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Miss Leila
Miss Leila lived half an hour from Biloxi in Gautier, MS near Pascagoula Bay. There was seven and a half feet of water in her house even after it was raised four feet off the ground. She evacuated to Mobile, AL with her sister, but the traffic was so bad that it took them three hours to travel 47 miles. Her daughter drove by their house first, calling and telling her, “Mom, do not come home. There are gas tanks in the street, I had to climb over trees and furniture and it’s just a mess.” Everyone told her not to return, but she had to see it for herself.
She returned about a week after the storm and immediately began working on restoring both her home and her sister’s with the help of various volunteers. “People were so giving and so understanding. The volunteers were sent from God,” Miss Leila said. “They never complained. They were always smiling and singing.”
God provided everything they needed when they needed it, but sometimes when they thought ahead they became worried. The insurance company, which had recommended against flood insurance, did not help, and they were left to wonder how they would ever get new sheetrock.
One day Miss Leila and her sister were taking a break from working as a man passed in front of them and asked what they were working on. “I have a truck full of sheetrock coming in to Bethel church,” he shared. When the women visited Bethel, they received much more than that – enough insulation, sheetrock, mud and nails for both of their homes. Volunteers even came to help them install everything.
At a neighborhood meeting one day, a lady approached her and said “excuse me, did I overhear your sister needs flooring?” The stranger left a phone number to call. When Miss Leila called that night, a man answered and said he would be there the next morning to install a new floor for her sisters. “Miracles were coming like the wind blowing the trees during the storm,” she said.
“In a way, I’m grateful to Katrina because it has truly changed my life for the better. You had to be there to see the devastation, to see the volunteers… they worked in the worst conditions, no air conditioning, no light, no plumbing… and they never frown, never fuss. All the while they’re singing and smiling.”
Miss Leila’s name has been changed by request.