Forget the honeymoon; there's a town to rebuild

Aug. 30--D'IBERVILLE -- Hurricane Katrina relief materialized, literally, overnight in this little town that could.

The D'Iberville Volunteer Foundation sprang from Katrina's ruins when the surge subsided, drawing 7,500 individual volunteers over four years, some of whom visited 10 times. They put back together 900 homes and rebuilt 42.

D'Iberville resident Irene McIntosh, the founder, said she thinks the city has hit the 85 percent mark in recovery, with lots in Old Town remaining vacant because of flood regulations and the high cost of insurance.

At a remembrance breakfast Sunday morning, McIntosh told the volunteers, "The neatest part is, I could send an email and, if we had a hurricane, you would be back."

McIntosh founded and headed the group with Ed Cake of Ocean Springs, her second in command. McIntosh is a neighbor of Mayor Rusty Quave. After the storm, Cake helped chain saw a path so Quave could get to his convenience store. McIntosh said Quave returned white as a sheet. He said, "We're going to need help."

And that was that.

The foundation set up at Rudy Moran Park, known in those days as The Camp of the God with Many Names because people of all denominations poured in. The foundation eventually had a medical clinic, soup kitchen, pantry, clothing distribution, cleaning supplies, damage assessments, listening teams to deal with trauma and, of course, reconstruction.

Quave said the volunteers not only helped families return to the city, but also contributed to the economic rebound.

D'Iberville native Chris Baker lost PDQ Printing on Lemoyne Boulevard. She bought a damaged metal building put back together and improved by volunteers. Baker reopened in September 2006.

She couldn't have done it without foundation volunteers Karen and George Sumner. They were headed for their honeymoon in Key West, Fla., then contractor George Sumner planned to start a job building modular classrooms in the area.

The classrooms were re-routed to the Coast because of the hurricane, and the Sumners wound up staying three years as volunteers.

Nobody could tear them away. About 60 days into recovery, the foundation presented them a honeymoon gift, including racy items, some cash and a coupon for a three-night stay at an Alexandria, La., casino.

They made it two nights, then headed back to D'Iberville.

"You just felt compelled to come back," Karen Sumner said. "There was nothing in our world that compared to what happened here and what people were going through."

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