Bismarck Tribune

By KAREN HERZOGBy KAREN HERZOG

A mayor, a chaplain, a Chamber of Commerce member and a handful of others from Slidell, La., were gathered around a speakerphone there on Thursday, as a cluster of Bismarck-Mandan people, including two pastors, a chamber member and a former governor, were here, talking to one another via conference call at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church.

Ben Morris, mayor of Slidell, whose community was adopted by a Bismarck-Mandan group, Christians for Katrina Relief, to benefit from a fundraiser on Tuesday, spoke first.

"It's difficult to express my gratitude for the efforts y'all have taken," he said. "God bless you."

The Rev. Charlie Axness, pastor at Mandan's First Lutheran Church, explained to the listeners that Slidell, a city of about 32,000 people, with about 90,000 including surrounding areas, was chosen for Tuesday's benefit auction at the Ramkota Inn because of its similar size to Bismarck-Mandan.

Slidell is a diverse city, Morris said. With one of Louisiana's top school districts, and a mixture of professions, including engineers and scientists working for nearby NASA installations, and numerous Colorado transplants,"we're Cajun but not Cajun," he said.

Slidell was decimated by Hurricane Katrina, Morris said, "but we're coming back."

The city's entire infrastructure was in collapse, Morris said, no power, no phones, at a standstill. Within 10 days, the water and sewer systems were working again, but some areas are still without power.

It took three days to clear Slidell's 30 miles of streets of debris and downed trees, Morris said, and workers are still removing 150,000 cubic yards of debris per day. The pick-up will take at least six weeks, he said.

Estimates indicate that 87 percent of Slidell's homes sustained some kind of damage and 4,000 are uninhabitable because of flood water damage and fallen trees, Morris said.

The biggest need is to restore the fabric of daily life, he said; children have lost their books, toys and school uniforms, families have lost photos and households everything from their pantries full of groceries to bedding. It's not just about repairing homes, it's about repairing family history - "everything in the house is now on the curb."

The damage to the human psyche is visible in people's behavior - one minute they'll be laughing, the next, their eyes will be off in a "50-mile stare," and tears start up, he said.

"The veneer is very thin," Morris said.

People are scattered in temporary quarters with family and friends elsewhere, he said, but during the days, traffic is bumper-to-bumper as contractors and homeowners return to town to clean out their homes.

Former N.D. Gov. Ed Schafer, a spokesman for the fundraising auction, along with former N.D. Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp, told the listening Slidell residents, "we've been through what you're going through," referring to the recovery process following the 1997 floods in the Red River Valley.

Two things to remember, Schafer said: Rebuilding "can be done and will be done. And there is someone who cares. You have long-distance friends."

"This relationship has just begun," said the Rev. Laurie Natwick, hospitality pastor at Good Shepherd Lutheran. "You are precious to us already. You're (no longer)just a name. This is a relationship. You're very dear to people here."

Slidell plans to send two or three people to Bismarck to represent their city at the auction on Tuesday, Morris said.

For more information on the auction, visit www.beagiver.net.