News & Politics - Gulf Coast mourns 1 year after Katrina

Lexis · 08-29-2006, 01:19 PM

Quote:

In the dark of dawn 65 miles south of this shattered city, several hundred people bowed their heads in silence, marking the moment a year ago when the eye of Hurricane Katrina passed overhead at 6:10 a.m.
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The tiny town of Buras was swept into the Gulf of Mexico, and, hours later, New Orleans' crucial levees were overtopped, unleashing one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, killing over 1,800 people in all.

One year later, the Gulf Coast turned its attention to rituals of mourning and celebrations of life. A minute of silence inside a gutted fire station in Buras was followed by the singing of "Amazing Grace."

In pockmarked neighborhoods choked with weeds, in church pews and at City Hall, residents will planned to observe the one-year anniversary in vigils. They will remember the dead and ring the bell at City Hall to mark the moment one of the city's flood walls breached and water engulfed the northern edges of the city.

In one of the Crescent City's age-old traditions, a jazz funeral will wind through downtown streets, beginning with a somber dirge and ending with a song of joy.

Gulf Coast mourns 1 year after Katrina - Yahoo! News

Thoughts going out to all those who were effected by Katrina last year - I know some of our posters really suffered.

**Lemurian** · 08-29-2006, 08:58 PM

Thank you for your kind thoughts.

I am a Katrina survivor.

I rode out the storm about 20 miles inland from the Mississippi Gulf Coast. I watched the eye-wall (the most dangerous part of the storm) pass over the my town. I watched the trees in my yard topple in winds that were more than 100 mph. And I listened as an hurricane-embedded tornado roared through my neighborhood.

The hurricane howled for a terrible twelve hours. It seemed to take such a long time to finish. But recovery takes much longer--the scars on the land and on the people will take many, many years to heal, if they ever do.

My heart is broken for all of the people who are enduring this long nightmare. I was one of the lucky ones--my home wasn't badly damaged, and I was only without power for four months. However, several of my family members lost their homes and everything that they had. We count ourselves blessed that we all are alive.

I hear so many awful stories from so many people who have lost so much--people from New Orleans and from Mississippi both. It's the constant topic of conversation at any place and at any time. People are hurt and angry and frustrated and determined.

The recovery here is still ongoing--whole towns in Mississippi have been wiped off the map and some people are still living in tents. A Congressman from another state visited this area a few days ago, and he said that it's so bad here that he can't believe that this is in America.

Because the media has focussed so much on New Orleans, most people outside of this area don't know that the hurricane actually hit Mississippi so hard. More than 70,000 homes in Mississippi were destroyed. Sometimes my grief is mixed with frustration because people don't know this.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour said it much better than I can: Katrina actually generated two different disasters. The disaster that befell New Orleans was very different than the catastrophe that hit Mississippi. We had the worst hurricane, with far and away the largest, most devastating storm surge, to ever hit North America. It obliterated a lot of South Mississippi, not just the Coast. New Orleans had a rising-water flood. It's a terrible thing, an awful disaster in its own right, but a very different disaster from ours. I remember seeing photos in Time magazine. Here (in Mississippi) you saw just utter devastation - slabs where houses had been. Another photo was from New Orleans, taken from a helicopter. Of course, water surrounded everything, but every house still had its roof on, hardly a shingle missing.

It is my hope that while people join New Orleans in sadness over the horror that Katrina brought to the Gulf Coast that they would remember Mississippi, too. Barbour proclaims mourning period through Sept. 1

Lexis · 08-30-2006, 03:38 AM

Lemurian, I'm so sorry to hear about the trauma you went through. I can't imagine just how awful that must be. How are things now? Are you happy with the rebuilding efforts? Is there anything you think is missing?

AlexEvans · 08-30-2006, 08:56 AM

Thanks for starting this topic, Lexis, and Lemurian for sharing your experiences. I'm sorry to hear what you went through.

I think it's a real shame the way what happened in Mississippi has been ignored. I gather it's because Mississippi coped so much better than Louisiana, but that doesn't mean help isn't needed there.

Also, when two states are hit by a hurricane and have different experiences, it would be very helpful to compare why. I think a lot can be attributed to the state and local governments.

Jacob1983 · 08-30-2006, 10:19 AM

Sorry that you guys had to experience that horrible situation. I live in Texas and I remember back when it first happened. Texas has the most Katrina survivors out of any other state. I've never experienced what it's like to be in area where hurricanes are prominent but I'm sure it's pain. It was weird for me when Katrina happened because I had just visited Louisiana 2 months before Katrina hit. The rescue and relief response wasn't that great and help should have been on the way. But honestly, I think it's pointless to keep on complaining and blaming people.

Dana_Lana · 08-30-2006, 05:05 PM

I live in Texas too and went through Hurricane Rita last year, and it's nothing I ever care to go through again.
I think I saw the best and the worst in people during that time.

My thoughts and prayers are with everyone who lost their life in Katrina last year..along with the ones who were hit by Wilma and Rita.


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