Hurricane Katrina in Mississippi

Entering a disaster zone:

On August 29th ,2005 Hurricane Katrina came ashore on the Louisiana and Mississippi coasts as a category 4 hurricane and changed the lives of millions of people. On September 4th , 2005 I was dispatched to go for a 30 day assignment to participate in the recovery effort as a supply manager at Stennis Space Center which is located near the Louisiana border just north of Waveland, Mississippi. I was flown into the Mobile, Alabama airport where I was picked up by a ground support driver from the incident management team I was to join. The drive west along the highway was in the darkness of night which revealed the power outages along the way. The highway was inland so there was less damage to see but in some parts there was debris on the edge of the highway. Upon arrival at our base camp at Stennis Space Center we found that it was lit up by lots of roaring generators and it was obvious that there were lots of people here in this camp to help the cause.

A visit to Waveland:

After a few days of working in camp I was given the opportunity to go out and see why I was here. The Stennis Space Center is located about 15 miles inland and just north of Waveland, Mississippi. Waveland was probably the most damaged town on the Mississippi coast. As you head in to Waveland you start to see the effects of the wind damage on the trees and buildings. There was a gas station where the roof was blown off and the scraps of roofing were scattered everywhere. Further down the road there were what turned out to be hundreds of abandoned cars scattered beside the road pushed around by the storm surge. Trees were snapped everywhere and lay on houses, power lines and over some of the, as yet, uncleared side streets. One house was washed off its foundation and lay beside the road. This turned out to be minor damage for what was to be seen along the coast. The closer you get to the coast the more damage there is; More trees smashing into houses causing damage impossible to repair and more debris getting tossed around and washed up by the storm surge. A quarter mile from the coast the damage becomes catastrophic. Nothing is spared and there is debris and sticks of wood from the houses lying everywhere. On the ground, up in trees and stuffed into the windows of abandoned cars. Some of the roofs of houses lie fairly intact on the piles of rubble from their house. And finally near the coastline there is very little but the foundations of houses because the storm surge has washed away most of the debris and everyone's belongings leaving a surprisingly empty zone. This is just a description of a cross section of the catastrophe, the damage like this goes for over 60 miles paralleling the Mississippi coast. The area is not totally lacking of people. There are a few people in this totally demolished area trying to figure out what they can do with their destroyed property. There are also a lot of people driving around viewing the disaster. If you stop your car to look at the intense damage, not to worry, the person behind you is probably doing the same thing.

Going to Gulfport:

I was given the opportunity by a FEMA official to help them for a day of work in Long Beach, which is just west of Gulfport. FEMA was assisting the Long Beach fire department with their operations and they were helping clean up the area. There were a few houses they wanted help cleaning up that had difficult trees to remove and with my chainsaw experience we got them cleared away so the inhabitants could resume a somewhat more normal life. After doing the cleanup they gave us a tour of Gulfport and some of Biloxi along highway 90. The highway follows the beachfront and goes by what was once a nice residential neighborhood and also some retail stores, restaurants and Casinos. The area is flattened 500 yards back from the coast just like in Waveland but maybe just to a slightly lesser degree. We all decided that Waveland was hit harder. But this are was hit hard too. The area immediately adjacent to the beachfront was completely destroyed and the debris washed inland. Inland there was more of a debris waterline from the 30 foot storm surges. The piles of housing debris were extensive here. In Gulfport there were nearly 100 container trucks which had been washed up off the waterfront from the port facilities at Gulfport and scattered for a mile or so along the waterfront sometimes 400 yards inland. There were also two barges washed inland off the shoreline by the storm surge. The economy of Mississippi has become dependent on the casinos that have developed along the coastline which brought a lot of money to the area. Law allows them to operate if they are afloat on the water as a barge. So it is obvious what will happen if a storm comes in. During our tour we saw several casinos that had sustained severe damage. We saw the Presidential Casino completely sitting on top of a large hotel next to the highway. The Grand Casino was washed up into the middle of Highway 90 and construction crews were busy cutting it apart with cutting torches. They were almost finished tearing it apart. Next to this the barge of the Copa Casino was washed up into the parking lot with irreparable damage to it. And it will take a lot of effort to get them back on their feet. Well constructed hotels escaped with not as much damage as one would expect. By orienting them on cement columns perpendicular to the coast the storm surge was able to wash right through them leaving the building comparatively undamaged. In Gulfport there was a big apartment complex destroyed by the storm surge and next to that was a fire station. The fire station was brick and had had its walls and doors knocked off leaving the building still standing. Next to the fire station, in the trees at the house next door, was the fire rescue truck. Smashed up against a tree. The highway itself had been torn up and washed away in some places making it necessary to weave from one lane to another as you make your way down the waterfront. One section was still flooded and there were trucks pumping the water off the street back into the ocean. There were utilities companies working on the power lines. But in most places along this coast there was no need to restore power because the buildings are so heavily damaged that no one could live there because they were a hazard to be in.

Pearlington and Clermont Harbor:

On another trip out of camp we went to the neighborhoods of Pearlington and Clermont Harbor. These are rural and lower income neighborhoods. There are more trees and the houses are a little further apart. From the looks of it Pearlington and Claremont Harbor are lower lying and were greatly affected by the storm surge. Near the shore there are a lot of trees down and most of the houses have been demolished and washed up inland by the storm surge. Visiting these neighborhoods you see a lot of foundations without houses and then areas inland where all the debris was deposited. There were more people camped out on their properties here. There were a lot of snapped off trees in this neighborhood and the rest of the trees had red pine needles indicating that they were dead, probably from being exposed to the salt water during the storm surge. Debris of every kind imaginable was tangled up in the trees everywhere. Even 4 weeks after the hurricane hit there is very little that has been repaired. Where does one begin.

When will it get better:

One has to imagine how long it will take to get this area back to normal? Will it ever be the same as it was? I would guess that it will take a long time to have a more normal look. Some people may never return to their properties and some may have died there. The areas within the storm surge might be considered lucky in that everything was swept away leaving a clean slate for a new start. In areas where the debris was dropped will take a long time to get all that debris removed and disposed of. The landfills will certainly swell. There are many thousands of truckloads of debris to remove. The areas further inland where flooding occurred but were not pulverized by the storm surge suffered a different kind of damage. I saw a lot people gutting out the interiors of their houses removing all the damaged carpet, sheetrock and damaged furniture. One can only hope that life will get better for the people of Mississippi soon.

A once in a lifetime event:

This will be a memorable point in my life. I got to work with some great people and also participate in a major historical event. I have been lucky enough to be able to participate in some pretty historical events like working at the World Trade Center after 911, searching for space shuttle parts in the woods of Texas but this is the most devastating thing I have been a part of. So many people were affected by this storm and it will be so hard for them to get their lives back together. The damage was so severe on such a large scale you hope something like this will never happen again.