My eyes were opened this week while I was working with the tree doc Rob. I asked him to paint a verbal picture of the area, Long Beach and Pass Christian, that we were working in along route 90/Beach Blvd in MS. He said that all along this road were huge houses that had been around for a really long long time. Some houses had one or two other houses of the same lot because the lots were that build. Live Oak trees framed all of the houses because they'd been around before anything else was here. There was a boardwalk along some of the beach. In some areas like Biloxi it was more commercial rather than residential but there were some houses thrown in for good measure. He said to imagine Long Beach and Pass Christian like down the Jersey shore along the boardwalk with houses lining it. Now imagine the Jersey shore with less than half its present houses, roads ripped up, boardwalk gone, stores and gas stations wiped off the map, not just long shore, but for about a good quarter of a mile inland.
This is where my jaw dropped and my eyes were finally opened. When I originally looked at these areas I saw houses and in some cases there were some remnants of foundations where houses or other structures stood, but what I mistakenly took for just overgrown lots that was never residentially or commercially developed had indeed been a plots of land where houses had stood. And there were many of these such parcels of land. I was dumbstruck! Nothing remained in these lots. No foundations, no nothing.
I asked him how was this possible and tree doc Rob goes on to tell me that the water was 25 feet high! 25 feet high with huge refrigerated trucks and containers roils around in it from Gulfport. These items along with huge paper reams would hit the houses and destroy them. And what this flotsam and jetsam didn't take out Katrina did with her wind and rain. The houses didn't stand a chance. Neither did the trees. (I reported in an earlier post that a minimum number of trees were damaged. Incorrect. A large number of trees were definitely destroyed; a larger number I'm happy to say survived though.) If you looked closely you could see where the trees were scarred really high in their branches. In some cases, a street or two in from the beach, you could still see clothing and other bits and pieces of someone's life still stuck in the trees branches.
I now see Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach and Pass Christian in a different light. I still can't conceive of water that high just coming ashore. I can and do however, still see all the damage that was done to people, homes and infrastructure of these cities.
Americans are a hearty bunch and given time these cities will be back and better than ever. Wish them luck!
- Wil
Just as an aside: Just want to say that I'd glad that I wasn't here right after Katrina hit. Apparently the smell was HORRIBLE. Remember those refrigerated freight containers, well they contained frozen meats and chicken and stuff. When they broke open and were strewn all over the place and left to rot I'm told it stunk to high heaven. (See I wouldn't have been able to deal with that, I can barely stomach the stink at the corner of 17th street and 5th Avenue near Aldo shoes or the pee smell in the subwa stair wells in the summer.) Residents were afraid that the smell would never leave the area.
I happy to report that it has or else I wouldn't be here. What! BDK.
(Yes, Jennifer D. I've been washing my hands before I eat.)
- Wil
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