By Laura Lane
"That chair was probably floating in water, and as the water receded, it got stuck in the tree," said McElwain. "That water came in 20 feet, and then the wave came 20 feet. That's how trees stayed standing. The water was holding them up."
Two weeks after Hurricane Katrina devastated Mississippi's Gulf Coast, leaving people homeless with no food and water, McElwain traveled for 28 hours to deliver a truckload of goods collected at Calhoun High School and in Merrick elementary schools.
No stranger to disaster, McElwain was prepared, having survived the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center when he was a New York City firefighter. "I arrived just in time to see the towers collapse. I'm still numb from that," said McElwain, who remembered how much volunteers meant to him on Sept. 11. "When people came great distances to help, I felt like it wasn't just me taking a hit."
In Biloxi, McElwain met up with firefighters he'd contacted from home in Merrick. "When I got to the firehouse, there were volunteers everywhere from all over the country," he recalled. "Americans are the best people in the world."
Volunteers cried as they told McElwain what they'd seen and heard from survivors. The firefighters had stories, too. "During the hurricane, at the firehouse, the water came up to the door, but didn't come in because the firehouse was the highest point in town. And the firemen were actually able to keep the door open because of the way the wind was blowing," said McElwain, explaining that Biloxi sits 10 feet above sea level. "One of the firemen told me he wasn't allowed to leave, but disobeyed orders. He had to save his family."
That firefighter lived in Iverville, a nearby town on the mainland. "He had to go across a 40-foot bridge in the middle of the hurricane to get to his house down the hill,² said McElwain. ³When he got there, he had to swim through a window of his house, where he found his family and dogs in the attic. He took them out and swam to shore; that water was 35 feet above sea level. If he hadn't left the firehouse, his family would have drowned."
McElwain spent three days in Biloxi, determined to see that all of the supplies Merokeans donated were distributed to those in need. "My son Keith Jr. had 150 kids, including my other son Peter, spend 300 to 400 hours organizing the donations. They repackaged, labeled boxes, folded the clothes and packed up the truck," said McElwain. "I didn't want to take my truck and dump it there. I didn't want the donations to end up in a warehouse."
McElwain tried to get a feel for what victims needed, speaking to a doctor from Indiana who had come to Biloxi with his entire family to help. "He brought $100,000 worth of medical supplies and gave victims tetanus and diphtheria shots. He told us those people needed food and water," said McElwain.
The next morning, McElwain left at 9 to search for victims. "We drove for hours on bad roads with potholes that could eat up the truck," he recalled. "At a couple of points, I was scared because I didn't think I'd make it through."
McElwain saw the ruins of giant casinos, now shells washed up on the shore. Condominiums and mansions were gone, with only the cement-brick patios and steps remaining. He remembered what Biloxi firefighters had told him about their own homes, which remained standing. He wasn't sure what was worse. "The firemen said their windows and doors were intact in their houses, because they lived inland, and the water came up slowly and left slowly," said McElwain. "But the water had moved everything in the room, and there was dirt everywhere. They'll have to gut the house, replace it all with new sheet rock and insulation. And they'll have to kill all of the black mold with bleach. Black mold is dangerous."
Eventually, McElwain found an area where he could distribute the supplies. But he had to keep his own safety in mind, as well. "There were nails and rotting wood everywhere," he said. "You had to be careful every step you took."
Some people wandered over to McElwain's truck, dazed. "There was this woman with kids who stayed during the hurricane. There were actually pockets of these kinds of people," said McElwain. "She was staying next to a quarantined area, and it smelled of death. She said her kids hadn't eaten in three days. These people were in shock."
McElwain used a loudspeaker to alert everyone in the area that he had supplies. "Some people had cars. They said they would have to drive two hours to get anything, because all of the stores were looted or destroyed by the rain,² he said. ³The fallen trees hadn't been removed, so they couldn't get out."
Volunteers like McElwain fear that the people of Biloxi will continue to suffer, even after they've rebuilt their community. "Mississippi isn't like Long Island. Down there you're lucky to have one car instead of three," said McElwain. "Unemployment will be the main problem, even when there's stuff back in the stores. No one has any money to pay for it. That community survived on tourism."
McElwain continues to collect supplies at Calhoun for the victims in Biloxi. He just sent another truckful. "I'm planning on two more runs, but the donations have slowed down," he said. "The people who stayed have eaten the supplies they'd stocked away in their homes. And people are coming back to try to fix their homes, and there aren't any stores open to buy any food."
McElwain is proud of how the people of the Merricks pulled together to help, and he hopes they'll continue to take part in his effort to collect even more supplies. "This was easy for me to do because of Sept. 11,² he said. ³It's nice to know one person can make a difference. And I'm enabling people to help others."
For more information, call McElwain at (516) 238-8262.
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