Carnage

Today we were able to see serious shoreline damage, and got a handle on the real wrath of Hurricane Katrina. Billy Lawson the SBDC Regional Director for this part of Mississippi visited our outpost in Gautier late in the afternoon, as things were winding down for us. Lawson, a Sean Penn look alike with the demeanor of a gracious (but not too overzealous) game show host, decided it was time for us to take a ride.

Our side trip took us to the ocean front town of Pascagoula, a few miles to the east, on the Gulf of Mexico shore. The access road from Route 90 took us past severely damaged homes with mountains of garbage piled up on the road waiting to be picked up, just how long we could only guess.

Finally we met the ocean and the saw the remnants of huge Antebellum mansions and homes that felt the full brunt of the storm. One has to remember that these houses had survived Hurricanes Camille in '69, Frederick in '79, Elaina in '85, and Georges in '98.

The picture above shows what remains of one such home. In this case the house was located less than 150 feet from the ocean and had its first story completely wiped out by the swelling waves and 90 mile per hour winds. The second story then collapsed and fell to become a very dysfunctional first level.

What you don’t see are numerous lots on either side of this home where several houses were completely leveled. Now six weeks later, all that remained were brick ruble and random wall studs.