I preface this diary with the caveat that I was neither financially nor physically devastated by Katrina though a few of my relatives were impacted in such ways. My experience of Katrina is purely emotional. I have spent a part of almost every single summer in my 26 years of life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast - sometimes months. My grandparents, Harry and Marilyn bought an acre of land in a tiny town called
Lakeshore in the 50's. it was their escape from city life and a place where their soon to be 11 children could go fishing, play at the beach, eat snow balls, etc. The house was destroyed by Camille and rebuilt - damaged by Isidore and Lili in 2002 and renovated and then in 2005 the house simply vanished. Left in its place was rubble - parts of the fireplace and foundation, the dishwasher with unbroken dishes inside, the Virgin Mary statue intact, etc.
Our family home before Katrina. One week after the storm.
My parents traveled to the coast a week after the storm hit to help relatives in Slidell and to survey the damage. In July, I went back for the first time since the storm. I've been toying with writing a diary ever since I got back, but every time I opened up my pictures I just could not handle looking through them. Lakeshore, Waveland, Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Gulfport, Biloxi, New Orleans all have special places in my heart. The memories are too numerous to list and I'm crying just think about them so I'll let the pictures - 10 months after the storm - speak for themselves. Many of the pictures are of the devastation that still remains, but that does not mean there isn't hope along the coast. This was my personal journey through a beloved area and the pictures are of places that mean something to me. Most of the places I love are still in desperate need of rebuilding. I wrote 2 previous diaries soon after the storm hit detailing my
memories of Lakeshore and
pictures my Mom took the weekend after Katrina.
A panoramic of the property 10 months after Katrina. The car is roughly where our screened in porch used to be. The reason it looks like a desert wasteland is because all the pine trees are dying or dead. If they weren't knocked down by the storm, the saltwater they were soaked in finished the job.
St. John's church on Lakeshore Rd.
What's left of Bayou Caddy Fishing Camp in Lakeshore.
St. Clare's in Bay St. Louis where I spent many hours in the swimming pool and in the pews. The school and church have reopened all in temporary buildings.
First run movies for $2 at the Cinema 4 in Bay St. Louis was a fantastic deal we took advantage of many, many times.
Boats in weird places abound all along the Gulf Coast.
FEMA Sucks - truer words...
F*** FEMA on another boat that landed in a random spot.
As I write this I have Anderson Cooper 360 on my TV in the background. He's doing a retrospective on Katrina, the devestation and the government response. I was a democrat and I despised the Bush administration and their policies even before Katrina; now, the depth of my intense dislike is unfathomable. And yet, I can't even say I hate them because my Grandma - responsible for getting us hooligans to church in the summers - always said one should never hate anyone, but an intense dislike was ok. One of the many lessons learned and cherished memories from Lakeshore.