More Katrina stuff
I'd just started going to college about two hours north of the MS Gulf Coast. Because of how close we were to the coast, and how many families were evacuating for Katrina, everyone was kicked off of campus, so I went to stay with my parents. Initially, we weren't going to evacuate because she was a Cat 3. Most of those you can ride out, although it's a good idea to at least board up your windows and doors.
Saturday morning, my dad woke me up at 8 and said, "She's a 4. They're saying she'll hit 5. Pack your stuff."
I immediately got up and began packing anything that was essential. Mom booked us a hotel in Panama City Beach, Florida, and we got the hell out of there. So many people were evacuating, it took us eight hours instead of four to get to the hotel.
Even in PCB, it was stormy as hell. The waves practically hit the sides of the hotels on the beach, and the wind howled for the entire night.
I remember watching the news the next day with my parents, in utter shock, as a helicopter flew over Highway 90 in Mississippi showing the devastation. We agreed right there that if we came back and saw that our house was too damaged to repair, we were turning around and moving to Tennessee. A hard decision, but we were used to relocating.
They weren't really letting people back into the area yet, but after four days (with a pitstop because there was literally no gas in Pensacola for over a day), we drove the backroads and got back into Ocean Springs. From west to east, the cities are Bay St. Louis -> Pass Christian -> Long Beach -> Gulfport -> Biloxi -> Ocean Springs; out of those cities, all but Ocean Springs were pretty much right on the beach. Because of this, our city didn't get hit quite as hard, but it still took a heavy blow.
Our house was fine. Hell, our entire neighborhood was fine. We were on some of the highest ground in the city, and a good way inland. Our AC unit had been blown over, but the neighbors had already righted it for us, and there were a few shingles that came off the roof.
I have friends that lived close to the beach and lost their homes. They were just... swept away. Dad was the flood plain inspector for Biloxi, and he told us about the damage he saw there; it was heartbreaking. It still is. I still remember the look on his face when he told us about how many people refused to believe what was left of their houses needed to be torn down because it wasn't safe. They had to build anew. Most of these people had lived in those houses their entire lives. All those memories, gone.
Dad drove me around Biloxi one day, so I could see the damage first-hand. Houses had literally been picked up off their foundations and moved several feet away. The beautiful Southern plantation homes on the beach were gone. Swept into the Gulf. The Grand Casino in Biloxi was ripped in half; one half was out in the Gulf, and the other was nearly a mile inland.
The Ocean Springs-Biloxi bridge was utterly destroyed. The bridge that withstood Hurricane Camille in the 60's.
You had to wait for hours in line to gas up your car, and it was rationed. Water, too. Traffic was horrendous because of Highway 90 being covered with debris and the bridge gone. Everyone had to take I-10.
I didn't stay in the area long because I had to go back up to Perkinston for college, but I did help out with the cleanup in the Beau Rivage for a day.
What happened in New Orleans was horrible, too. By now, everyone knows about the levees and how they knew the damn things wouldn't hold up in a storm, but they spent money on the Superdome instead. Football and concerts are more important than people's lives. :|
I just... it never fails to piss me off when Katrina is brought up in a conversation and all everyone talks about is New Orleans. The media had so much coverage on that area, and most of the country literally does not realize how badly damaged Mississippi was. You can repair a house with flood damage, but you can't repair one that has been ripped into pieces by a 30 foot wave of water, or been moved off of its very foundation.
Pictures will never properly convey the devastation if you've seen it first-hand like I have.
