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.
As the rebuilding of Bay St. Louis and Waveland progresses day by day, the time has come to step back to get a broader perspective of what’s happening in the Hurricane Katrina-ravaged towns on which we have focused since the storm.
In the months ahead, rotating teams of MSNBC.com reporters will spend one week a month in "Bay-Waveland" reporting and producing a series of stories on the towns’ battle to rebuild after the most destructive storm in U.S. history. Look for our next update late this month.
BAYOU CADDY, Miss. – The irony of what is happening in the post-Katrina fishing industry along the Gulf Coast is as twisted as the steel in the ruins of the marina here.
She took it all, the killer hurricane did, boats and docks and gear, cars and trucks and homes. Rough and ready men and women who pulled their living from the sea lost everything to it. But Katrina’s awful churning of the fishing grounds appears to have returned a bounty of seafood to which government inspectors have given a clean bill of health.
Well I now have my algebra class back at OLA (Our Lady Academy).
It is really nice to be back in my all-girls school even if we have boys in the class. I think it is a step toward normalcy even if the school keeps changing our schedules around.
I thought I should write something, since I haven’t blogged in a while. I have nothing really useful or new to report, and I’ve been in such a funk that I haven’t felt like blogging anyway. Sometimes it’s hard to keep the positive attitude. Sometimes I just want to run away. Sometimes I want to curl up in my trailer, under my beautiful donated quilt, and be left alone for a day or two.
Here is the current situation: Insurance has paid out (hope I don’t get any hate mail about that). Building permits are available in Waveland. Waveland says we have to go up four feet -- not bad at all. NFIP(The National Flood Insurance Program) says we should be at 11-13 feet. Again, easy to do. We’re just gonna go right ahead and put the house up more than is necessary, but not insanely high. We want to go with a modular historic-type home as illustrated in the MS Renewal Forum book, and use the bottom level for a workshop.
This New Year was a little different than any other years. We went over to our "Uncle" Chris' house to celebrate.
We hung out there for a while. Then Uncle Chris got a bunch of fireworks and we went down to the beach to set them off. He put his blow torch in the back of the truck where we were riding and said "If the police stop us you don't know what that blowtorch is for." We weren't supposed to set off fireworks because there was a burn ban in the area. Luckily no one saw us.
Dr. Carol Currier explains the dosage schedule for a course of antibiotics she prescribed for a patient's bronchitis at the free medical clinic in Bay St. Louis. Click 'play' to hear Dr. Currier describe the health problems common in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. (John Brecher / MSNBC.com)
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- The prognosis for the only medical clinic still offering free treatment to locals whose world was rocked by Hurricane Katrina brightened considerably Tuesday after Mayor Eddie Favre stepped into an increasingly acrimonious dispute between doctors who say it is undercutting their business and community leaders who maintain it is necessary to meet the health care needs of many storm-battered residents.
The clinic run by the Virginia-based Loudon Medical Group will remain open at least through the end of the week and "probably for a lot longer," Dr. Carol Currier, a physician at the clinic, told MSNBC.com after talks with city officials that apparently led to an 11th-hour reprieve.
The adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is true enough. I can sit here and describe our art community. I can tell you in words how rich and diverse the arts community is or I can simply point you to our Web site.
There you will find visual images of hands creating art -- hands shaping clay, hands applying paint to canvas or paper, hands carving stone or coaxing images out of wood, hands playing a musical instrument, hands holding a book, hands creating images in stained glass, hands taking an image out of a developer, hands at a computer keyboard, hands creating jewelry out of beads and stones, hands sewing a quilt or fabric wall hanging, hands turning an etching press, hands creating a collage out of found objects, hands holding a theater playbill, hands holding ballet slippers, hands making paper, hands creating murals out of mosaic tiles.
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