Hi. My name is Steven Harper and my wife Heather and I live in Waveland, Miss. ... Well, we have a piece of property in Waveland that used to have a house on it. Now we live in Pearlington, Miss., right on the Louisiana/Mississippi line. There's a lot more info about us on our music Web site www.heddamonkey.com, but I figured I'd start off my MSNBC.com thoughts with what I refer to as the "New Normal".
Almost everyone I know lives in campers now, (I refer to us as the "Trailer Intelligentsia") and an eight foot ceiling now seems REALLY high. A few folks have homes, but no sheetrock in them, as a rule. The piles of garbage, debris, house remains and assorted other flotsam and jetsam line every road in a rising, falling, slowly undulating mass. Large piles go up, then shrink or disappear, to be replaced by new piles, or piles formerly hidden from view.
The sound of the Red Cross van's bullhorn floats across the bayous letting you know that another dinner you don't have to cook is on its way. Wal-Mart is in a big tent, with very basic items (however for some reason they don't carry fly paper strips), no art supplies or fake flowers or sequins or toys. Roadside clothes dumps are still around. Residue from well intentioned donors and church groups who got confounded by the abundance of clothing donated in the first weeks after the storm and just left the boxes of clothes in parking lots. These in turn attract more boxes of clothing ... and more... until it appears to stretch for days. However, few storm victims that I know have the energy or mental stamina to sift through 5,000 boxes of clothes to find something that might fit them.
Mud deposited by the floodwaters is churned into a fine dust that gets everywhere and coats everything inside and out. So many cars a thick with it that smart alecs have given up writing "Please Wash Me!" on them, because the prankish task is too large.
People greet with "How'd y'all do in the storm?" and people respond with their tales, or "not too well" or my personal response "Under the circumstances, I'm fine." The flies are everywhere. Along with the gnats and mosquitoes that seem to have suffered no damage in the storm. Tears on faces of friends and colleagues as emotions break through mental barricades and steeled smiles at inopportune moments. Tempers flare as frustrations and fears mount, even while my fellow Mississippians try to take care of each other, and ourselves, and try to get our lives back together while waiting endlessly for information, and fighting off the specters of rumor, fear, depression, and mental and physical fatigue.
This is our new reality.
Under my skin
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As a former resident of the coast, (Pascagoula), and who still has many friends there, my heart and prayers go out to all of you. Keep on keeping on. The coast has come back before, and I have faith that you all can do so again.
Brenda Lewis, Lucedale, MS (Sent Nov 30, 2005 3:16:44 PM)
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