BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. – If the trees could talk, they would tell us everything.
Silent, gnarled sentries, the live oaks of the Mississippi Gulf Coast have seen it all. Since well before they beckoned Spanish and French explorers with their massive limbs like welcoming arms, the oaks have been dutiful witnesses to the timeless cycle of birth and life and death. And hurricanes.
Of Hurricane Katrina, 20 months after she unleashed her fury, they have two stories to tell. One story is as plain as the leaves on their branches. Denuded by 120 mph winds, the oaks now bristle like happy Chia pets.
“Last summer, you saw no green,” says Bay St. Louis artist and businessman Mark Currier. “This year, look at the live oaks!”
As with the oaks, the outward signs of human recovery are visible all along the coast.
Locals are planning the biggest party they’ve ever thrown to mark the opening of the new $267 million, four-lane Highway 90 bridge between Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian to the east. The nearby CSX railroad bridge has been open for a year now and freight trains rumble daily through town.
While the occasional jolting juxtapositions of stairs to nowhere and toilets on slabs remain, the breathtaking piles of debris that clotted the landscape after the storm are gone. The cleanup efforts, subsidized by billions in government spending, are in their final days.
Fast food and box stores
Between Waveland and Bay St. Louis, there are more flavors of fast food than you can shake a stick at and a healthy number of more refined eateries. There is still no stand-alone grocery store in either town, but the Wal-Mart in Waveland, forced into a circus tent after the storm, is back in its building and busting at the seams with everything from pineapples to patio furniture. Kmart has reopened, and a booming business in building materials is being done at a new Lowe’s and Home Depot as well as several outlets that pre-date the storm.
Tax revenue from gambling also is helping the battered local economies, through the reopened Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis (formerly the Casino Magic) and a new 5,000-square-foot casino at Bayou Caddy, attracting thousands of gamblers and generating millions in new tax revenue.
Housing construction has been slow, but skeletons of wood and steel are more numerous than they were six months ago, with the largest efforts still coming from volunteer crews and the Habitat for Humanity program. Little has been done to replace the hundreds of rental units lost to the storm but plans for new projects are emerging in both the public and private sectors.
In Bay St. Louis, city employees have moved out of their temporary post-Katrina City Hall at the Old Depot and regrouped on Highway 90 in the former Coast Electric compound, also home to a new police station. Late last month, the City Council approved a $14 million contract to replace utility lines in the downtown area.
While still governing from a collection of portable buildings at Coleman and Central avenues, Waveland is forging ahead on big-bucks projects to rebuild utilities and restore the devastated civic center complex at the old Waveland School.
Scant activity in downtown cores
The downtown cores of both cities remain very light on business and commercial activity, a fact laid mostly to post-Katrina insurance issues.
The beaches are clean and the cries of gulls fill the air at sunrise while wading fishermen stalk the shallows. Soccer moms meet like they do everywhere to stroll and confer on the jogging path along Beach Boulevard. The warm spring temperatures are luring ever more sunbathers, picnickers and swimmers.
But the live oaks – and the people of the hurricane zone – have a second, inner story that can’t be so easily seen and understood. As storms have battered the trees across the centuries, roots have shifted, trunks have twisted and limbs have curled in ways that are no longer apparent. Long after Betsy, Camille, Elena and Frederick, the oaks hew to the force of their winds and so too do the people.
It is no different in the aftermath of Katrina.
Just how it plays out is hard to divine. You cannot bisect hurricane survivors and look at a neat record of concentric rings for when and how they were wounded, healed and changed. But there are signs and there is talk, although most of it not on the record when a reporter is notebook-in-hand.
For some, it is a real sinking spell. Depression, drinking, drugging, marital discord, troubled teens -- they have seen much more of it all since the storm swept through. The situation is especially bleak in FEMA trailer parks, according to a recent study, with suicide and violence sadly common.
There is more suspicion about who has profited in the aftermath of Katrina, who is trying to pull a fast one. There is disgust with gouging landlords, agony over skyrocketing insurance rates and soaring utility bills. And there is constant distress over being forgotten by most of the nation and harshly judged by the rest of it.
