Three Years Later....

IHOP
Kitchen
Hwy. 90
Gulfport









Curtains
Still
Wrapped
in the
Branches











Where
This Church
Once Stood







Kmart
Sign, The
Only Thing
Left Behind









Three years ago today we were finalizing our plans to evacuate to Oxford, Mississippi to stay with family. We had gotten the news that Hurricane Katrina, with the potential to be a Category 5, was bearing down on us. Even being 3 miles from the beach we were under a mandatory evacuation order. We finished boarding the windows and loaded the important papers, 3 days worth of clothes each, books, knitting, 1 black lab, and 2 cats between 2 vehicles. We had to travel the back roads north to Oxford and everywhere we went was ghostly quiet. Nothing was open and no one was out on the streets, even 150 miles from the Coast!

Today I drove a 5 mile section of Highway 90 between Gulfport and Long Beach to take pictures for our intrepid girl reporter to use in a "before & after" story for the newspaper that employs her. These are just a sample of what I emailed to her. Even now, 3 years later, it makes breaks my heart to travel what was once a gorgeous stretch of highway and see the remnants of what "used to be". The beautiful stately homes are gone...only slabs remain over grown with weeds. The great restaurants and historical attractions (one of the greatest cultural disasters in the history of the U.S.) are only memories. The recovery is just so slow.

The Mississippi Gulf Coast is the forgotten victim of Hurricane Katrina. Being on the east side of the storm, we took the brunt of the wind and rain and the surge!What happened in New Orleans was tragic but it was man-made. Had the levees remained intact there wouldn't have been much of a story there. But, here in Mississippi, thousands were homeless...with literally no place to go. The emergency shelters were crammed to maximum capacity. No one was prepared for what the light of day revealed. And, still the story in the media is New Orleans. There are places along the Coast that the wind-driven water measured over 33 feet! For almost 9 hours the watered pounded everything in its path and then plundered the household goods of hundreds of families by dragging their treasures back toward the water...leaving a trail of heartache and tears!

Thankfully, faith-based groups came to the rescue...almost immediately groups of men from Southern Baptist churches all over the country mobilized. Samaritan's Purse U.S. and Canadian divisions arrived with hundreds of volunteers...as well as the Mennonites, the Amish, Catholics, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists...etc., the hands and feet of Jesus in action! And, many of these groups still have a major presence here quietly rebuilding homes and lives. Although we will never be the same, we have learned to be tenacious! We will overcome! And, we will come back better and stronger than before!

Pray for our protection during this Hurricane season! We can't breathe easier until November!