KILN, Miss. -- On a cool spring night in southern Mississippi, five middle-aged men lean over a 16-foot board on sawhorses, learning how to properly cut wood and possibly reassemble their lives.
Mark Forest, 47, lost pretty much everything in Hurricane Katrina, including his home and his job as a casino dealer.
Jim Thompson, 60, watched a 20-year career wash away when the bakery he and his wife co-owned was wrecked by the storm, along with their living quarters.
Walter Reed, 45, has had to move his family from his Bay St. Louis home to federally subsidized housing in Gulfport, nearly an hour away, and says he is “just about wiped out” financially, having spent $30,000 out of his own pocket on moving expenses, repairs, new clothing and other essentials.
They were among the first to enroll in a new program offered by the local Pearl River Community College, aimed at teaching carpentry and other building trades in an area that faces a looming shortage of skilled construction workers.
“This is really so good because when people do start building back up and getting the (insurance) money, there’s not going to be enough workers,” said Thompson. “They’ll either have to do it themselves or hire unskilled labor and supervise.”
Demand mushrooms
Scott Alsobrooks, director of workforce education for the college, said carpentry classes had not been offered for many years due to lack of demand. But there is plenty of demand now.
He said 32 people signed up for the evening class held at Hancock High School’, and ultimately 15 met the requirements stipulated by a federal emergency grant and were admitted. Several dropped out and several were absent the night teacher Charles Thomas explained how to accurately measure and cut lumber to build floor joists, rafters or walls.
“If you don’t get it just right, it’s going to creep in on you and you don’t want that,” he said, pulling a tape measure the length of a 2-by-6 board. “You want everything to jibe out.”
Forest, like most of the others in the class, had some basic construction experience.
“I’ve done most of this,” he said. “But I don’t know the fine details, the tricks. I’m learning a lot. I’m surprised at how much I’m learning.”
Equally important, the class is a positive step toward moving on after the hurricane, forcing the men to get out every evening for the eight weeks of the class and getting their minds off the disaster.
A labor of love lost
In addition to his Bay St. Louis mobile home and all its contents, Forest lost the unfinished home he had been building for more than three years on his property. Everything was wiped out when the lot was inundated by 17 feet of water in Katrina’s devastating storm surge. For him and his wife, also a dealer at nearby Casino Magic, the construction project had been a labor of love.
“Every time we got paid we’d buy some materials and go to work on it,” he said. “It was really tough to go back and see it.”
What is left of the structure probably will be turned into a workshop, said Forest, who is planning to buy a new mobile home. With the casino not expected to reopen until late 2006, Forest is considering training to work as an electrician, and his wife has applied for a job at Wal-Mart.
Alsobrooks said the college also is busy arranging courses in welding, plumbing, electrical work and building inspection after getting a $1 million grant from the Labor Department. The grant is part of $10 million granted to community colleges in Louisiana and Mississippi to provide free post-hurricane training in essential trades.
Thompson, who co-owned Ruth’s Cakery in Bay St. Louis, said he is ready for a new career in construction if his wife decides not reopen the bakery.
Ready for a new career
“As soon as I can, I plan to work as a helper,” he said. Construction work might be hard, he said, but “the bakery wasn’t necessarily easy.” In the months leading up to Mardi Gras, for instance, Thompson said he his wife worked 20 hours a day making “king cakes” -- the popular oval-shaped confection with a small plastic doll or other trinket baked inside, he said.
Reed, a retired Army staff sergeant who had been working at a Navy installation in Gulfport, also said he was anxious to do more construction work. He has been working a couple days of week as a casual laborer but would prefer to be able to run his own crew, rather than depend on friends who are master tradesmen but also accomplished drinkers.
“I like to jump up every morning at 5 o’clock and go to work,” he said. “I don’t want to sit in front of their house when they’re hung over. A class like this opens all kind of possibilities.”
A tree of hope
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these are the type of men Mississippi needs...learn how to do it your self...with the help of Mr. Thomas...they will accomplish much...for theirselves and neighbors!!
andy,ms (Sent Apr 3, 2006 8:32:00 AM)
Its about time - i am a ful time tax payer sick and tired of hearing the 'gimme' attitude coming out of New Orleans. I am a strong believer in steppig in and making things happen for yourself rather than waiting of expecting the government to do it for you, and this is a good step towards that - be it 6 months late!!
brad, CA (Sent Apr 3, 2006 10:36:37 AM)
Mark, Jim and Walter are so typical of the spirit, determination and gratitude of the people of Mississippi. I went down to the area a couple of days after the storm to do what I could to help. After seeing the magnitude of the devastation, and the sheer will power of the people of these people, who are desperately trying to move on in the aftermath of Katrina, it has motivated to me to continue to return to the area to help. The resourcefulness and perseverance of these Mississippians is to be applauded. I hope that their stories continued to be told, as this is what will bring volunteerism and the corporate donations and support, which are so desperately needed, to the area.
Suzanne Stahl, Scottsdale, AZ (Sent Apr 3, 2006 11:09:32 AM)
king cakes are illegal! How unsanitary can you get. Yuck.
Harold Erder (Sent Apr 3, 2006 12:22:10 PM)
These are all terrific people! Even when they're down on their knees, they'll get back up and litterally rebuild their lives!
