Above:A 360-degree photo shows a rusted boat and other wreckage at Bayou Caddy, a port west of Waveland. (John Brecher / MSNBC.com)
About this project
In the coming months, MSNBC.com will focus its coverage of the Hurricane Katrina recovery on two cities on the hard-hit Mississippi coast.
Though Bay St. Louis and Waveland are far from the media spotlight on New Orleans, the intertwined fates of the people, businesses and institutions in these towns tell the story of an entire region's struggle to recover from the most destructive storm in U.S. history.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- Christmas came clear and sunny across this hurricane zone, a glorious Gulf Coast day for Katrina’s survivors to draw together in their houses of worship and around their dinner tables to count their blessings.
With the horror of the storm now nearly four months behind them and signs of rebirth all around, it was a day for family and friends, football and feasting. From FEMA trailers to living rooms that never took a drop of water, there were loved ones to hug, gifts to unwrap and stories to share.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – With Christmas nigh, Hancock County is taking a breather.
On the eve of the big day, there’s very little traffic or action on the countless construction jobs. Even the normally packed Wal-Mart and Waffle House are only sparsely populated. Locals are huddling with friends and families in whatever shelter they have, and crews of workers have left the area for the holiday. It is, after all, a Saturday.
Making a bright appearance throughout Waveland and Bay St. Louis, however, are numerous homes, businesses and, yes, FEMA trailers, that their occupants found the time and spirit to decorate despite the demands of post-Katrina life.
I’ve never written one of these holiday letters before (don’t they all begin with that disclaimer?) so it’s a bit hard to begin. And awkward, seeing as how I have some confessions that I didn’t think I’d make while still working as a journalist.
But after two trips to this ravaged region, I want to tell you what I’ve seen, what I’ve really seen, and how it has touched me in ways that covering no other story has. So indulge me if you will for a few hundred words on this eve of one of the holiest days on most calendars in this part of the world.
Geralyn Bleau receives a call from her husband, Gil, as he makes his way home for the first time since Hurricane Katrina. Completion of a ramp to Bleau's FEMA trailer happened in time for Gil, who uses a wheelchair, to come home for Christmas from a nursing home where he spent the last few months. Click 'play' to see Gil come home. (J. Brecher / MSNBC.com)
WAVELAND, Miss. -- Big Gil Bleau is home for the holidays and he and his family want you to know one thing for sure: “If it wasn’t for FEMA, I wouldn’t be here.”
In a story that would thaw the coldest heart, Bleau sits today in his wheelchair in a specially outfitted travel trailer at the top of a lovingly constructed ramp in front of his hurricane-wasted home down on Keller Street a bit north of the railroad tracks. And Gil, his wife, Geralyn, and their kids say they owe it all to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, more often the focus of ire in Katrina’s wake.
WAVELAND, Miss. – Santa’s elves eschewed the big guy’s sleigh and showed up in a U-Haul truck Thursday to hand out toys, clothing and Christmas trees to dozens of Katrina victims in this devastated community.
“The town of Lincoln City, Ore., drove five days to bring you this stuff,” local organizer Ron Hill told the eager crowd of moms, dads and kids who lined up along the truck in a Highway 90 parking lot. “Everything in this parking lot is for y’all.”
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- A FEMA contract to house Katrina evacuees on cruise ships, roundly blasted as exorbitant government spending, is currently costing U.S. taxpayers substantially more per person than some of its harshest critics estimated -- nearly $250 per person per night, according to figures obtained by MSNBC.com.
At that rate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency would spend more than $175,000 for each family of four that lives for six months aboard one of the three ships provided under the $236 million contract with Carnival Cruise Lines. Room service also is included in that price tag -- three meals a day and snacks.
Click 'Play' to see and hear Curt Dunstan, a Bechtel engineer, describe the appointments of a FEMA-issued travel trailer.
If pictures of the wholesale devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast are what the American public remembers most about this disaster, then the bright white, 35-foot aluminum breadbox known as a "FEMA trailer" is a close second for Katrina's most iconic image.
These FEMA trailers dot the landscape here like metallic dominos, strewn along the Gulf Coast in patterns as random as the hurricane winds that took the dwellings they now replace. In other areas the trailers sit in neat tight rows, as if aligned by some control freak construction foreman. Such areas are known as "emergency group" sites -- or "egg" sites as FEMA personnel call them. They amount to aluminum subdivisions, complete with their own water, sewer and electric hook-ups; they have roads and even centralized laundry facilities in some cases.
The last time I wrote my blog, I was having good days and bad days. Well, that hasn't changed much. But with the holidays just two days away, I find myself irritable, short-tempered and not really able to focus. I guess it's just the emotion of the holiday fast approaching. All the normal traditions will not be this year. No more enjoying friends as before, mainly because they have no home and have either gone to stay with family or have moved away permanently. And then there's the tradition of enjoying a meal with friends and family. Well, in a FEMA trailer, cooking a Christmas meal is literally impossible. I think the ovens in the trailers are about 1 foot high and maybe 18 inches wide.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- The storm that left this region drowning in debt and need also inundated it with some infamous examples of government spending.
From oak-lined Waveland Avenue to the quaint cottages of St. Charles Street in Bay St. Louis, the Katrina-wrought equivalents of the proverbial $600 toilet seat, courtesy of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, are everywhere to be seen. Behold:
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – To the long list of things that will be missing this holiday season in this storm-struck town, add one more: fireworks.
At the fire chief’s request, Mayor Eddie Favre on Tuesday night asked the City Council to suspend the sale and use of fireworks. Officials worry that all the debris on the ground and blue tarps on the roofs of battered homes pose too great a hazard to allow skyrockets and sparklers to close out the Year of Katrina.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Hancock County homeowners who may benefit from a massive federal bailout now before the Senate are optimistic about what they’ve heard so far but reluctant to get their hopes too high.
“We are very excited about this,” says Waveland resident Dan McManus, who appears to be a poster boy for the group the legislation aims to help: homeowners who were told they didn’t live in a flood-prone area and therefore didn’t have flood insurance.
In the wake of the Aug. 29 storm, many insurers are refusing to pay claims on standard homeowners policies or hurricane coverage, saying the damage was caused by flooding and clearly exempted. That has set off a flurry of legal wrangling and government probes as property owners face mounting mortgage payments on their demolished homes and wonder if they should try to rebuild or simply walk away from their debts.
A few days ago my little sister decided to make a playmobile Christmas scene, so I decided that I would make a Katrina Christmas scene. In it there is a road blocked off by a debris removal crew. There are also the fire department, the EPA, and search and rescue teams with dogs.
On the road there are trees, bits of fruniture, and even an overturned car. Theres not alot of stuff to do with Christmas but it was just kind of for my own enjoyment.
There is also a scene of our friend who we stayed with for seven weeks. There is a figure of "Uncle Chris" carrying his favoret shotgun, and a cellphone around his house. There are tables, chairs, a grill, LOTS of radios, and even a controled fire in an old trashcan.
I never actually thought I'd need to depend on the kindness of strangers, but here we are. My life has been so much easier to put back together because of donations, both monetary and material. Really, life isn't "back together" yet. We're in a holding pattern, and until the Corps cleans the rubble and stray car off our lot, we're nowhere near back together. But Steve and I both have our jobs, which is a great blessing. We also have flood insurance. I feel downright lucky, and almost embarrassed, even if our house did wash away. Survivor's guilt?
Once we got stabilized in our new trailer household, we found ourselves middlemen in donation distributions. I felt stable enough to participate in these distribution projects when they first started happening. I soon realized that I was mentally incapable of coping with the sorting, the storing, and the determining of need; my focus is a wreck, my patience is at an all-time low, and my organizational skills are sorely lacking.
These words are often used jokingly. However, its no joke if you’re an artist who has lost everything -- home, studio, art materials and equipment -- everything you need to make a living.
Many of our artists are living and working elsewhere. Many others are here struggling to repair or rebuild homes and studios. In either case, most have lost the wherewithal to create work or the venues to exhibit work.
I am excited to report that, after three months of volunteering, I’ve been hired by the Hancock County Chamber of Commerce! Working with this group of energetic and optimistic people, totally dedicated to the rebuilding of Hancock County, Mississippi keeps me focused on looking ahead to the infinite amount of possibilities for renewal, instead of remaining muddled in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
One of my tasks is to collect and compile information for the chamber’s monthly newsletter, and yesterday I stumbled across something that I thought would be of interest to my friends all over the U.S., fellow Mississippians, every American, and possibly the whole world. The website Mississippi Believe It! and it was born out of the frustration of dealing with so many stereotypical images about Mississippi. As I explored the website, a great sense of pride welled up inside of me, and our decision to stay and rebuild was not only confirmed but also reinforced.
I must admit, ever since the storm, I have questioned our decision to stay. After all, we are relatively new residents (less than two years) and we have no roots here in Bay St. Louis, or even the state of Mississippi for that matter. But something quite remarkable happened a couple of weeks ago. Something that changed my life completely.
KILN, Miss. – After months of hearing little more than squabbling among public officials about the future of the Highway 90 bridge over the Bay of St. Louis, Hancock County residents on Monday heard something new about their lifeline to points east: Jan. 10.
That’s the date the state plans to award the contract for rebuilding the four-lane, two-mile-long crossing that was blown away by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29.
The word came from Kelly Castleberry of the Mississippi Department of Transportation, who said the announcement will be made just 24 hours after the state receives proposals on Jan. 9 from three teams competing for the $200 million contract. Castleberry said the contract would begin Jan. 18 with the first traffic due across two lanes of the bridge by April 2007 and all four lanes open the following September.
I suppose some people might think that I'm a bit opportunistic. That I'm trying to use the storm to get publicity for my band, but I guess I'd prefer to think of it as being hopeful, making the best of the situation, and hoping that something good might come from all of the tragedy and heartbreak that has come our way lately.
When putting together promotional materials, musicians are always asked "What's your story? Why am I interested in your band?". Of course, I'd like to think that the obvious answer would be because of the music, but sometimes, that doesn't seem to be enough. Newspapers and magazines generally want to have some kind of angle , something different to write their stories about.
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