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PAGE SIXTEEN
THE • OWL, AUGUST 1 -1 , >1970
CAIRE STORY (Continued from Page 15)
CRIME CONTINUES Many looters continue to enter the area from small boats at night,defying detection.
Our own home and newspaper office on Bayou Boisdorc is a revolting ruined shell of a house. The outside walls, concrete block reinforced with steel, and the roof structure stand. Whole window frames and doors were blown away.Inside partition walls arc destroyed. A six to eight-inch layer of muck on the floors makes footing dangerous and covers most of our personal belongings, scattered around by the winds and water. Clothes,typewriters, furniture, silver, china, color TV, refrigerators, freezers arc one big tangled mess where they did not blow down the road or into neighbors’ yards. One tree leans on the living
room roof. We don’t have even a single copy of each issue of our newspaper for the record.We were not even able to salvage a full truckload for the return trip. The stench inside made all of us gag continuously.
Neighbors in every direction in Pass Christian face the same problem.
CAMILLAS AFTERMATH
Hancock County, laid helpless Camille, received massive aid from Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, and the City of New Orleans. Roads were
gone, utilities were out of operation, conuni cat ions were destroyed, public health was threatened. Many organizations moved in to help, hut in those first few critical days, it was the neighbors from Louisiana who saved the day.
In Western Iferrison County, the Seabees, the Salvation Amy, the Mennonite workers, and Catholic Charities and other church groups who carried the "burden of help in the initial period. Workers from the. Church of the Brethren took up renovation work. The Bed Cross finally got going on disaster relief.
An airlift at Gulfport landed supplies from every part of the nation. A youth group from Pensacola dormitoried at Long Beach Efeptist church while they worked to restore the tiny Baptist church at
Henderson Ibint.
The Office of Hnergency Pre-edness released funds to U. S. Corps of Engineers to begin clearing property and streets; to _ restore streets and utilities. The State Legislature voted funds to help the stricken axea. President Nixon and Vice-President Agnew visited the area. The Mississippi forestry commission and the City of New Orleans sent trees to help replant the destroyed woods.
No one account can list all of the organizations and persons who sent help to the stricken Camille-swept area.
Yet, in the middle of this wonderful expression of Christian spirit, looters and pro-f iters plied their skills, even while National Guardsmen patrolled the area.
The U. S. Congress jassed special disaster legislation,
liberalizing Small Business Administration loan policies for disaster victims, providing the funds for OEr work.
Temporaiy housing was provided through a trailer-leasing program V the Department of Housing and Urban Renewal, which also moved in large amounts of money through the IAP-CAP program to upgrade substandard housing and facilities.
Without this massive aid. the area hit V Camille could not have survived.. .would not be on the road to recovery.
RELIEF FUND FOR CELIA
A relief fund "to show our appreciation to the people of Texas far their assistance to us" has been established by Mayor J. J. Wittmann and the P.C. board of aldermen for the victims of Hurricane Celia in the Corpus Christi area.
Wittmann said the money will be earmarked for one of the smellier communities raked by Celia because "we want to help a canmunity much like our own."
Pass Christian suffered heavy damage in Hurricane Camille last August with much destruction and loss of life.
Wittmann said a review of the hardest hit small towns will precede the selection of the city to receive the funds.
"Prom our own experience, monetary contributions are much_ more useful than clothing items," Wittmann observed.
Two local banks (Hancock and_Gulf National) have been designated to receive contributions to the funds.
BY GERALD PERALTA
PASS CHRISTIAN CHIEF OF POLICE
PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. - 17th August 1969. Time: 8 o’clock at night.
Pass Christian patrol cars 1 & II are patrolling the streets to make sure all personnel living in low lying areas have taken shelter and that no one is


Hurricane Camille The-Owl-Aug-11-1969 (25)
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