As a new hurricane season has arrived in our Gulf Coast region, many of the residents are still reeling from the devastation wrought by last year’s hurricanes, Katrina and Rita. Their double punch, followed by catastrophic flooding and the government’s failure to help, left the region on its knees and, ten months later, finds many communities still struggling.

Pockets of progress and forward motion are becoming more evident but, for most, recovery efforts have been slow, inconsistent and rife with political infighting.

Many of the most heavily affected areas of Mississippi and Louisiana remain museums of devastation. Now scattered throughout the region, over one million people continue to struggle to repair their fractured lives.

Lack of available or affordable housing, public school systems in disarray and downgraded employment opportunities are all part of the brutal realities that daily confront this already traumatized community. Added to this hardship is the near total collapse of the public health care system. As the list of needs and challenges grows, the inability of local, state and federal government to address them remains sobering.

The grim truth is that many of the very institutions designed to aid in the disaster recovery were either destroyed by the storms or, worse yet, had their existing inadequacies made abundantly clear.

Much of the burden of finding solutions to the problems presented by the evacuees has fallen on the shoulders of the region’s not for profit clinics. This remarkable community of people and nonprofit groups, all of whom also suffered from the wrath of the hurricanes, stepped in to fill the void left by the failure and indifference of so many institutions.

They have worked tirelessly to provide necessary health care and social services under dire circumstances. They were the first responders in the emergency phase and now act as the vital stopgap for so many evacuees left without options. They are the unsung heroes of this disaster and Operation USA has been privileged to support them.

Our ongoing support is needed now more than ever. A recent Operation USA visit to the region made clear how absorbing these added burdens has stretched the already limited resources of the clinics and left them struggling to meet expanding needs.

Most pressing is the need to address the dramatic rise of the mental health issues which pervade a disaster of this magnitude. Diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have soared, as have rates of depression and, most tragically, suicide. Fears that these rates will continue to rise are being realized as a new hurricane season begins, bringing with it nightmarish possibilities.

School counselors, social workers and psychologists all reported overwhelming case loads in the wake of the disaster. Their burdens will only continue to increase as, this fall, so many displaced children return to schools carrying with them the uncertainties and challenges that now permeate their young lives.

Our 50 clinic partners are implementing programs designed to address these mental health issues but, they require additional funding to accommodate the increased case loads.

Operation USA, through the generosity of our donors, will continue to assist in bridging these funding gaps. Your support has helped to keep the doors of these clinics open to the evacuees and returnees who so desperately need their services.

The Herculean task ahead is formidable, but their extraordinary work has shown us that while the problems of recovery remain large, even daunting, they are not unsolvable.