A native of Bay St. Louis and a 14-year veteran of its police force, Officer Ernest Taylor has seen the town through integration, growth and, now, the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Click Play to hear him talk about how the town will never be the same.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – If you are Officer Ernest Taylor, life in this small Gulf Coast town has been pretty good to you and a lot of others. So far.
You were born here, a child of the ’60s, in a place where people know their neighbors and care about them. It’s a place where jumbo shrimp are available at four or five bucks a pound "right off the boat" just across the bay in Pass Christian, where you can fish away summer evenings while the sun hangs low over the gulf, where you can marry your girl and buy a nice house in Spanish Acres and raise three sons and live a full and gentle life just like the kind of man you are, a trustee and deacon at your church and your police department’s school resource officer.
It’s not perfect. No. As a child, you attend segregated schools and, at age 7, are in the first audience allowed to sit in what used to be the "white seats" in the town theater. You see a John Wayne movie.
In the summer, there’s a stand where you get snowballs and eat them with your friends underneath the giant oak tree at South Beach Boulevard and Washington Street. Years later, your kids will do the same.
It is a good town and getting better, even though, as you say, "it still has a long way to go" on many things.
"Easy living," you recall. "Everybody knew everybody. If you grew up here and did something wrong, they’d just call your parents or your grandparents."
In ’69, you ride out Hurricane Camille in a local school that has yet to be integrated and then your family moves to Houston to escape the devastation. But you always come back, every summer, because your grandparents still live here and the snowball stand is still here and so is the big oak tree and this is really home. Then you’re 22, your grandfather is ill and you are back to stay, working as a machinist at NASA’s nearby Stennis Space Center.
A few years later, the new police chief brings you on the force. Bay St. Louis is a good place to be a cop, little crime and a laid-back department where callers are greeted as "baby" by a honey-voiced dispatcher. Even now, with your police radio crackling "once in a blue moon," you can still keep an ear on FM 98.5 as you cruise the streets.
Your boys grow up and so does your town, from "just a Winn-Dixie" to Burger King and McDonalds and Wal-Mart and Rite-Aid and too many stoplights to count anymore. The school that saved your family from Camille is the police station now.
And then you’re 43 and you’ve been a cop for 14 years and the awful day comes. It’s Aug. 29, 2005, and in a few hours of mad horror, Hurricane Katrina changes it all. They just don’t make verbs for what she did to Bay St. Louis so the elegant simplicity of your words says it all: "Nothing is the same."
18 frenetic hours
But you are a cop, and a good one, so you go to work. For 18 hours, there’s no sleep as you and fellow officers conduct search and rescue missions.
When the winds stop and the waters recede, you thread your way through the rubble-clotted streets and have a look. Remarkably, your own house fared pretty well. And at the police station, "We had water all around us, it just didn’t get to that particular area."
But the rest of what you see is devastating. Your bearings, all the way from your boyhood to your work on the beat, have disappeared. "That’s the hardest thing," you say, "the landmarks are gone. … Like you knew this street was Bay Oaks because you had the doctor’s house here."
With the schools shut in the wake of the storm, you’re back on the streets, but classes will resume Nov. 7 and you’ve been pondering what you will find among the high school kids. Before, you refereed "boyfriend-girlfriend stuff, fights, the normal things kids do."
Now? Some of the kids have homes and some don’t. You’re hopeful that Katrina’s indiscriminate destruction may bring the students closer together. "Everyone’s at the same level, no big person, no little person."
You’ve certainly seen that among adults. The other day you found yourself in a food line with a banker and a real estate mogul. "Before, that never would have happened."
Youngest son living in Houston
But despite your own calm strength and your faith that Bay St. Louis will rise again, there are dark moments. Your youngest son, 13, has been sent to Houston where he has begun school and may stay for the whole year. "It’s a little difficult" for you and your wife, Lotus, because "he’s the baby."
Your grandmother’s once splendid white frame house at the corner of Sycamore and Old Spanish Trail, now splintered and wrecked by Katrina, is an unavoidable sight on patrols.
And there is the nagging question of your own future. With the town’s coffers plundered in every conceivable way by Katrina, "Will I still have a job? How will they keep me?"
Whatever the answer, just like you decided all those years ago, you will stay in Bay St. Louis. It is home.
"I’m not going anywhere."
An oasis of light and cholesterol
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From one small town cop to another, hang in there. You are the fabric of our nation and I don't think America will forget you...Be safe!
