OSU student lends support to hurricane victims

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

A woman with long straight hair wearing sunglasses on her head, a light-colored top and a necklace with a small pendant. Parked cars and greenery are visible in the background. — Lora Young, agricultural communications graduate student at OSU, spent part of her winter break assisting Louisiana farmers in their hurrican relief efforts.

While most Oklahoma State University students spent time at home or hit the ski slopes during winter break, Lora Young assisted in the ongoing hurricane relief efforts in Louisiana.

Young spent Dec. 17-22 assisting farmers affected by Hurricane Rita with 29 other members of Alpha Zeta, a national agricultural honor fraternity. The delegates represented nine universities.

“Many people are unaware of the extensive damage that occurred throughout rural areas in the Gulf Coast region,” Young said.

Young, an agricultural communications graduate student, worked in and around the small town of Abbeville, Louisiana. Not only did the group mend and build fences, but they also cleared fence lines and pastures of debris in the area, which is located approximately 150 miles west of New Orleans.

“After almost a year-and-a-half, it was amazing to see how much recovery work still had to be done,” Young said. “FEMA trailers were everywhere, and debris from the hurricane was still stuck in the fences.

“These farmers grow rice, but because of the damage done to the soil by the flood waters, the fields cannot support crops.”

Alpha Zeta worked with the Louisiana Farm Bureau to create the five-day volunteer project in Vermilion Parish.

“Many of the farmers we assisted work full-time jobs during the day only to come home and work until nightfall rebuilding their homes,” Young said. “The area where I worked was located five miles inland, and they still had three feet of standing water in their homes after the storm,”

A native of Lansing, North Carolina, where hurricanes are not uncommon, Young knows the devastating effects storms can have on a region.

“Houses can be rebuilt, fields can be fertilized, and the local economy can once again prosper,” Young said. “Everyone is so upbeat and positive about the future … I do not doubt that they will recover.”