Another milestone

Yesterday, Hwy 90 in Gulfport opened back up for traffic. This will do little to ease the traffic situation since most of the other towns along the Hwy are still blocked off, but it is a big morale booster to most of us down here. Hwy 90 is a major traffic artery that runs along the beach for most of the Gulf Coast. Since the beach was the hardest hit area from the storm surge, and because there were a lot of bodies in that area, the entire Hwy and beach has been closed since the storm. They strung concertina (sp?) wire along the length of the Coast and put armed National Guardsmen on each intersection that lead to it. The only people who were allowed in were people with a need to be there. Home owners, people who worked down there and clean up and emergency crews. Since Brad worked in an office in that area, we had to go to his office right after the storm and were able to drive up and down the beach and see all the damage. We also were able to see most of the other towns along the beach either by knowing someone who lived there, or in one case, by Brad just waving at the guard as we drove into one of the hardest hit areas, Pass Christian. It may sound morbid, but people who live here needed to see what happened down there. There had been an ongoing debate in the newspaper for the past few months about people not being allowed to go see. I had shared my pictures from the beach with many, many people, but it is not the same as going down there and seeing it for yourself. A lot of people were very hurt and angry about being kept out. Well, yesterday when they opened the road in Gulfport, everyone was able to drive down there and finally get some closure. I did not go since I had already seen it from the start, but I know it was a good thing for a lot of people. Most of us have driven along the Hwy on a daily basis for years and feel a personal connection to the homes down there. I used to work with a man who had a family home on the beach. They had a Shoo-Fly built in the front yard and his Mother decorated it for every holiday. It was fun to go by and see it all decorated for Christmas, Easter or Thanksgiving. It hurts to drive by the empty lot. I was talking to a friend the other day and she mentioned how much she missed the house with the "glass porch" on the front of the house. Even through there are hundreds of homes down there, I knew right off which house she was talking about. I think the opening of the beach is a real big step towards healing for all of us.