Waveland - My trip there - Aug. 28, 2006

Waveland - My trip there - Aug. 28, 2006

My visit to Waveland on Monday, Aug. 28, 2006 was at the same time, awe-inspiring and deeply saddening, joyous and heartbreaking. The awe was provided by Mother Nature. I've never seen anything like what I saw in Waveland. Pictures just can't do the damage justice. You have to be there. You have to walk along the beach, feel the breeze, look around as you stand and stare at what Katrina has done to Mississippi's Emerald Coast. You have to breathe the air, see the beautiful thick cumulus clouds against the clear rich blue of the sky, witness that there are hundreds of dragonflies clustered together in front of you and then realize that there are only a handfull of seabirds, if any, flying about. As for other signs of animal life, there just really isn't any.

The joy came in meeting some wonderful people. We took supplies to the city of Waveland's offices which are now in trailers. I had worked for a month before this trip to garner support and donations from friends and family for the city as well as for the animal shelter there. I also went through my many art books and filled a large box to donate to the Margaret Sherry Memorial Library in Biloxi. Betty Robinson was our contact at the city offices and it was a real joy to meet her and deliver some much needed items to them.

Joy also found me when we drove up Oak Blvd. and happened upon a wonderful lady sitting by the side of the road weeding some flowers in front of a FEMA trailer. I just had to stop. As it ended, we met her and her lovely mother who invited us in out of the heat and humidity and offered us some lemonaid. We discovered true hospitality, beauty, and graciousness alive and well amid all of Katrina's destruction and devastated landscape! It seems we have added to our list of friends that Katrina has brought us. Something good always manifests itself from something bad. Friends are one of life's greatest gifts.

Heading to the beach down Coleman Ave. – the one street I had read so much about online in those early Katrina days. Message boards were the way to keep up with what people out in the devastation were saying and who they were looking for. I posted my own "looking for" messages. Those were trying days indeed. I checked my email constantly. Those message boards also brought me a very dear friend.

One thing I noticed was that there were a number of places, home sites, which had fragments of their former being and on those fragments would be the spray-painted phrase, "Do Not Destroy." Roll over to see a closer view.


These are but a handfull of pictures. During our Katrina anniversary week on the coast, I shot appoximately 450 photos.
That still won't show you the reality of Katrina.

You just have to go there and see it and experience it.

I am on a new imac using Safari which is not totally compatible w/this site. To see the photos (with comments) I took that go with this article please go to: http://www.mississippijournal.net and http://www.myspace.com/gara_gara

:: :: :: Links to visit :: :: ::

http://www.wavelandcity.com/
http://www.femaforgotwaveland.com/index.html
http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/stories.html
http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/virtual_tour.html#map