Merrill Oster: The Angel of Iowa

By Amy Meade

HappyNews Citizen Reporter

When Merrill Oster received a call for help from a relative in Mississippi who had been a victim of Hurricane Katrina, he did more than answer the telephone. The longtime businessman and farmer from Cedar Falls, Iowa packed his bags and traveled to his cousin's hometown of Brookhaven, about 100 miles north of the New Orleans city limits. What he found there was life altering.

With no money, no gas and no homes, the town of Brookhaven -and especially the members of the Easthaven Baptist Church -had opened its arms to refugees from the city of New Orleans. When Oster arrived the day after the storm, he found that church members, themselves victims, had harbored 250 people in the hours immediately preceding and following the hurricane. One hundred and fifty of them had decided to stay.

Ranging in age from 7 days to 85 years, each of the displaced Louisiana residents had their story to tell. A group of 12 had waded through chest deep water to get to the New Orleans Convention Center only to find that the eagerly awaited buses were not arriving. Deciding that staying in the horrible conditions there was worse than trying to travel to safety, they appropriated a New Orleans city dump truck and arrived, some time later, in Brookhaven, exhausted, hungry and in a state of shock.

The 85 year old victim - the oldest in the church - had arrived at the church when her car broke down five miles away just before the height of the storm. Upon arrival, she told Jamie Oster, a superintendent of maintenance at the local high school and the cousin who had called Merrill, that she had left her heart medication in the car. Jamie retrieved the medication and arrived safely back at the church. The woman offered Jamie her 'lucky' silver dollar. Jamie turned it down and later found someone who would repair her car for the token sum of $45, after another repairman had quoted $450.

Others had made it back to their residences immediately following the storm, only to find that nothing from their previous lives was salvageable. They returned to Brookhaven devastated and in tears, grieving for their cherished pasts and sentimental treasures while confronting the daunting task of starting anew with nothing to rely upon but the clothes on their backs and the kindness of strangers.

However, at least they had each other. In the hours that ensued, they swapped survival stories, prayed for friends and relatives who were missing and wished that, somehow, the sun would shine again. Sharing a profound sense of loss, black and white, young and old came together, each helping the other in preparing meals, wiping tears and giving each other hope that life would, indeed, go on.

They spent every moment together, sleeping on air mattresses in the church's Sunday school rooms, sharing towels for bathing, eating their sparse meals of Spam sandwiches in the church dining room and being cared for by the overwhelming generosity of the three church staff members and a handful of Red Cross volunteers.

The church had offered a haven in the wake of the hurricane's destruction, and the church members welcomed them to stay for as long as they needed, but it was apparent from the outset that the new residents couldn't live there indefinitely. Moreover, 100 volunteers from area churches would be arriving in less than a week. Those volunteers would also require temporary housing. What could be done?

Enter Merrill Oster. With the common sense of a Midwestern farmer, the foresight of an American businessman and the organizational skills of an army general, he took the situation into his own hands. With his own money he rented three houses at $500 a month for a period of one year. The houses would serve as temporary housing for the volunteers as well as some of the victims.

With the problem of volunteer housing solved, he moved on to caring for the victims. Planning a temporary city, he dispatched an email 'call to arms' requesting donations of used camping trailers, money, clothing, food, bottled water and used cars. With kitchens, bathrooms and air conditioning, the trailers would offer all the necessary conveniences while still allowing victims a modicum of privacy and dignity - a precious commodity after their stay at the shelter. Money would help to purchase whatever food, water and clothing they did not receive from donations, the Red Cross or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Used cars would enable victims to drive to job interviews so that they could begin to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.

With the vision of a 'temporary city' firmly entrenched in his brain, Oster then set about the logistics of building such a makeshift community. He spoke with local farmers in order to secure parking spaces for the trailers and sent out a request for volunteers to help organize the encampment as well as coordinators to assist him in managing the influx of supplies and vehicles.

Although Easthaven Church members had been donating every spare minute of their days, they needed to provide for their own families as well as tend to the damages their homes had sustained as a result of the storm. Likewise, he wanted someone with a working knowledge of the government aid system - someone who could act as an advocate for the victims being sheltered in the Easthaven Church. Someone who could ensure that they would receive the supplies and funds they needed to survive.

As if this was not enough, he also went in search of apartments for the victims, especially two women who had arrived in the shelter in their car and with nothing on their backs. After a night in the shelter, they went to the local Walmart in search of jobs and were immediately hired. Inspired by the women's story, Oster immediately sought out, and secured, three apartments, depositing the necessary first and last months' rents with his own funds.

And his efforts did not stop in Mississippi. He contacted friends, associates, and friends back in Iowa. One, Bob Smith, a real estate developer and friend from his church in Cedar Falls, joined him in Brookhaven to work around the housing issues plaguing the church.

But most of all, Merrill Oster prayed. He prayed for others to join in the recovery efforts. He prayed that his plans would succeed and that the victims would not experience further disappointment. He prayed for the man whose house, and possibly son, daughter-in-law and three grandchildren, were lying at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. He prayed that relief agencies would come through with their promises.

As he said from his desk at the Easthaven Church, "From a business standpoint this is poor planning, but from the chair where I sit, surrounded by families who have lost every earthly possession, I know this is the right thing to do.

His prayers were answered. The Red Cross arrived and delivered money to the victims, ranging from $250 to $1200 per family. Food, clothing, and money came pouring in from the North. People from Iowa donated approximately 20 vacant campers. Southern Baptists churches donated money for the gas required to fill RV tanks as well as the used cars being used for interviews. And what the Lord did not provide, Merrill Oster provided himself. He purchased 10 good used cars and arranged for them to be brought to Mississippi. He bought an additional 14 RV's at $20,000 a piece from a dealer in his hometown of Cedar Falls.

He organized a caravan to drive those RV's to Brookhaven, all the while collecting donations of cash. He planned on the donations reaching nearly $200,000, including $30,000 of his own money. However, if they didn't reach that goal, he and his wife, Carol, were prepared to make up the difference. He arranged for the RV's to be connected to the local sewer and water system at a former trailer site, even though the site was to be developed by its owner.

Oster thanked the Lord, "God is providing in amazing ways every day. We have come a long way since that first week. People had one towel, the clothes on their back, and a spam sandwich for a meal. Food, clothing and love are now available in giant abundance."

Oster may thank the Lord, but others thank Oster. For he is the person who made all this possible, and the person who wants no credit for his actions. Of all the photographs supplied for this article, none of them include him. As friend, Gene Redlin says: "This is just like Merrill, putting everything on the line to do what he knows is right in his heart. The world needs more like him."

So is Merill Oster an angel? If one were to ask him, he'd probably claim to be a simple farmer, an American, a man. But if he is merely a man, he reminds the rest of us men, in the words of Abraham Lincoln, to "listen to the better angels of our natures."

To donate to Merrill Orton's Homes of Hope, please mail checks to

Easthaven Baptist Church

Attn: Phil Turner,

PO Box 882

Brookhaven, Mississippi 39602

This story was produced by a Happy News Citizen Journalist Amy Meade. Amy would like to request that donations be made to Homes of Hope in leiu of contributions to her tip jar.

Amy is a freelance writer who is awaiting publication of her first novel, 'Million Dollar Baby' (no afilliation with the film)in April 2006 by Llewellyn Worldwide's new mystery imprint, Midnight Ink.

For more information on contributing to Happy News, click here.