LA Conference of the UMC Disaster Response, Inc.

OUR MISSION:  To repair and rebuild Louisiana homes impacted by hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike; aiding in the suffering of those that were uninsured or underinsured.

 

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Four years, four storms, four stories….LADRM has an incredible story because of people like you….volunteers have been rebuilding south Louisiana.  Not the government, people like you are changing lives, giving hope and showing God’s love to the victims of these devastating storms.

 

South Louisiana has been devastated by powerful hurricanes in the last four years.  Four years after hurricanes Katrina and Rita, there are still blue tarps on   houses that haven’t been touched by work and lives that are destroyed because they were uninsured or underinsured.  One year after hurricanes Gustav and Ike, there are the same instances in South Louisiana.  The Louisiana Methodist Disaster Response Ministry funded by UMCOR and other agencies is using Case Management to do what the government hasn’t been able to accomplish.  By identifying homeowners that need help we purchase materials with the grant money and have recruited volunteers from around the country as the labor.  So far we have used 70,220 volunteers to rebuild New Orleans and South Louisiana due to the storms of 2005 and 2008.So  

      

   For more of our story: Click 2005 - 2008

The Importance of 47!

 

Haati Nai gives a "thumbs up" as he works to complete his 47th roof that was

damaged by the Hurricanes of 2005.

 

What do most people do to celebrate a birthday in their mid forties? You might go out to dinner, have some birthday cake or go on a shopping spree? How about climb up on a roof and donate your time to a family that has been ravished by hurricane damage? Not your normal celebration, but then Haati Nai, is by most standards, not you’re an average guy. He was born in Tonga and immigrated to California is married with three children and an active member of the First United Methodist Church there. 

 

After Katrina, Haati traveled to New Orleans and was moved by his experience that has returned many times to since the storm to replace roofs which is his God given talent. He had done forty-six roofs in and around the Gulf Coast and had his forty-seventh birthday and wanted to match that number with the number of completed roofs. So, recently he traveled back to New Orleans and completed the roof of Ms. Sandra Reed. Her home was originally damaged by hurricane Katrina. She had the roof repaired after the storm but the work was substandard and when Gustav hit in September 2008 her roof she has sustained substantial damage inside her home because of the poor roof repair she received after Katrina. Her roof was repaired by Haati and a volunteer group from the California Nevada Conference, lead by Ken Blackshear on January 13, 2010.

 

Volunteers from the California-Nevada UM Conference, along with

Mrs. Sandra Reed and staff members of La. Conference Disaster

Response, gather to celebrate Mr. Nai's work on his 47th hurricane

replacement roof.