One Life Uprooted To Help Rebuild Many Others
Arlington Man Moves to Mississippi To Repair Homes of Katrina Victims

By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, August 27, 2006

Like many Americans, Peter Salemme was deeply affected by the devastation that Hurricane Katrina wrought one year ago.

Unlike most, Salemme uprooted his life to help. Five months ago, he moved to Biloxi, Miss., to work full time for a year on the recovery effort, leaving behind his wife and five children in Arlington.

His family wasn't crazy about the idea. "I put in a word against it," said Salemme's 19-year-old son, Bob. "Biloxi can get more volunteers, but you can't go to the store and pick up another dad because he wasn't home."

Salemme, 54, understood the concern but felt a calling he still can't fully explain. "I had my logical mind, all the reasons why there was no way on Earth I could do this," he said. "I have a job and a wife and five kids and a mortgage. But I knew in my heart I had to do this."

So Salemme, a kitchen designer at Home Depot in Falls Church, arranged a one-year transfer to the company's Biloxi store. He bought a used RV. And he packed up and headed south, where he has spent the past five months rebuilding houses for Habitat for Humanity each morning, working at Home Depot each evening and then collapsing into bed in his RV, which is parked behind a church.

"I feel very fulfilled, very satisfied," Salemme said recently in a telephone interview crammed into his busy schedule. "It feels like I need to be here. I feel like I'm responding to a call, and I'm happy I've taken action on it."

The people coordinating the recovery in Biloxi, on Mississippi's Gulf Coast, couldn't be happier, either. "Peter is really important to the whole effort. It's a pretty amazing sacrifice he's making," said Bart Tucker, who as president of Habitat for Humanity of Northern Virginia lured Salemme on his first trip to Biloxi last November.

Even Salemme's family has come around. Three of his children joined him in Mississippi for the summer, and son Bob said he is "extremely proud of what my dad is doing."

Salemme's wife, Lois, who works in the cheese section at Harris Teeter in Arlington, acknowledges she is lonely without him. "This is a difficult time for me because I love my husband," she said. But she recently returned from a visit to Biloxi, and said she understands why he had to go. "I am more than proud of him," she said. "I am proud of him for being a good American."

Salemme's sacrifice is part of a broader relief effort that area residents have mounted since Katrina slammed into New Orleans and parts of the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, killing more than 1,000 people and triggering the largest exodus of homeless people in U.S. history.

Salemme, an experienced carpenter, was familiar with Habitat for Humanity. He had been volunteering for the organization in Northern Virginia since 1992 and had worked on construction projects in Mexico, South Africa and other parts of the world. His 1,800-square-foot duplex in Arlington was built by Habitat volunteers.

Tucker, who has known Salemme since 1997, recalled that he was driving by Home Depot in late October between visits to Biloxi. "So I spin into Home Depot, and I say 'Peter, we're going to Biloxi tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. I need you.' He said, 'I'm going.' He came a week later."

Salemme, who watched television coverage of Katrina obsessively and said he believed that "these things shouldn't be happening in America," was eager to help. "I couldn't resist the invitation," he said. "It seemed like the government wasn't really doing too much, and this was an opportunity to do something and get people back into their homes."

When he arrived, Salemme was stunned by the devastation. "There were piles and piles of stuff on the roads. Signs were down everywhere. All along the coast, you'd see these big billboards like Denny's and Waffle House, you'd see the sign, but the restaurant was gone, and there would just be a slab of concrete where the floor had been.

"I'd never seen anything like it."

That week changed his life. "It made me grateful for what I have," he said. "I was moved that so many families were affected. A lot of the people you talked to, there was a kind of a daze in their eyes; they basically didn't know what to do. Your whole home and job, everything was just wiped out."

After returning to work in Northern Virginia, Salemme spent another week in Biloxi in January. "It was something during that week that I received the idea in my mind, or in my head or heart or from God. I think it was from God," said Salemme, a member of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church. "I got the idea to come down here for one year, full time."

Salemme said he framed his arguments to his wife and to his children, ages 14 to 20, partly in patriotic terms. "I felt this was a kind of way to serve my nation," he said. "So I told my wife and kids that 'I'd like to take a year off, and that Daddy is going off to war for a year in Biloxi. Some men go to Afghanistan and Iraq and all that. I'm going to Biloxi.' "

Since he arrived in March, Salemme's daily schedule has been grueling. He awakens at 6 a.m., has breakfast in the church and drives a church van 20 minutes to the Habitat construction site. He volunteers for Habitat until 2 or 3 p.m., overseeing as many as 15 other volunteers at whatever home they are rebuilding that week.

Salemme and his crews have rebuilt 15 homes so far and are working on five more. He described his role as that of a "roving troubleshooter." One day last week, for example, he showed four female volunteers how to install ceramic tile on a cement slab. Also last week, he had to use jacks to lift a house up to level out the floor because it had sunk six inches in the back corner. The floodwaters did tremendous damage to the properties, many of which are old and small and were built on vulnerable cinderblock piers, he said.

"It's much harder to rebuild a house than to build one. It takes a lot more finesse," Salemme said. "Once it's dried and treated for mold, all the electrical has to be redone because the saltwater and the wires don't mix. You have to gut it. The windows have to be replaced. A lot of the metal was corroded because of the salt water."

After leaving the Habitat site, Salemme drives back to his RV, has a snack and shower (and a 10- to 15-minute nap if there is time) and goes to work at Home Depot from 5 to 10 p.m. weekdays (and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays). Nearly all the work is Katrina-related. "In Northern Virginia, people typically come in and say, 'It's time to remodel my kitchen,' " he said. "Almost 100 percent of the people who walk into the store here, I say, 'What's in your kitchen now?' and they say, 'Nothing, it's all been demolished.' "

Salemme said he has "transcended being tired. I've taken being tired to a new level, gone beyond it to a new stage that I don't know what it's called yet. But I just keep going."

Much of his energy comes from his love of what he is doing. "I get energy from working. I sleep well and, yes, I feel appreciated," he said. "I like unconditional giving. This has been an unforgettable, life-changing experience."

Salemme, who is planning to stay until March and might ask his family to consider moving to Biloxi, said he talks to his wife by telephone at least once a day and that they e-mail each other. Histhree teenage sons have been with him for the summer and have spent time volunteering for Habitat. "It's great, it's wonderful having them here," he said. "I think they are learning a lot, which is good for them. They are learning about life and about giving and construction and building and how to get along with people."

As for Biloxi's recovery, Salemme said it is "slow but sure. It's slowly coming back. But it's going to take years."