Day 63 - Sept 20 - Biloxi - The Gulf Coast, 3 years after Katrina

The most interesting aspect of a trip like ours is talking to the locals about their lives and cultures. Some of these conversations will stick with you for the rest of your life. Yesterday was one such experience. At dinner we struck up a conversation with the waitress, a middle-aged lady who told us to grab the crab as it was the best item in the buffet. During the course of the evening she told us of her experience with Hurricane Katrina.

It turned out that she owned a mobile home in New Orleans. She knew it was doomed and went to her daughter's house in Biloxi because it was made of brick. When she got there her pregnant daughter had already left for the inland. Unfortunately, she decided to ignore her daughter's warnings to come inland and decide to stay at her house to protect it after the storm. When the hurricane hit, the house was completely flooded and she was forced with her husband to escape to the roof of the house and wait for rescue. During this time she did not expect to make it through the storm. She told us of how the furniture inside the house was ripped through its windows. She also told us how the water became a hazard because of the dangerous currents, and how she fully expected to either drown, be bitten by one the poisonous snakes that infested the waters or be dragged under by an alligator.

What made the conversation even more interesting was her passionate belief that her deceased parents were acting as her guardian angles. It seems that through the years, during times of trouble, she has come to associate her parents with yellow butterflies. At the conclusion of the hurricane two yellow butterflies appeared and flew around her while she was on the roof. She believes that they wanted to make sure she was safe and then they left. Who are we to question her beliefs?

During the afternoon we took a trip along the coastal highway. Three years after Katrina, the only buildings that have been rebuilt are the hotels and casinos with the occasional house and store. Some work has been done on the roads and bridges. Imagine, if you can, that for miles and miles and four blocks in from the ocean all the homes and stores have disappeared. Along the highway a veterans hospital and large college site vacant and totally destroyed. You can see some of the partial foundations from the road and as one reminder that it was not all property damage their is a large cross in a lot as remembrance to the inhabitants we suspect perished in the storm.

They are trying to rebuild, but it is going to take a long, long time.