Posted on Oct. 6, 2005
Steps to nothing. Beachfront housing is now just the beach front. No houses in view. This is Pearlington, Ms. As I have made my way down the Gulf coast I always thought one place would really stick out at the worst hit, but it hasn't. I was convinced it was Pass Christian. Then I came to Pearlington. Miles of debris. Houses that look like a wet deck of cards. Lines of trucks..... I know lines of trucks does not fit in to that list but it is the reality here today.
With literally tons of debris that has to be removed before ANYTHING can be done to peoples property the trucks line up and sit. And sit. For two days a line about 2-3 miles long of debris trucks has not moved. Workers pull out some lawn furniture and settle in. Afraid to lose their spot in line in case they are "allowed" to work and fill their trucks with debris. They lined up here two days ago to have the trucks measured and inspected and have not moved. Many have had to make modifications to their trucks for safety reasons. At one point they were told only Mississippi trucks would be measured and used but this brought about a near riot, and in the end, as trucks were counted only 5 were actually Mississippi trucks. The rest from other states here to help. HERE TO HELP.
Sure they make a living providing this help, but it is what MIssissippi needs. This is not the time to be worrying about who is making the dollars. Just get the debris out and give the people a chance. I'm not politician, and actually don't care for politics alot but it is time for someone to do something. Let them work.
Rumors fly around the trucks that the landfills are full. No place to go. Definitely seems believable but this is just hearsay at this point. Maybe the people in charge should just make their own sign that says," We can't decide who gets to make the money, so you can sleep on a cot with a few hundred other people in a community center for ANOTHER month." Now that would go over really well.
Posted on Oct. 5, 2005
There is a Kentucky presence on the Gulfcoast. From what I hear there is a big presence but I can only speak to what I know. Today was a day I hung out with members of the Kentucky Department of Public Health. We started at the Alabama/Mississippi border and ended at the Louisiana/Mississippi border. Quite a day of travel, sights, and helping people.
While Carolyn Boaz of Princeton, Ky. and Jan Brown of Morganfield did some health checks at local high schools, Bill Baker, of Tomkinsville, Ky. helped residents of Pearlington, which was wiped out, learn how to check their water at what homes were left, as well as making sure the water at the relief center was safe for the residents. It may seem like a small thing they are doing but they are helping hundreds of people each day. Some of these towns are total populations in the hundreds, so it IS a big deal. They tell me about what other Kentuckians are doing down here. I wish I had time to find them but it's just too much. Too much ground to cover, to much devastation, not enough time.
My day ended when I spotted a line of debris trucks stretching about 3 miles long. Just sitting there. I asked a few drivers what the deal was and they said they have not moved or picked up any debris in two days. They have heard it may be that there is no longer any place to take the debris. Two of the three landfills are rumored full and there has hardly been a dent taken out of the debris in places like Waveland, and Pass Christian, among others. We'll see about that tomorrow. Where do you put what amounts to a whole town of debris?
Posted on Oct. 4, 2005
My day started with a lead on some migrant workers who had reportedly been kicked out of a shelter and no one could say why. When we arrived at the shelter, in Pass Christian, it was no wonder no one was around. The workers are just that, workers, and are gathered each morning by crews to clear debris, build roofs, whatever. As we sat in front of the shelter getting the official Red Cross spin on things a van pulled up and I looked at the State shield on the side of it. Kentucky. I did not think twice about it and went on listening to the report. KENTUCKY! Now wait a second, it took me a second to absorb, that is MY state. Who is it? Why are they here? I approach to tell them I am from Ky and work at the Herald Leader. They are happy to see another Kentuckian just like I am. They are with the Kentucky Department of Public Health and they are at the shelter today to make sure they have all the supplies they need at the shelter.
I have hooked up with them and hopefully will accompany them to test waters in some local wells on Wednesday. No photos for you today. I shot a few but nothing that feels new to me. Just the same destruction, and loss. We have all seen alot of that, and have months or years to see even more of that in this area.
Posted on Oct. 3, 2005
I am in Gulfport and Biloxi but keep being drawn to the Pass Christian part of the area. It still just amazes me how much is gone. I don't even have alot of perspective for what used to be here except for the empty areas that were yards with house, kids playing , tool sheds, the whole family thing. Now nothing. There are no people here. All evacuated to shelters. Many have not even seen their homes. There are military roadblocks to even get into the area. Trying to prevent looting but there is really nothing here to loot. Granted once you get a 1/2 mile from the coast there are partial buildings but nothing to take. All has been submerged under a 30+ wall of water when Katrina hit.
The apartment buildings which stand as skeletons of a structure are quiet, most of the people of Pass Christian will either move into a trailer, if they are land owners, or into a "tent city" being built by the Navy Seabees who have made huge progress on a 74 tent city that is being built in 7-10 days. The difference in what it looked like the first day I was there on September 29 and how it looked on October 1 is amazing. I will be back there one more time as the people of Pass Christian move in. Should be a happy day. As happy as can be.
