Long road to recovery

Carl Irwin, of Waynesboro, has quite a journey ahead of him – 890-miles and 4-days, to be exact – all aboard his Yamaha motorcycle.
The 67-year-old departs Sept. 16 for Slidell, La., to help with ongoing Hurricane Katrina rebuilding efforts.
“I got a new bike and I thought I’d go for a ride,” said Irwin.
The DuPont retiree was inspired by his grandson’s own trip to Mississippi in early August.
“When he came back, he was all wound up about the stuff that he had done,” said Irwin.
So, Irwin sought out local church groups for guidance, eventually contacting Waynesboro Grace Lutheran Church’s Jan Tobias, the Virginia Coordinator of Lutheran Disaster Response.
“The Virginia synod of the Lutheran Church … decided after Hurricane Katrina, one way we could help down there … was to dedicate ourselves as a synod to one congregation,” said Tobias.
That congregation is Peace Lutheran Church in Slidell. According to Tobias, the eye of Hurricane Katrina “passed almost directly over Slidell.”
Irwin’s efforts will concentrate on one Slidell hurricane victim — 77-year-old Ron Zeiser, whose double-wide mobile home was almost completely leveled by Katrina in 2005.
“He has been working slowly over the last three years in rebuilding his home,” said Zeiser’s son, Alan, in an e-mail to Irwin. “It is an old double-wide mobile home that dad has been demolishing piece by piece and has been rebuilding from the metal frame up.”
Irwin will stay in a dormitory provided by Peace Lutheran. He plans to stay for two weeks.
Tobias says that reconstruction efforts will likely span several more years.
“Volunteers are pretty much there all year round,” said Tobias. “I’m sure there will be work there for lots of people to do for 10 years to come.”