could exceed $1,000. This is the tarp covering Steve's roof.

A shot I took from the plane shows many buildings with tarps on their roofs.

Even homeowners lucky enough to be covered by insurance policies that will cover most of the damage will face heavy losses. They will have to pay the deductibles, and there will be many items not covered by insurance. In Steve Richer's neighborhood, for example, few people had flood insurance, because until now the area never had flooded. Insurance companies claim that the damage houses suffered was caused by flooding, not by the hurricane itself, and therefore is not covered. And many homes and businesses have extensive mold damage, which usually is not covered by insurance.

I heard stories of people waiting in Red Cross lines for five or six hours for the $300 checks the agency is distributing. Some finally got to the head of the line only to be told that no more money was available. They'd have to come back, they were told. It is virtually impossible to call the Red Cross or FEMA. The lines are always busy. There is little or no local phone service yet, although cell phones are working. People who do not have cell phones can't even try to call for help. Most people have no access to the internet or email.

Many people are out of work, but their out-of-pocket expenses for immediate needs continue. Even people who still have jobs -- or whose employers are continuing to pay them, at least for a while -- are running through their savings quickly.

When we talked to Steve Richer and to Beth Israel's treasurer, Howard Levy, we realized that it is vitally important that we distribute cash directly to people with pressing needs. Steve works at the emergency operations center every day. He and Howard are in a position to distribute funds directly, discreetly, and sensitively to people in need. United Synagogue transferred $30,000 from our Hurricane Relief Fund to Congregation Beth Israel for this purpose. Howard will provide me with a complete account of how the funds are distributed.

Melinda Kieffer gave each child at the program a $5 bill. That money was donated by Temple Zion Israelite Center in Miami, at the instruction of its president, Franklin Kreutzer, who is also a United Synagogue past president. We also gave congregants gift cards from various national merchants; some for them, some to be distributed in the community. Those cards were donated by B'nai Aviv members.

At 6 p.m. our small group arrived back at the airport for our trip home. Headwinds and detours around some severe weather made the trip home a bit longer than normal, but we landed at the airport in Fort Lauderdale just after midnight. We were tired, but we felt that we had accomplished a little -- and we know that there's a lot more to be done.

Updates:

February 6 | October 11 | October 10 | October 9 | September 26 | September 23 | September 19 | September 13 | September 9 | September 7 | September 2 | September 1 | August 31