Katrina Revisited
Two years ago, on August 29th, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made landfall at Waveland, Mississippi. Of course, the actual landfall extended west to parts of Louisiana, and east across the entire Mississippi Gulf Coast. Incredible as it might seem, 24 months after Katrina, much of the Mississippi Coast is still barren and scarred.

While a significant, and probably unprecedented, amount of debris has been removed, much of the Mississippi coastline lies undisturbed…and frozen in time. There are signs of rebuilding, especially at the casinos. And some valiant residents have started to rebuild. As they do so, they cling to their memories, as little else remains. A seemingly endless number of FEMA trailers cover the landscape.History is awash, and the numbers are daunting.

According to the Historic Preservation Division of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, of the 690 buildings in the Beach Boulevard Historic District in Bay St Louis, 125 were completely destroyed and hundreds of others were damaged. Katrina also destroyed three of the five buildings that were individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Bay St Louis. Of the 130 buildings in the Scenic Drive Historic District in Pass Christian, 50 were completely destroyed and approximately two-thirds of the remaining buildings were severely damaged or gutted by the killer storm’s tidal surge. The Harbor Square Historic District in Gulfport had relatively little serious damage, though there was extensive flooding, but two of the five buildings in Gulfport that were individually listed on the National Register were completely destroyed, and another was seriously damaged. In Biloxi, of the 66 buildings in the West Beach Historic District, 19 were completely destroyed and approximately 30 more were seriously or catastrophically damaged. Of the 70 buildings in the West Central Historic District, 16 were destroyed and ten were severely or catastrophically damaged. Nine individually listed buildings in Biloxi were completely destroyed. In Ocean Springs, 17 buildings in the Old Ocean Springs Historic District were destroyed, out of 95, as well as five of the ten buildings in the Shearwater District. Of the three buildings in the Sullivan-Charnley Historic District, one, the Sullivan House, was completely destroyed and the other two were very seriously damaged.  Many other buildings in Ocean Springs were heavily damaged, as well. In Pascagoula, 33 out of 44 buildings in the Historic District on Beach Blvd. were completely destroyed and the remainder were all either seriously or catastrophically damaged.  Additionally, numerous historic buildings in Pascagoula were substantially damaged by flooding.

Pass Christian, like so many other communities along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, has seen its share of heartbreak from hurricanes. In 1969, one of the town’s coastal landmarks, Trinity Episcopal Church, was the scene of the fury of Hurricane Camille’s worst episodes. There, 16 members of the family of Paul Williams, the church’s sexton, had taken shelter as Camille approached. After a 25 foot storm surge leveled the church,  only Williams, one of his sons and a son-in-law survived, clinging to forks in the ancient, gnarled oaks nearby.

Toppled grave markers remained in Live Oak Cemetery, in Pass Christian, Mississippi almost a year after Hurricane Katrina devastated the town and nearby Trinity Episcopal Church. The church and cemetery also were the scene of 13 deaths following Hurricane Camille in 1969.

The following day, people saw Williams retrieving the bodies of his wife, children and other relatives…the youngest, a girl less than a year old, from amid the tombstones and unearthed caskets of the adjoining Live Oak Cemetery.  During Katrina, the church was destroyed again, reduced to little more than the main church’s frame, some basement pilings and the oaks that shelter the cemetery and sidewalk where Williams had laid the bodies of his family nearly four decades before.

Particularly notable historic buildings that were completely destroyed included Grasslawn, the Old Harrison County Courthouse Annex, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church, the Tullis-Toledano House, the Brielmaier House, the Pleasant Reed House, and the Church of the Redeemer, including the tower that had stood as a memorial to those who had died in Hurricane Camille.

Even after all this time, grasping the harsh enormity of this Storm’s wrath eludes me.

And taking toll is taking a toll on all of us. We can rebuild, but no one wants to count the lives lost.

For more about Katrina visit: http://www.jackneal.net/editorial.htm 

Photo: Live Oak Cemetery - Pass Christian, MS - May 2, 2006