Nobody 'has a fight left in them'
“I just think everyone is tired,” says Michelle Allee, an artist who displays her work in a Bay St. Louis gallery. “I don’t think anybody has a fight left in them.”
In political affairs, tensions are flaring over a Bay St. Louis City Council redistricting plan and Mayor Eddie Favre’s choice for a new police chief. Townsfolk mutter at each other under their breath at council meetings. In Waveland, Mayor Tommy Longo’s citizen detractors nitpick virtually every city decision from their folding chairs at sessions that recall the old admonition against watching sausage being made.
What are the inner stories here, coursing like sap through lives that have been entwined forever? “These people have known each other all their lives,” warns one transplanted county resident. “You don’t know how much of this is Katrina and how much of it is who beat who up in the first grade.”
And as old feuds and rivalries have been exacerbated by Katrina’s fallout, some unlikely new alliances have been forged.
It is a time of great soul-searching along the coast. The frantic hand-to-mouth pace of immediate survival and initial recovery has slowed. There is time for reflection, time to look for slivers of meaning as carefully as if they were shards of a precious heirloom smashed by Katrina into the red Mississippi clay, but an heirloom that might be pieced back together.
Some are wondering why they stay. It is at the top of a long list of perplexing questions. Should I rebuild? Should I reopen my business? Where? Why was my house spared? Should I feel guilty? Am I crazy? Are we all crazy?
No Cliffs Notes for this test
Even the most introspective seekers can find themselves puzzling like freshmen lit majors over a Faulkner novel. But there are Cliffs Notes for “The Sound and the Fury.” Not for this.
Just as we must wait to see when the leaves come back and then, wait much longer to see which direction the trunks will lean and the branches will grow, only the future will reveal how Katrina has changed these people, these towns, this coast.
Now, a new storm season is on the horizon, predicted to be “very active.” Whether a major hurricane spins out of the Atlantic, across the gulf and slaps Mississippi is anybody’s guess. But the possibility is on everybody’s mind.
When the winds do come again, in a year or in 30, the live oaks will be here as they have always been. They will shudder, they will bend, they will crack, and they will let loose their leaves in the howling breath of a new legend whose name awaits on an alphabetized list.
Then the trees will grow anew, and more will be revealed.
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I'm happy to see recovery of both people and infrastructure. But why do so many people reflexively get angry when logical questions regarding building risk are raised?
Yes, I realize people have emotional attachments to areas they call home, and, yes, I've been a victim of natural disaster too. BUT, I still believe we should have a RATIONAL, unemotional, discussion on how to mitigate losses in the future, and they WILL occur. The only differance is whether we prepare for them in an intelligent fashion, or simply bury our heads in the sand or simply leave it to God (and last I heard, He was pretty busy with other crisis')
Brian B Roanoke, VA (Sent Apr 30, 2007 3:27:38 PM)
To Chris in Harrisburg.
You better move, big boy, because the Susquehanna usually floods somewhere between New York and Maryland each spring. I lived in northern Virginia when Agnes came through in June of 1972 and Just about every major city between Richmond and Philadelphia flooded. The worst damage was up near Scranton and Wilkes Barre, where, in Pennsylvania. Hurricane Camille hit Pass Christian and the coast very badly but also did major damage to Kentucky and Virginia. I was with some family friends when we went back to their hometown of Bedford, Virginia. The town of Buena Vista, Virginia was almost wiped off the map when the side of a mountain came down because of rain from Camille, just rain. Let's not forget how Hugo took out most of South Carolina and part of North Carolina.
Many of the people in south Mississippi and New Orleans can't rebuild because the insurance companies won't settle claims. Some places along the coast were taken by "eminent domain" and now there are condos and casinos being built on them. Where does that leave the folks that lived there? There was a significant Vietnamese community in east Biloxi. Most are gone and probably won't be back because they can't afford to rebuild. The point here is that there is no place in this country that is completely safe from devastation, whether it be hurricanes, floods, or drought. We don't mind our tax dollars going to help others when the need arises. But we object to people like you being so short sighted. I guess everyone on the coastline in this country should pick up and move inland. Maybe we should move to Harrisburg. Since you live there it must be the safest place in the country.
