By By EMILY PALADINO / Niles Daily Star
NILES - When Michiana Delivery Service Assistant General Manager Claude Taylor got a call at 3:30 last Friday afternoon asking if he would loan out a truck to transport relief supplies to hurricane-battered Biloxi, Miss., he did more than just offer a vehicle. The former Air Force member, unable to sit back and relax on a Labor Day weekend when so many of Hurricane Katrina's victims lacked basic necessities like food and water, offered to drive one of his 24-foot semis to deliver emergency supplies to people in the water-logged Gulf coast region.
But before Taylor could take off with a co-worker and four others, a pick-up truck and the semi had to be filled. So they took it to the Mishawaka Wal-Mart at 8 a.m. on Saturday, hoping that the people of Michiana would fill it with donations. By 3:30 p.m. that hope had been fulfilled. The truck was loaded with 24,000 pounds of supplies, including 600 cases of water, two electric generators donated by Sam's Club and about $1,700 worth of clothing given by Wal-Mart. The volunteers had also collected some cash contributions to help pay for fuel along the way.
Taylor and the other volunteers left South Bend around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday night. "We were kind of flying by the seat of our pants," Taylor said. "We had to be really careful about stopping for gas because we knew it would be scarce, so we stopped every couple hundred miles."
Once the caravan got south of Memphis, they began to see the storm's damage. "It was really strange to see huge trees without leaves on them in the middle of the summer. It looked like it should be winter."
Though the group had intended to make it to Biloxi, the roads were too bad for them to reach their intended destination. They actually ended up just west of Biloxi in Gulfport, Miss.
When they got into Gulfport around 5 p.m. Sunday, the volunteers decided they would stop at the first church they saw, hoping it would give them a place to stay and a way to get supplies to the people who needed them most. "We did eventually see a big white steeple," Taylor said. "But when we pulled up, we saw that the steeple was all that was left."
Unable to find another church from which to base their relief efforts, Taylor and the other volunteers came across a distribution center located at the site of a former grocery store. They were able to unload the truck in a matter of just a few hours, and Taylor left Gulfport around 11 p.m. Sunday. Three of the other volunteers stayed behind to help distribute supplies.
Taylor was back in Michiana by Monday night, but he said he wished he could have stayed to help. "In three to four months, it might be a different situation. If it's needed, maybe we'll do this again," he said.
For more information on Taylor's trip and to see how the other volunteers are doing, visit www.michianalendsahand.com.