Posted on Oct. 2, 2005
The sky is blue, humidity not too bad, and the ocean is beautiful ...until you turn back to see the shore. Despite all the work construction crews have done, it's a mess. Drive down Hwy 90 in Pass Christian and there is only a wall of debris, which used to be houses and the trees. Occasionally, there is just a blank spot where a house used to be. Now totally washed away leaving just a slab. Farther down Hwy 90, you find the casino area. A lone bike rider looks like he is riding through a war zone rather than a tourist mecca.
Getting away from the coast, I head across the Biloxi river and look over to still see many boats pushed up on the bank. The rest of my Sunday was spent in Mobile, Ala., where lots of folks from Biloxi and Gulfport head to have some sense of normalcy, doing some shopping and eating at a fully functional restaurant. I take advantage of this myself. Athough I have only been here a week, I didn't realize how tired of granola and peanut butter and jelly I was.
Posted on Oct. 1, 2005
As the airplane started over the Gulf Coast before landing, people in the seats away from the window leaned in to get a view. At first, it was just kind of a dirty beach; it was easy to quickly think maybe it's not as bad as I expected. Then you cross over an area that used to be a business area, and I stress the word used. Now it looks like - I don’t even know what it looks like other than to say it reminds me of a tobacco barn after a tornado at home. Just piles of wood, steel, and debris everywhere. It’s not centralized like all the photos I saw of 9/11 so it looks even more surreal. It quickly passes though as we touchdown at the airport.
After pulling out of the airport and getting directions to the newspaper, The Sun Herald, I quickly see there are no street signs. There are no signs period. Even those huge billboard poles are broken in half. The ones that seem as thick as a 100-yr-old sycamore tree, bent right over. I am totally lost so I pull into a Wal-Mart that has just reopened a week or so back. I buy a cooler, some water, bug spray and a few bags of ice, not realizing that I won’t be able to find ice again for 3 days (at a Red Cross relief center). I had been told by some of my photographer friends to buy these supplies cause it’s hotter than hell, and cool drinks can be hard to come by. Luckily, many gas stations are open and drinks are not that hard to find like they were only days before.
I drive on looking for the paper, all the while dropping my jaw at all the sights of destruction here. I would find a few days later that the destruction I was seeing was really nothing compared to areas closer to the coast. My first day at the paper, I was sent to the beach area and saw first hand what it was really like. I feel like Biloxi is the forgotten city as far as television and the media goes. What I am seeing is that with everyone focused on New Orleans, they forget that Biloxi actually took Hurricane Katrina right in the mouth and suffered more damage from the storm than New Orleans did. New Orleans is getting a lot of press, and rightly so, but it is only because of the levees breaking. If those levees did not break, it would be all Biloxi, all the time. The city is trashed. Boats are up in the middle of town. I shot a photo of a casino that I thought looked like a barge, but it was on land. Only later found out it was supposed to be in the water and was tossed on land like a shoe box, crushing other buildings across Hwy 90. Restaurants are gutted and look like the picnic pavilions at Jacobson park. Just a roof and corner supports. Everything inside gone. EVERYTHING, the huge ovens, grills counters, tables. I actually asked a policeman if restaurants took all the stuff themselves but the answer was no. Most of them just boarded up and hoped for the best.
A day later, I am in some of the many relief shelters. People are in pretty good spirits. Five-year-old Tori Masters uses a Red Cross banner as a cape and “flies” around the D’Iberville Community center which is now home and has been for a month for her mom, dad, 3 sisters and a brother. She seems happy. Thank goodness she is not still traumatized about what has happened to her home. She probably doesn’t even know or understand yet. That is another good thing.
Barry Hurlbut, a Vietnam vet who lost his house in 1992 is back in the shelter now after losing everything again to Katrina. He says he is “ getting too old to keep starting over”. He is also unhappy with FEMA. Which has still not gotten him his relief check. Makes him angry to talk about. All his friends and neighbors have their checks but his is still “processing” for some reason. He is staying at the Good Deeds Community Center, and it’s not in what he calls a good part of town. He went for a walk one evening and was held up at gunpoint by some people from the surrounding neighborhood. He tells them if they want to shoot him for the $1.60 he has in his pocket, then to go ahead and shoot. $1.60. That is what he survived with. A torn in half dollar bill at that ... oh yeah and his lighter. A man goes from a home and all the normal possessions, and now has a dollar bill no one will take and .60, which won’t even get him a bottle of water in the best of circumstances.
The next day or so I visit an area called Pass Christian. Gone. At least the coastal part is gone, just slabs where houses used to be, and occasionally, some steps leading up to nothing. Everything off the coast is shattered. It is said the water wall came in about 30 ft high with waves on top of it. Probably came in about a mile before sucking things back into the water with it. I plan to visit Pass Christian several more times and will have photos to share.