DSN245
G B , Camdenton, Missouri (Sent Oct 21, 2005 7:10:46 PM)
What a truly beautiful, heart-wrenching story. Officer Taylor, my prayers, love, and every ounce of strength go out to you, your family, and all those who's lives have been shattered by these seemingly enless catastrophys. All I can offer you, Mr. Taylor, is every ounce of spiritual strength that I do have. Perhaps this verse from Bob Dylan's "Forever Young" says it best:
May God bless and keep you always,
May your wishes all come true,
May you always do for others
And let others do for you.
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung,
May you stay forever young
Jim Witterschein, Freehold, NJ (Sent Oct 21, 2005 7:20:23 PM)
Thank you so much for your touching story. The world needs to see that there are strong, faithful, determined, family men like yourself that want to rebuild your town and restore your hopes and dreams. We heard so much about about the poverty, crime and e broken homes, thank you for enlightening the world. keep the greatness of the
Florence Tollette (Sent Oct 21, 2005 7:24:03 PM)
May God be with you and your family and bless you as you follow Him....He will be with you...always...
Sue (Sent Oct 21, 2005 7:54:39 PM)
I sincerely regret the losses which you,your family,and your nighbors have suffered.I also envy you;in that you have a family to love,friends and neighbors to worrie and care about and some place to call home.All the best my fellow human being.
melvin mapp (Sent Oct 21, 2005 7:59:00 PM)
I've lived in Michigan all of my life, though born in Georgia. I cannot imagine living through what you and the other residents have truly LIVED through. My heart goes out to you, your family and all the other people who have suffered through this tragedy.
Lillie Reid, Detroit, MI (Sent Oct 21, 2005 8:53:54 PM)
I am the 8th child in a family of 13 children. My family moved to New Orleans, La. when I was 14. I married there, and raised a fine daughter.
Growing up, I couldn't wait for Friday afternoons, where we loaded up in the family wagon, and made a stop at K&B drugstore for floats, then McKenzie's for a "turtle" (a small drop of shortbread cookie topped with the best chocolate ever, and a big pecan on top), before continuing on eastward, for a little over a half hour on Hwy. 90, passing the Swamp Tours, and alligator farms. (We always squealed in delight upon seeing the signs declaring the gator farm...1000 feet ahead), or riding over the "Rigolets" drawbridge in Lake Katherine, with nothing but water and swamp, as far as the eye could see!
We escaped the hustle and bustle of the "city life", for a delightful weekend of crabbing, fishing, or just lazily sunning in the sleepy, laid back atmosphere of "Old Towne". Mom would squeeze as much time in as she could, and make her rounds to the plethoria of antique shoppes, while we, the children made a mad dash for a snoball stand, or if we had the money, we were all treated to "TRAPANI'S", for an oyster and shrimp po-boy, (dressed); dressed...meaning "with lettuce, creole tomatoe, mayo, and onions", in this adorable little "OLDE" towne. No one can begin to apprecaite these little landmarks that meant so much to us, unless they have actually got the privy to take it in firsthand!
We always returned to New Orleans with a sense of renewal and revitalization, and usually with a big icechest full of live blue crabs caught with a mere string and a chicken neck or back...and looking forward to Mama's mouth watering deviled crabs that she would make for us!
With the exception of a handful of siblings, we all eventually moved on to other places, but always returned to our beloved Bay St Louis, every chance we could, and that was in my case at least 4 or 5 times a year! Finally, I gave in to my "pining for the Bay" and found myself making BSL - Waveland my permanant home, in 1998.
On Sept. 29th, my world came crashing in, as Hurricane Katrina reduced my home on Beach Blvd. and First St. to a mere pile of rubble.
Yes, I escaped with only my life and my memories, but I regarded this magnificent place more than a "home". It was alive with the grande water oaks, and bald cypress trees, and the splendid palm trees...and all of the living plants...huge elephant ears. Nature that was alive prior to that fateful day!
Now...everything that once lived here, was killed that day, with the exception of a few of the older water oaks that stood their ground in the face of this brutal attack!
On Sept. 4th, I made my way back to my once lovely, quaint little fishing village, only to find my home reduced to a pile of bricks! I ventured down to Coleman Avenue...where Peterson's Grocery Store once stood...only to find nothing whatsoever there except sheer devastation. Not one thing was left intact. It was as if a huge hand had come down and swept everything away. I am now living in Alabama, and I am forever changed...and yes, I have my memories...but the landmarks are all gone now....traces of a childhood, GONE...Sure, I have photographs, but will Bay St. Louis ever be the same? I say no...it will not ever be "THE SAME", for everything that I grew up seeing is gone forever. The Landmarks! Just like a peice of my childhood, how I shall miss it!