Eric Efford, Pass Christian, MS (Sent Apr 30, 2007 3:28:59 PM)
Please know that we are praying for you all and that God has not left you yet, believe that.
P. G. Huntsville, Alabama (Sent Apr 30, 2007 3:31:00 PM)
I'm so happy the live oaks are back. They made the coast so beautiful. As a former resident of Jackson, MS, I lived through Katrina. I will never forget how bad it was living through the storma and the third world conditions thereafter. I also lost my aunt. Living in Los Angeles now, I will make a pilgrimage soon to see the beautiful oaks.
Moni Harrion, Living in LA from Missip (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:18:26 PM)
One can take the boy out of the south BUT Noone can take the south out of the boy. When Iread the article my eyes wet and I thought about allof the good times I had as a boy in the deep south. MY heart truely is lost in the trees of the south and just mentioning the live oak trees conjured up lost feeling about the times we kids had climbing in them. This was perhaps one of the best writings I have read form the south since Katrina hit. Long live Dixie!!!
Curt Daniels, Delton, Michigan (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:20:05 PM)
Its hard for me to use the term REV. when speaking of Jesse Jackson so EXCUSE ME. Get him to provide instead of protesting and enjoy the change
bill stephenson vero beach fl. (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:23:57 PM)
I think they should turn New Orleans into a new Sea World. Why rebuild a city that has a high probability of being reflooded
Winston Guatney (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:29:19 PM)
The one thing I've read that disturbs me is it appears by reading some of the posts above is those who lived in the worst areas who owned property were stuck in a hard place as far as the government is concerned. I would think if you live somewhere where it's not sanitary because of this kind of disaster and you weren't receiving the aid you need in a timely manner, the government should be more lenient on bankruptcy if the person wanted to move to another location and start fresh. In that case, I say it's unfair to hold that against someone.
I feel like yes, our government should have done more for people and I have also heard stories about people scamming the government which kept others from getting aid when they needed it. Those people should be ashamed and I feel they should be prosecuted for that. The government should make it a point to really help those who really and truly need it.
Amber from Memphis, TN (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:36:42 PM)
I'm so happy to hear that nature is replenishing itself. Having gone through Hurricane Ivan In Pensacola, FL and all the devastation here I knew nature would provide regrowth along the coast as it did for us here.
Janey Price, Pensacola, FL (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:44:04 PM)
I'm an atheist and a Humanist who has seen the great strength and resilience of the human family as we prepared for, endured through and rebuilt after the "Storm". Our family and friends have been greatly encouraged by the commonality of our condition and strive daily to bring renewal to our community. Thanks to everyone everywhere who has shared their lives with us and who have helped provide for the greater good!
Nature endures and we have seen the changes in the trees and in the animal life here along the MS Gulf Coast. We are witness to a return of beauty and charm and the live oaks stand strong, just as our human will and resolve.
Steve
Steve Schlicht, Biloxi, MS (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:46:52 PM)
That's the beauty of nature. She taketh and she giveth.
Mala Young, Las Vegas, Nevada (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:50:57 PM)
To Chris from PA; I served in the United State Air Force in 1983 and was stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS and have been back there many, many times since then. The area was beautiful, relaxing and stress-free. I watched it grown from basically nothing to a wonderful tourist area. All places have their good and bad when it comes to the weather, as no one is exempt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RaeAnn, Orland Park, IL (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:56:18 PM)
Being from New Orleans and witnessing the devastation first hand, I fondly recall my first commute back into the city over the spillway bridge on which I heard the birds singing again for the first time after the storm. Likewise, the first drive past city park where the trees started to regain their green color. It gave me so much hope, so much faith in our community to start fresh. Thank God the trees didn't have to wait for our government to replant them. They'd still be barren, as most of us still have no homes.
