Flood aid heading from Williamsburg to Waveland, Miss.

Thanks to the help of some area churches and volunteers, disaster aid is heading down to a small community in Mississippi that up until now hasn’t received much assistance from the federal government or national volunteer agencies.
Jim Paul, a Williamsburg funeral home director, said that after volunteering three weeks in Baton Rogue at a call center, he stopped by the small town of Waveland, Mississippi, on his way back to Kentucky Thursday, and was surprised by what he found.
“What you see on television, and what you see in person are two different worlds,” Paul said. “A quarter mile inland does not exist. About five to six tenths of a mile inland there are some tents left laying on the ground. About seven to eight tenths of a mile in there are some structures. About a mile to a mile and a half in, every building is damaged.
“People that have some sort of structure left are sleeping under canopies in their front yards. I stopped and talked to two or three families. They need pots and pans and cleaning supplies. They don’t need clothes. They needs cots, and sleeping bags, and small tents because they have no place else to go.”
Paul said there is a obvious FEMA and Red Cross presence Louisiana, and that the agencies are also probably present in Mississippi, but that he hasn’t seem much evidence of that in Waveland, which has a county population is 50,000 people, and over 1,000 people known to be dead.
“When I was there Thursday, there was no Red Cross. No FEMA. People are living out of trailers. The police chief’s office is a trailer, and a tent. They need tons of supplies. They don’t have police cars. They don’t have handcuffs. They don’t have the basic equipment that they need. They have been completely looked over,” Paul said. “Somebody needs to do something. It doesn’t need to be done next week, or the next week.
“It doesn’t need to be taken down and set in a parking lot because people can’t get to it. This stuff needs to be distributed, and someone needs to drive up and down the streets, see what each individual families needs area, and distribute what you have got.”
Paul went to Baton Rogue on Sept. 12 as a FEMA volunteer helping man telephone banks for people calling looking for missing family members. He arrived back in Williamsburg late Sept. 30, and was planning to leave back out for hurricane relief work in Baton Rogue early this week but plans on stopping in Waveland on his way to drop off some supplies donated by some local churches and businesses.
Buffalo Baptist Church is taking $2,000 that it raised during Old Fashioned Trading Days, and is sending a check to the Waveland Police Department to help it purchase new equipment.
Main Street Baptist Church and First Baptist Church have each agreed to donate supplies, and are sending volunteers down to help with the relief effort in Waveland.
The Mount Zion Association and the Williamsburg Independent School District are also planning to donate some supplies.
Bargo’s Feed and Supplies is donating a U-Haul truck to haul many of the supplies in, Paul added.
Anyone wishing to donate additional relief aid to the Waveland community can contact Ellison Funeral Home at 549-2111.