V. Miranda
Vicki Miranda Bay St Louis, Ms. (Sent Oct 21, 2005 8:58:14 PM)
I am very sympathetic to the plight of the police, but in all of the coverage of the aftermath of Katrina (and Rita), why isn't there more attention paid to the firefighters? Firefighters also stayed through the storm, rescued victims, and fought fire with no equipment or reliable water sources. And they have stayed as well, the communities they serve are the homes. They are in the same predicament as the police - no taxes to pay wages, replace equipment, ruined fire stations, ruined trucks.
When all other services failed to deliver, the police and firefighters were the real heros, continuing to protect people and property in spite of no communications, equipment, or home.
Debbie (Sent Oct 21, 2005 9:01:12 PM)
CORRECTION: Sorry, about the wrong date on my last entry! August 29th, 2005. I get a little emotional still! Days have began running into nights, and nights into weeks...then months, and all time seems to run together these days, and at the same time...time just stands still.
Missing Home!
Vicki Miranda Bay St Louis, Ms. (Sent Oct 21, 2005 9:18:29 PM)
I LIKED the 2nd person. It puts YOU the READER in the story. I live a sheltered life here in Maine; the only thing we get are a few blizzards every year (though there have been rumors that Wilma could make it this far north...and be cold enough to snow. Can you imagine that story?????) Its sooooo easy for me to think "didn't anyone learn their lessons the first time? Why rebuild?" but again, that's the easy thing to say. Rebuilding a life, no matter where it settles, isn't an easy task, particularly if its the only place you've ever known. God bless all of Bay St. Louis!
Stephanie, Standish, ME (Sent Oct 21, 2005 9:37:59 PM)
Greetings Officer Taylor,
At a time in our country when we sometimes become indifferential to being American, certainly a little skeptical... it is people such as Officer Taylor that gives us that silver lining in a cloud of natural disasters, both local and abroad. May God keep you in his sights as your family and your community begin to rebuild and repopulate. Rest assured America the American dream is alive and it exisits in the very personal and upfront story of Officer Taylor as he survives and endures the ravages of Hurricane Katrina. May God Bless the United States and watch over all who beliefith in her principles and way of life!
Henry E. Mull (Sent Oct 21, 2005 11:22:50 PM)
Gosh, what a heartfelt and refreshing story. Mr. Taylor will succeed! Happiness and peacefulness will return to his life. He is a realist, knowing that it will never be what it was. But, Bay St. Louis will reinvent itself, because of folks like him. Good Luck.
Penny Huelat, Tualatin, Oregon (Sent Oct 21, 2005 11:30:46 PM)
Up here we call it "Minnesota Nice". There are good people in every town that often don't have their stories told. If we take the time to look past the headlines, there are even stories of survival and renewal in places like New Orleans, or Bosnia, or even now in places we talk about in terms of struggle and war, sometimes desperation, like Iraq.
Thank you for an excellent article.
Thank you
Dan Curry, Duluth, Minnesota (Sent Oct 22, 2005 12:06:54 AM)
Dear Ernest and Lotus Taylor, Thank you for being brave and true to the life that you have carved out in this country. We do have choices, and you have made a few, without playing the victim. By staying in touch with what you have left to work with, you are setting an example, for all of us to build on all the good experiences that we have had so far. I guess it happens in this life, for each and every one of us, much more often than we ever knew. We hear about each other's experiences more often than we did in the past, now that we have computers as well as television and books and everyday personal contact. You must have a feeling of being connected, with us and yourselves, and the world, and I am glad. I left my hometown in rural Maine when I was twenty. After watching my three children grow into wonderfully productive, happy 'city kids' I came home to my little place. Forty years gone, but not forty years wasted, really. I was lonesome that whole time for all the things that were just memories. When I returned five years ago, I found quite a lot of old things left, not the least of which were the sunsets and the sunrise. Now that I am wiser and more aware of what might be around the corner, I have discovered new places to visit, like the kite and puzzle store that is in an old man's garage, thirty miles into the woods from here. I found a few old friends and many new ones. These new relationships and an almost-new life that is based upon the old is a surprising thing, and I cherish it so much that my grown children are baffled, but only because my life is so different from theirs. The grandchildren are not baffled. I am Granny Deb, and I live a different and interesting life from theirs. I know you'll find old and new joys, too. Debbie Caldwell from Farmingdale, Maine.
Deborah Caldwell, Farmingdale, Kennebec County, Maine (Sent Oct 22, 2005 9:13:13 AM)
A heartbreaking story of how a storm can take years, generations, of progress and wipe it out. I believe this is a lesson that material things may come and go but the human tenacity is strong. I believe good will prevail.