Ginger Serpas, New Orleans, LA (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:58:32 PM)
enough, enough, enough. We all have time to point fingers at a Federal Government for the problems in New Orleans, but it was the local government that had responsibility to evacuate its residents. If you people (New Orleans natives) would stop whining about the lack of Federal support and provide for yourselves, as the majority of this country does, your lot in life would be greatly improved. Take a clue from Mississippi: get off your butts, stop whining, and do what you need to do in order to make a living and provide for your family. The Federal Government, aka Taxpayers, aka ME does not owe any other American anything, other than the opportunity to provide for themselves in a free market society. You want handouts and freebies? Then accept what is tossed in your direction and recognize that as a leech on society, you have forfeited the right to voice an opinion on anything that you do not contribute to: you are not part of the solution, you are the problem.
T. Shilling, Spartanburg, SC (Sent Apr 30, 2007 4:59:23 PM)
Yes, it's sad that our news entertainment machine focuses on the most compelling and easy-to-summarize story (often to the detriment of covering what is most important or informative). At the time of the crisis/disaster, that story was the human drama of the victims in New Orleans (to the near exclusion of the destruction in Mississippi). Now, since the lack on progress in rebuilding a diverse NO is so depressing and seemingly intractible (it's just too complex and difficult to understand all of the reasons recover is slow to come), this "encouraging" story about Mississippi's recovery is published.
The live oaks are an interesting metaphor indeed, but I think they represent the sturdiness and adaptedness of nature in surviving disaster (not the seeming point of the article that, "things are getting better...don't worry about the Gulf Coast: they bounce back.") It underscores the REAL problem with the Gulf Coast's vulnerability to hurricanes: that the natural wetlands of the gulf have been systematically detroyed by way of development. The live oaks are an indigenous species well adapted to the frequent, strong storms endemic to the coast; they have (much like the decimated-by-humans coastal barriers) naturally and effectively developed defenses to these predictably frequent disasters. The story here should be (not, "the coast bounces back [without sacrifice from Joe sixpack]", but "nature bounces back; what can we learn from that?".
While NO has and had its own political and social dynamics that inhibited recovery, much of the blame should be lain at the feet of partisan politics and a Federal government eager and willing to provide much more assistance to the red state of Mississippi vs. the very blue state of Louisiana (and particularly the depressed areas of NO).
To Sheri from AK, it's very laudable that you and your husband struggle to maintain what has become the middle-class standard of living, that you pay taxes and are otherwise operating as a responsible citizen. You clearly do not understand that the lion's share of your Federal tax dollars are NOT allocated to social welfare programs (and by extension, to your mind, listless and unmotivated [probably minority] individuals who only present a burden to society). The two largest recipient programs of your tax dollars (FICA plus regular income tax) are Social Security and military spending -- and not by a little bit; the disparity is overwhelming. The assertion that you would have, "...a lot more disposable income if not for all of these safety nets..." is ludicrous! You should really research your facts before blaming the victim. While I believe it was a typo, you are correct in your assertion that what few safety nets we still have in place are, in fact, for your family.
Andy from Indiana (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:02:46 PM)
How much money do we spend helping other people in other countries rebuild after earthquakes, floods, hurricaines? How much have taxpayers spent rebuilding Florida & how many times? Did we ask folks in FL to relocate? No because there is a lot more $$$ in FL. And blaming the victims by saying they should move. "It's there fault because they were there." Thats the same thing our court system still tends to do to rape victims. It's time for chairty to come first at home before we take care of other countries. How about some new schools for our children? How about every elderly person getting their meds. Part D is just another Bushism to help the rich get richer. (exp:Haliberton (sp)) GOD bless & keep the gulf area, period.
Darlene (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:05:15 PM)
There is something to be said about rebirth-- even in beautiful Oak trees!
Sheila S. Porch, Wesson,MS (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:09:30 PM)
May we all learn a lesson from the trees, that we, too, can find new life after the storm passes.
Jean Lutz
Ponchatoula, LA
Jean Lutz (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:09:42 PM)
Excellent article Mr. Stuckey. We lived in Ocean Springs, MS for 2 years (1982-83). The Live Oaks in the area were absolutely magnificant - you just have to see them to understand.
