SABINE PASS — Betty Adkins watched as a group of volunteers and family members hauled shovels full of mud and marsh grass out of her home of 35 years.

“Here’s your phone,” a friend called out with a laugh as she handed Adkins a mud covered telephone.

“Wrong number,” Adkins answered in return as she let the phone, cord and receiver, drop to the ground at her feet.

The lifelong resident of Sabine Pass has been on an emotional roller coaster for more than a month — her mother died Sept. 8 in Alabama and was to be buried in Sabine Pass but the funeral was postponed until Sept. 23 because of Hurricane Ike.

Then the home she grew up in and later raised her children in was destroyed.

“I don’t know if I can tolerate living here,” she said when asked if she will rebuild.

While Adkins’ feelings about rebuilding her childhood home may fluctuate her thoughts about Saturday’s community-wide cleanup were positive.

Sliding past the thick dark mud in the kitchen to the mud and marsh grass and dead snake in the living room, Travis Adkins, Betty’s son, Bobby Manuel, Charles Adkins, Betty’s husband and Jennifer Ravey used pitchforks and roofing shovels to haul the sludge out of the house via the broken windows. Several members of the group were in Bridge City last weekend helping clean hurricane debris during an event named Mid-County Kindness.

“But we have to help for more than just one weekend,” Ravey said as the others nodded in agreement. “We could work each weekend for a year and that may not be enough. We just don’t want people to think that this is it, the debris is gone.”

Hundreds of volunteers descended on the small, close-knit community of Sabine Pass on Saturday for a Hurricane Ike cleanup day. Local businesses, credit unions, schools and individuals spent the day either cleaning or distributing food and drinks.

South Gulfway Drive, which runs in front of Sabine Pass School, seemed more like a carnival midway with people on either side of the road holding up signs touting free food. Gumbo, links, barbecue and cake were served to the hungry free of charge.

Clad in rubber boots and sitting in the back of a pickup truck, School Principal Kristi Heid said there was a festival-like atmosphere in town. As she spoke, a piece of heavy machinery, driven very slow, moved by holding several women who yelled and waved to Heid.

Even with destruction in every direction people were smiling and laughing while working to help their fellow man.

Debbie Franz, with Nederland Independent School District, spent the day driving around delivering food and drinks.

“We’re all part of the community whether you live in Sabine Pass, Groves, LaBelle, wherever. We’re all together,” Franz said. “If you can go out and help someone else, whether its just giving them a bottle of water, you’re helping.”

Sue Lane, marketing director at Gulf Credit Union, called the experience rewarding.

“It’s the least we can do to help the community,” Lane said. “We went to Bridge City last week and to Fannett on Tuesday.”

Lane’s group included representatives from other credit unions, Southern Kitchen restaurant, The Muffler Shop and Johnny’s Wrecker Service.

The cleanup effort was organized through the Greater Port Arthur Chamber of Commerce and included groups from neighboring cities and from as far away as the Dallas/Forth Worth area.

Hurricane Ike struck the Galveston area on Sept. 13 damaging the tourist town and obliterating the coastal towns of Crystal Beach and the Boliver Peninsula with high winds and a storm surge of about 20 feet.

Closer to home, Sea Rim State Park, located just outside Sabine Pass, received a wall of water more than 20 feet high, destroying the park. The Sabine Pass area received about 15 foot of water at its doorstep.