B Reichel (Sent Oct 22, 2005 9:41:05 AM)
My Hat is off to officer Ernest Taylor for his committment to his community , and further the strength example he has shown.Great story!!!!!
Kind Regards
Tom Bowlware
Tom Bowlware (Sent Oct 22, 2005 10:21:25 AM)
Great story, we need more human interest stories like this so that we can put a face on the human tragedy of Katrina.
Tom Rideout, Las Vegas Nevada (Sent Oct 22, 2005 12:59:45 PM)
Bay St. Louis/Waveland are great towns because of people like Mr. Taylor. There are many that live there that feel exactly the same way. I think it is very important to hear stories like his and it is also very IMPORTANT to hear about the animals that have also suffered a great deal. The Friends of the Animal Shelter in Hancock County had done a tremendous job changing things for the better, it had made a big impact on humane conditions for neglected and abused animals. Concern for humans and animals go hand in hand. Bay St. Louis, Waveland all of the Miss. Gulf Coast has shown that. This is a wonderful place to live and I look forward to happier days which will be coming.
Mindy, Pass Christian, MS (Sent Oct 22, 2005 2:00:43 PM)
This was a great and very moving story. I have lived in the Northeast my whole entire life. We do get some very rain storms and of course blizzards, but nothing what you and all the other citzens experienced during Katrina. It was nice hearing a personal story from someone. You can't replace human lifes but you can replace personal items. I am sure the rebuilding process is going to take a lot time and effect from volunteers and skilled labors. It will be an adjustment for everyone. Keep up the good work in your community. Everyone in your community needs your help and support. Please keep everyone updated how the recovery and rebuilding process to moving along.
Chery Henchar, Stamford, CT (Sent Oct 22, 2005 8:31:40 PM)
Terrific story it is the type of braveness we should see on Headline news so that no one not anyone will ever forget. My heart goes out to you and your wife, but continue to be strong and you will be rewarded for all your strenth and being such a brave, loving individual. I will continue to keep you and yours in my thoughts and prayers, as well as all of those who suffered such tragedy by Katrina. God Bless You from the Menominee Indian Reservation in Wi Mary from Keshena,Wi
mary knope (Sent Oct 22, 2005 9:12:28 PM)
Your story and the ones like your's are what makes America the Greatest country in all of the world to live in.Thanks for being a beacon of hope for everyone who was touched by this most unforunate event.
J. Cranfill Pasaquola,Ms. (Sent Oct 23, 2005 12:51:34 AM)
I am from North Mississippi and have lived here all of my 39 years. I have been to the Mississippi Gulf Coast several times, I feel a great lost. Ernest you and your family and the whole Gulf Coast have been through a lot but, Don't give up on God, out of this, he will pull you closer and pull you up. Ernest is a Real Man, A Real Husband, A Real Father, A Real American and most of all A Real Christian
David Bobo, Byhalia, MS (Sent Oct 23, 2005 3:08:19 AM)
My husband has been working relief in Biloxi for two months and I have heard from other workers there who are also working in Bay St. Louis, it was devastated. This was a beautifully written article and I don't see how even the most callous person cannot help but have his heart go out to Officer Taylor, his family and his town. I went to Biloxi last weekend and my entire plane was full of groups of five, ten volunteers each to a group of church volunteers from all over the nation going to help out for a few days, a week, whatever they were able to give. You hear so much about New Orleans, but I have seen the heart and soul of the people of Mississippi and I challenge each one of you who read this, go to your church or civic group, adopt a small town in Mississippi (Islamorada, FL did it with Ocean Springs, MS) and take a little of your vacation time, help your brother. We can help our brother and I guarantee you will sleep better at night.
Helen, Killeen, TX (Sent Oct 23, 2005 11:00:14 AM)
Mr. Taylor, I was touched by your story. I, too am from a small town-(we just installed our first street light). There are not words for people like you. You are a hero among heroes. If all the people in the world were like you, we would have a perfect world. The world has changed over the years, some for the good, some for the bad. But, it is very refreshing to read about a cop, citizen, father, husband like you. It seems there are not many left. I applaud you for the pride you take in your job, your church and your family. May God bless you and your family!
tammi (Sent Oct 23, 2005 12:30:43 PM)
Officer Taylor, if you lose your job in a small town, our very large town of Houston, Texas will welcome you with open arms. Your memories are something you will always have even if the physical proof of them has been destroyed. One of my favorite sayings is; "memories are photographs you take with your heart" so you won't forget. Good luck to you and all your suffering neighbors.
Carmen Bryant, Houston Texas (Sent Oct 23, 2005 2:14:18 PM)
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