I can imagine the scenario a few years from now. A couple, having already rebuilt their home, looks at a wall and feels it's "not quite right." Out come the sledgehammers! And they'll be swinging hard knowing full well they can rebuild just about anything!
François Caron, Montreal, Quebec (Sent Apr 3, 2006 1:12:10 PM)
Not to sound racist but it will be very beneficial to the rebuilding process to have skilled workers involved in the rebuild of the south, not just unskilled immigrants. While both are beneficial we need more people with skills and a sense of pride in their work not just people that move to where the money is.
steve, CA (Sent Apr 3, 2006 1:55:13 PM)
I think this is a great example of how we can get a "positive" out of Katrina. It goes with the old saying, "Give a man a fish, he can feed his family for a day day, teach him how to fish and he can feed his family forever. We need to bring all the people who want to come back to their home sites and give them a skill; carpentry, laying tile or carpet, electricain skills, plumbing skills just to name a few. Then provide them with the resources and let them rebuild their own community. They can assist each other in a community effort and at the same time learn a skill to help themselves as well as others in their community. Just like the old barn raisings that communities participated in. If they really want to return and they really want to give back to the community, what better way than to help each other out instead of having your hand held out!
Randall Gholson, Bryan, Texas (Sent Apr 3, 2006 2:14:13 PM)
I think this is fantastic. I hope more money is set aside for this kind of class. Not only can it help rebuild homes, lives and towns, but it can help move some low wage workers into better paid trades.
Yvonne, St Johnsbury, VT (Sent Apr 3, 2006 2:27:32 PM)
It's a pretty rude process that has good loyal citizens in the position of hoping for temporary construction jobs, where they will compete with illegals for wages of near poverty and no future, instead of having careers or owning businesses or the other things capitalism once promised. When do we wake up. When do we demand dignity from our overlords. We Americans have every right to dignity, security, stability. It can only come when we once again take hold of the power over our own nation, and wrest it back from the media elites and others who are doing this to us. No American citizen should ever be in the position of begging back a little food and shelter from the bankers who steal our substance. No American should have to see his fellow citizens in this kind of shame. When we have insurance executives and the monsters who outsource our prosperity eating from golden dishes in their second or third homes in Miami, while our fellow citizens struggle just to keep afloat for one more year, we need to make a choice to be together, or we shall surely all suffer the fate one by one of the victims in Louisiana.
Sharn Cedar, Philadelphia, PA (Sent Apr 3, 2006 2:31:20 PM)
I have worked in Pascagoula, Ms for the past 24 years. The attitutes of the great majority of Mississippi Gulf Coast residents is represented by this story. Our community college system is a valuable resource. Thank the good Lord. And a special thanks to all the volunteers from around the nation who have come to help in the rebuilding process also. Coastians are tough people, but the help and generousity of our fellow Americans is helping to make all the difference.
Herbert R Brown Jr (Sent Apr 3, 2006 2:50:03 PM)
Harold, man i'll take a king cake any day...i don't think they are unsanitary....just pretty da** good!....just eat some...you won't say "yuck"
andy,ms (Sent Apr 3, 2006 11:47:22 PM)
Construction can be a high-paid job if you're skilled and you educate yourself thoroughly in the business. My stepfather's stonemason skills were handed down to him by his father, and he's handed those skills down to his son; both of them can easily make over $20 an hour because they are not only thoroughly skilled on a level that many workers (legal and otherwise) are not, but also because they've familiarised themselves with other aspects of the business, like carpentry and reading blueprints and running job sites. Skilled workers can rise to positions of authority such as foreman, and careful saving of one's income and cultivation of clients can lead to opening one's own business or doing spec work.
Doing construction is by no means a low-wage dead-end job. People will pay well for good work because they'll get burned soon enough if they don't. If he keeps at it and acquires solid skills and continues to train and educate himself, he will find the work.
Danielle Taylor (Sent Apr 4, 2006 11:32:21 AM)
Education is never wasted, particularly at a time like this. Talk about making lemonaide out of lemons! A great project....weilding a hammer can be a great stress releaser!
Stephanie Umbro, Maine (Sent Apr 4, 2006 4:35:41 PM)
Brad,
While I understand you were probably intending to encourage us, since entire lives have been swept away, I think it's important to remember that it is very difficult to pull oneself up by the proverbial bootstraps when one does not have boots. We aren't operating under a "gimme" attitude at all; our entire infrastructure was destroyed, and I think you'd agree it is impossible to "make things happen for yourself" when you have no money, no resources, no job, and no house. Try to take yourself out of California and put yourself in New Orleans, my friend, because I would imagine you'll find it a bit different down here.
M. Alaine, NOLA (Sent Apr 4, 2006 8:04:20 PM)
Danielle, you said a mouthfull....if you have the skill..work will come to you...trust me i've been in the HVAC industry for 27yr.s.....i have been able to keep my household going....sometimes THICK sometimes THIN....but going....i guess that is all that matters
andy,ms (Sent Apr 4, 2006 9:43:01 PM)
This is SO awesome!! What a great program! You MUST keep going even though it's difficult you must! The rewards far outweight the circumstances. God bless you all!!
Theresa Mack, Germantown, MD (Sent Apr 5, 2006 12:38:13 PM)
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