August 28, 2005... Katrina off Mississippi
14 hours before Landfall.
I was going to take the second anniversary of the storm to try and write something meaningful about what I've learned volunteering on the gulf coast, but these pictures probably say it better than I can...
They may look like they were all shot at the same place and time, but these are photos taken during a two-year period over a 65-mile stretch of the Gulf Coast. All my snapshots from the gulf have a certain sameness; the inevitable "Katrina Patina" that is now encrusted on everything, and the almost universal lack of any major rebuilding. It's as if, once the roads were opened up and most of debris was hauled away, time simply stopped.
Those who live in the Katrina Zone already know this:
The sad, shameful truth is that if the recovery keeps moving at its current pace, the next 24 months are likely to look an awful lot like the last 24.
February 2006: Business District, Pass Christian, Mississippi
April 2006: 1.5 miles inland, Pass Christian, MS
April 2006: Bay Saint Louis, MS
December 2006: Lower 9th Ward, New Orleans, LA
April 2007: Central Business District, Bay Saint Louis, MS
April 2007: Treme neighborhood, New Orleans, LA
April 2007: St. Bernard Parish, LA
I could put up more, but they're pretty much the same... then again, that's the point.
And in case those in Washington haven't noticed, part of our country is still missing.