These were taken the day after Katrina hit. For those of you needing directions, Pascagoula is on the Mississippi Gulf Coast about 30 miles west of Mobile, Alabama and 20 miles east of Biloxi, MS. If you go another 70 miles further to the west from Biloxi, you hit New Orleans.
This is one of the homes on the Beach in Pascagoula (near Senator Trent Lott's house). They nearly all look like this or worse. The spooky part is where the house is gone but the steps remain giving rise to the phrase "Staircase to Nowhere."
This is the entrance to my parent's apartment building about a quarter mile inland. The junk in the driveway just floated around until the water subsided. Many people were killed in this neighborhood and one of the tenants had to escape thru a window and swim for the balcony next door.
My Dad shows the waterline in this apartment. Talking to those who stayed, the problem was that you didn't know when the water was going to stop rising. You had to make a judgement whether to swim for it in the middle of a hurricane or hope that the winds and water would subside before it was too late to get out. My secretary was up to her neck in water trying to hold up one corner of her invalid father's bed knowing that if she or her brothers dropped their end and saved themselves that they would lose their father. They all held firm and survived.
This shot is from another apartment building my parents own about a mile inland. You can see the waterline here pretty easily. Notice that the white floor is caked in mud. Most of the buildings in Pascaogoula from the beach to about three miles inland (Highway 90) will have to be either gutted and rebuilt or totally demolished.
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My Home Photos (not as dramatic as these)