The city of Long Beach, Mississippi is just West of Biloxi and Gulfport. This area was hit hard by hurricane Katrina. Nearly 1/2 of the homes and more than 61 percent of the businesses were damaged or destroyed in the storm surge.

This is a small town - a little over half the size of Severna Park (population approx. 17,000).

Now, as winter is beginning to set in (and it does get cold on the Mississippi Coast), the children of Long Beach need winter coats.

After the storm hit, well-wishers from all over sent much-needed clothing down to the Gulf Coast, but almost all of it was summer clothing. No one thought the recovery and mitigation efforts would extend well into the winter.

Schools are just beginning to open up, and school teachers from the area - who see the need first-hand, have asked for help.

If you can spare any size winter coat in good condition (from infant to adult sizes), please give them to the local FEMA office, which is standing ready to deliver the coats to those area children who need them most.

Mississippi Kids Need Winter Coats

by Dan Walker

When the storm surge of Hurricane Katrina washed over the shores of Mississippi and Louisiana, it carried away the everyday things families take for granted. Like being able to put your child in a warm winter coat.

Despite the ongoing efforts of state and charitable organizations from across the country – including sizeable efforts from groups and individuals right here in Severna Park – recovery efforts are still needing help, especially in the outlying areas of Mississippi that are harder for CNN’s camera crews to reach.

Kathy Maday, a friend of this writer, is a Maryland-raised social worker now in Seabrook Island, South Carolina. She works on-call as a Mitigation Advisor for FEMA. She was in New York City after 9/11, and she has been working as a Field Supervisor in Long Beach, Mississippi and surrounding areas since Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in August. Working seven days a week from 7am until 7pm, Kathy has seen a lot of despair, but she has also seen a lot of love, both from the residents hit hard by this tragedy and from the outpouring of help from around the world.

During her rare down time, Kathy even rescued a five-month old puppy – a black and white lab/hound mix with a note on her collar that read, "My name is Katie, Please take care of me." She took on that puppy as a cause, and now she has a cause for all of us.

“The children in Long Beach, Mississippi are freezing,” she wrote this author in a recent email. “The weather is really cold – colder than a former Marylander like me would realize - and the teachers have asked for coat donations.”

According to Kathy, plenty of clothes were donated, but they were all clothes suited for the time period just after the storm hit. “Who would think Mississippi could get down to 27 degrees?”

If you have any winter coats you can spare for school-aged children – elementary through high school – please send them to:

AFO / FEMA
Attn: Martha Lu Nunn, Mitigation
Coats for Long Beach Kids
850 Bayview Ave.
Biloxi, MS 39530: