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.
WAVELAND, Miss. – They were some of Hurricane Katrina’s smallest and most helpless victims, alerted to the power of the storm long before most people but unable to flee on their own.
The Aug. 29 storm and its aftermath proved deadly for the inhabitants of the Waveland Animal Shelter, the only such facility in Hancock County, as well as heart-breaking for many pet owners. Director Renee Lick said most of the animals in the shelter at the time of the storm died, but declined to provide an exact figure.
WAVELAND, Miss. -- For residents in the bombed-out southern half of Waveland, the rapidly rising home of Jeff and Rose Watts is a beacon of hope and a promise of better times ahead.
The couple, who live on Waveland Avenue, were the first residents to obtain a permit to rebuild a demolished two-story house south of the railroad tracks that bisect the city. And with work progressing rapidly thanks to a team of volunteers from an Old German Baptist Brethren church in Ohio, they are hopeful they will be able to move into their home within a month.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Ostensible allies in the effort to remove the still-huge piles of debris left behind by Hurricane Katrina are engaged in an increasingly bitter conflict over the progress of the cleanup and the way it is being run.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its politically connected prime contractor AshBritt, which is overseeing the federal cleanup in most of Mississippi and parts of Louisiana, are in the middle of the fracas. In the wake of the Aug. 29 hurricane – the most destructive in U.S. history -- they have been fending off angry attacks as varied as the wreckage itself – a thick blanket of toppled trees, boards, bricks, shards of glass, wire, clothing and household items that still covers large parts of hard-hit communities along the Gulf Coast.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – Five months after Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the hurricane continues to plunder the coffers of local governments.
“The county’s fiscal health is very fragile right now,” said Hancock County Administrator Tim Kellar. “I don’t want to call it a critical position” but it’s “certainly not a stable position.”
Since Katrina struck Aug. 29, Kellar, along with Bay St. Louis Mayor Eddie Favre and Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo, have cobbled together reserves, loans, state and federal grants, and outright gifts to keep their municipalities afloat.
Things seem to be happening. We were pleasantly surprised last week to find that our lot has been cleared by the Corps (except for a stray car, which they say they’re not contracted to deal with — we’re not sure what to do with it, but are considering using it as a lawn sculpture).
We’ve also received our last insurance settlement for lost contents. Interestingly, our bank says they will have to hold the check for 10 days. It’s not that we were actually going to do anything with it right away; but it does seem that a check, though sizeable, drawn on a nationally respected bank would not be in danger of bouncing. Besides which, we are in the electronic age. Steve and I think it’s so the bank can use our money to earn interest for a while before they turn it over to us. I heard about this sort of thing on NPR (also last week), when the former labor secretary who opened a new account was unable to get hold of his own money in a timely manner. Ah, well, such is life.
First off, let me start by saying that I'm not a Republican. I'm not really a Democrat, either. I've always considered myself politically agnostic, and have always agreed with someone I heard quoted as saying whoever WANTS to be president probably isn't qualified. All of this said, my thoughts really have no agenda. I just thought it was interesting.
As I read Hannah and Patty's accounts of a thrilling encounter with the leader of our country, I was reminded of my experience on the same day.
Today is Tuesday. Tomorrow is Wednesday. Yesterday was Wednesday. It's a never ending cycle. Up until Katrina hit. I had just entered the sixth grade and was just getting into the hang of things. It all seemed so normal.
But after Katrina nothing made sense. Tuesday could have been Sunday. Halloween was Easter and you couldn't put it back together. It was like a puzzle, but there was one piece missing, and one that just didn't fit. Now it's starting to come back. But it wasn't that way for a long time. We would almost live outside, only going in to sleep. We would rarely wash cloths. And do the general cleaning, sweeping vacuming dusting the whole deal, less if any.
Hope this letter finds you well, and if not, cheer up! Things could always be worse! The reason that this first letter comes to you from age 36 is that all of the other letters I wrote were washed away in the great storm of 2005. Shows what you get for not being organized and having all of the letters together in one place where they could be found. However, I'll try to summarize the advice that I wrote to you before, and probably just keep it on the Internet so that it won't be lost in future tragedy.
First off, when you meet a girl named Heather at John Leon's wedding, just go ahead, drop what you're doing and marry her right off the bat. You'll wind up married to her anyway, and won't ever regret that decision regardless of circumstances.
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