Jan S., Austin, TX (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:10:20 PM)
It saddens me to think that anyone could think that the wounds we have suffered because of Katrina are "crap". I only hope that you do not ever have to go through what we went through. To see those trees blooming again makes my heart flutter. I no longer live on the Coast at this time but hope to one day come home. I think it is a shame that there is no affordable housing at this time. Seems like there are lots of people there trying to gouge money for the housing that is left. Why do you think a lot of us cannot come home? Places that were renting for $800/month are now $1200-1500/month. I don't see that the wages have increased by much. I am a nurse and cannot afford to live on what the hospitals are willing to pay. I miss seeing the sun rise over the water and go down in the evenings. It was a slow-paced way of life and wonderful people who lived there. My children were raised there and want to go home. I hope the future of our Coast will improve and that the people who are making it impossible for anyone to come back think about what they are doing.
Denise Holland Arlington Kentucky (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:11:30 PM)
Beautiful trees. I pray we don't deal with this again.
Emily from Miami,Fl. (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:14:44 PM)
Hurray for the Oaks and the Coast! Just back from my 4th trip to the Gulf (over Spring Break), second trip with my 18 yr old son. We worked on Habitat for Humanity homes in Long Beach, East of Bay St Louis and Waveland. We did notice the trees looking good. It seems like about 90% of the storm debris has been removed and a few homes are being rebuilt near the Gulf. Still lots of debris from commercial sites, especially along the Gulf.
The gratefulness and graciousness of the locals is amazing to see. I would encourage anyone to take a working vacation to the Gulf Coast. It may be the hardest and most-fulfilling work you will ever do.
Side Bonus-You can also eat Gumbo, Jambalaya, Beans-n-Rice, Crawfish and Prawns to your heart's content.Habitat has a great setup at Yankie Stadium in Biloxi. They will be there for several more years; working on Operation Home Delivery.
Betsy Weyer, Medina, WA (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:21:56 PM)
I am from Ohio, and have lived in Slidell for 4 1/2 years.I remember the first time my husband took me over to Waveland, Biloxi and Gulfport, driving me along the coast, on one side were the beautiful homes that I would say "That one is mine", and on the other side was the beach. I used to be one of those people who said, why don't those people just move? Don't they know better? Now that I live here, I understand why. It gets in your heart. I love Ohio, but I love the Gulf Coast more and would NEVER move back north. That would be like telling ALL the people in California to move because of the wildfires and the earthquakes. The Gulf Coast will have to fall into the Gulf of Mexico just like California will have to fall into the Pacific Ocean before any of us will move. Hooray for the Oaks coming back to life, what a sign of things to come!!!
Vicki LaCombe, Slidell, LA (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:22:22 PM)
To Mr. Guatney,
I live in New Orleans, and we're rebuilding because that's what we do, after each disaster. We rebuilt after two fires, the Civil War, Yellow Fever epidemics, and several hurricanes. We're also the third-largest port city in the country, and have given this country jazz, Creole food, seafood, Mardi Gras and our traditions, rhythm and blues, some of its rock'n'roll heritage (thanks for Fats Domino), and world-renowned, world-class architecture. We flooded because the Army Corps of Engineers built faulty, below-standard levees on several drainage canals and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet.
Wendy King, New Orleans LA (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:25:11 PM)
I live in the panhandle of Florida and watched as the awesome waves of Katrina, several hundred miles away, tore up our piers and eroded our beaches and knew the devastation that was headed to the middle Gulf coast. I saw Biloxi first hand and wondered at the awesome power of the waves that lifted the casino barges up and over to drop them inland. In my hometown of Cincinnati I watched the awesome power of tornadoes as they ripped thru the western part of the city and went on to destroy Zenia. I've seen the awesome power of mother nature as she comes back to life after the devastation. And so too will the AWESOME people of the Gulf Coast as the fight to come back from the total devastation they have suffered.
Joan Kendall, Panama City Beach, Fl. (Sent Apr 30, 2007 5:29:36 PM)
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