April 2, 2006
click on image to enlargeI really thought I was going to be able to change the focus of this blog. I am tired of Katrina and her constant presence on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As time goes on, I have realized that there is just no way around it. We will be in Katrina recovery for years to come. I am still taking hundreds of photos to document the damage down here and yet I rarely show them to anyone outside the area. I keep hoping to take that one magical photo that I can show to an outsider and they will say, "Oh, now I understand.". It can't be done. Many professional photographers have published thousands of pictures and yet every single person I have met from outside the area, is surprised at the actual destruction when they get here. They have seen the pictures, they have seen the videos and they all say they same thing. It is so much worse in real life. The images they have seen do not show a fraction of the devastation. On my way home from my sister's house yesterday, I stopped to take some pictures. I ran into a man who was down here from Chicago with a group of about 30 men from a Baptist church. They were all in construction and had come down here for a week to rebuild a house. As he and I stared out over the Ocean Springs bridge that local politicians are still fighting over how to rebuild, I thought about what a wonderful thing it was that this man and his church and cut through the red tape, came down here and rebuilt a house. I told him if we had more people like him, and less politicians, we would be far better off by now.
click on picture to enlargeThis picture is one that I thought would be a good one. It is of the remains of maybe 3 or 4 houses in a wash about a mile from the ocean. When you look at this huge field of debris in the middle of the woods, you get an idea of how strong the storm was. When you look at the picture, you only see a small pile of trash. It is very frustrating not to be able to share the extent of the damage or the emotion that goes with it. I keep thinking if I was a better photographer, or a better writer, I could bring outsiders into our world. So far, I feel like I am not succeeding at all.
posted by Nancy at 8:52 AM
6 Comments:
Nancy,
Keep up with the pictures and the Blog. I sent your blog info to Vice President Cheney and CNN and the Weather Channel(when they were down there) Maybe one of them yahoos will get a big pair of sissors and cut through the red tape.
To many Banty roosters out there taking credit for not much of a difference. If they spent less time bashing Bush and creating useless popularity polls that energy that they expend could be put to some real benifits! And who is making these contractors register so they can be tracked down?!! Too many are taking money and running.
Ophra got how many houses built and completly furnished in Houston? I always liked that woman!!
KIM
Ain't that anonymous...thats why I signed my name.
Kim, I would have known it was you, even if you hadn't of signed your name. I had thought about posting more about some of the political posturing and back-biting that is going on, but I got tired just thinking about it. I just hope the rest of the world understands that most of us down here, just want to get on with our lives.
by the way, are you reading our local paper, The Sun Herald, or are you actually seeing little ole Mississippi on the national news? When President Bush came down here recently for his 10th visit, I saw no mention of us in the news at all. Only about New Orleans. That was one of the reasons that I wanted to start back with the Katrina blog.....I get tired of feeling that the rest of the world has no clue as to the extent of the damage down here. Thank you for your personal email campaign to bring awareness to the coast.
Well kiddo, I keep up on the cable news daily. Bush has been there a handful of times in Biloxi and the "extreme builder show" over in N.O. but, It seems like just the people of Gulfport and Biloxi are getting things done quicker without waiting for the Government to quit sitting on their hands.Must be EXTREMELY frustrating also for the politicians who lost their own homes down that way. The news has talked about how much further Biloxi/Gulfport is in cleanup just by doing what they can now themselves.
Did you see the memorial built there in Biloxi using items found and meaningful to the people who brought them? Very pretty and meaningful.
Is? or why isn't the national guard still around to clean up?I just do not understand where or what the money donated and allocated for helping people out is sitting. Like I said before ,if Ophra can get a neighborhood built in what...3 monthes...why can't the powers that be... organize some solid contractors to get things rebuilt along the "whole" coastline. I know they got it in them to get it done....and others...I know the hugs of gratitude to someone who was wealthy and helped out people down that way....sure would be more spiritually gratifying than building another strip mall...
KIM
Nancy,
I wondered if you were ever going to go beyond the Golden Mummy. I hate that there is so much devistation and distruction for you at every turn. How can this bridge and its huge reconstruction problem not do what it was exactly meant to do...bridge people together? You would think that the bridge is such a vital part of the community that it would have/should have been one of the most vital and of the upmost reconstruction projects.
It's going to cost tons to rebuild it. Yes we all know that, even us who have never seen it or used it. We accept that and can't understand why the Army Corp of Engineers or someone can't just say it needs to be fix this way and git R dun! But then again we are talking government.
I think that NOLA is an important issue and there were MAJOR problems there, of course, some brought on by themselves, but all areas of the Katrina disaster should be given equal attention and then again we get into politics, and you don't really want to know how I feel about Bush/Cheeney. Well anyone who shoots his buddy..geesh and we give him the gun?? It's like saying here's the money for rebuilding the bridge...and then again, incompetance.
I love the photos either good or bad. There isn't a photo or a news story that can show the horrible devistation but even though I can't see it first hand, it doesn't mean I don't think about all of you who are fighting to live day to day within the area.
Keep up what you are doing and someone's bound to read it and see it and help get things sorted out. You are one piece of the chain and without you and your blog, the information would be lost.
Hugs
Keep doing your part. I know that there's no way for me to imagine it, but each photo I see from you helps me to understand it.
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