By MIKE JAMES
Spending time at the beach means sun, sand and sucking down beer for most college students.
For Elizabeth Gehringer it’s been a time of hard work and hard-luck stories.
Six weeks of disaster relief in Galveston brought her to a number of beach communities devastated by hurricanes Ike and Gustav. She could tell how close she was to the shore by the degree of damage to homes.
Some had walls ripped off, leaving interiors visible, like doll houses. Others were knocked over and splintered.
Homes closest to the water were entirely gone, leaving only the stilts that had held them up above the tides.
“Some people lost absolutely everything,” said Gehringer, a 22-year-old Morehead State University student. When she decided to take a break from her studies in elementary education, Gehringer opted for public service over recreation.
Gehringer, who grew up in Worthington and graduated from Raceland High School in 2004, signed on to the Americorps National Civilian Community Corps to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to deliver relief aid to Texas communities.
The program attracted her because a cousin was in a different Americorps program and her grandfather had been in the depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps. “It sounded like a way to spend some time away from school,” she said.
The first weeks on Galveston Island she spent doing clerical intake work and then switched to needs assessment, which required her to go door to door in hurricane-ravaged neighborhoods.
“I heard first-hand accounts of what happened from people who lost absolutely everything,” she said. One man, preparing to move, had stored all his possessions under his house — the hurricane swept it all out to sea.
“He had nothing except the clothes on his back and his car,” she said.
For the last week or so she has been part of a crew doing demolition work in houses slated for rehabbing. She and other Americorps workers go in with sledgehammers and crowbars to tear out ruined drywall and debris.
Sometimes they spy a family picture amid the debris and connect a human face to the disaster. “It gets a little hard,” she said.
The experience has changed her, she said. “Definitely ... You learn so much about yourself ... I’m a completely different person.”
Her time in Texas is about over and Americorps is preparing to send her to another assignment. She will be helping build houses for migrant workers in California.
Public service is in her blood now. She hopes to work with faith-based and non-profit organizations after she graduates.
Members of the NCCC are 18-24 and must complete at least 1,700 hours of service during the 10-month program.
In exchange, they receive $4,725 to help pay for college or student loans.
Members also learn leadership development, team-building skills and self-confidence.
MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.
