Thursday

Yesterday we spent the day at a house in Biloxi that had two feet of water in it. We're "deconstructing" this house down to the studs. Taking out all the drywall, windows, electrical, plumbing, all bathroom stuff (yes, even the toilet!). I never knew how many nails are in the drywall to hold it up! This was a comparitively easier day than previous days. Lots more variety of things to do, so I didn't feel like I only had to either load the wheelbarrow or empty it. I spent most of the day bashing out drywall and then removing all the nails.

The owner has lived in this house since she was born and is around 60ish, so she has a LOT of memories in this house. We didn't run across any personal effects at this house like we have at the other places, so this didn't seem quite as invasive somehow. When I was throwing away someone's books, sewing supplies, etc it felt like it was their personal stuff we were throwing away. Ripping out drywall isn't nearly as personal. Maybe that's why that part of the day was easier.

As some of you know, I DON'T do cockroaches! Well, there I was, up on a ladder, pulling off drywall (opposite the bathroom), and out pops 3-4 roaches! "EEEEKKKKKK" she screams as she goes flying off the top of the ladder! I was fine, the roaches however suffered greatly for scaring me like that! They paid with their little roachy lives. These weren't the little german ones - these were the HUGE Oriental ones. Maybe they weren't Oriental roaches, but they were BIG BIG BIG!

They weren't the only wildlife we found either! I'd seen some small round eggs (hatched). Lizards! These were cute little things. Lizards, I can deal with. Roaches I cannot!

Wednesday evening, we spoke with the gal who coordinates the housing. We thanked her profusely for our 5 star accomodations! Other folks stayed at the church in a big room with 40+ cots, others were in smaller rooms in the church with 4-7 cots, others were housed at tent city. We had great accomodations - a house to ourselves!

The housing lady lives here in Ocean Springs, just around the corner from the church. She showed us a picture of the storm surge taken from a 3rd story window. It's almost as if the ocean had been raised 20-30 feet in an instant. It was NOT just a wave. It was the storm surge and very very eerie. Behind the first surge were additional surges. This picture alone, gave me a clearer understanding of just how all the damage occured on the ocean front. It made me feel better (not really a good descriptor, but comparitively) to see locals having a hard time wrapping their head around all the destruction. I thought, since I'm not from here and didn't experience it firsthand, I wan't getting something. This isn't the case. These folks are having just as difficult a time wrapping their heads around it as well, only they have to live it, making it all the more difficult.

After we were done working on Thursday, we drove an additional 15 miles west from where we'd driven previously. The damage only gets worse (closer to the eye of the hurricane). Buildings were simply gone from the beach for 4-5 blocks back. A couple of buildings weathered the storm better than others, but all of those were still underwater by 20-30 feet.

I've been here nearly a week, and I'm still in shock and awe and speechless (well maybe not speechless!), but completely amazed at all the destruction. This goes on for miles and miles! It's not just a tornado that went thru and there's a mile or so of destruction. It's the entire coastline from east of Ocean Springs to West of New Orleans. These folks simply cannot (and will not) recover from this in any amount of time. Even once things are rebuilt, it will be new construction - not the beautiful old house Norma had seen since she was a little girl (she's 78) and had loved all her life and finally had the opportunity to buy, refurbish and restore only to have it completely destroyed.

How do you put a price on all your "stuff"? The family who's house we stayed at had bought a new house, moved in just before the storm, and the roof collapsed on the house. They had to move back into the house they hadn't sold yet. Initially we didn't understand why there was so little in the house... they'd lost it all in the house they'd moved into. They were all ok, but literally had to start over and they're one of the lucky ones. They didn't lose any family members and they still have their jobs. There are so many who now not only don't have a house, but don't have a job either.

When we were cleaning out the house in Biloxi, we needed to take a bathroom break. So we hopped in the van to head to the gas station... the first one, the bathroom didn't work, the next one we couldn't use. We finally went to the police station. There simply weren't any businesses open. We typically say, oh lets stop in McD's... not there! And this is a huge improvement over 3 months ago. The husband of the lady who coordinates the housing, stayed at home (their house is fine and they are ok). After the storm, for over a month, he had to drive to Mobile (47 miles away) to get gas and food. That was the nearest place to get gas and food! And we thought driving around for a couple of miles to find a bathroom was bad!

We're leaving this afternoon to head home. I'll post pictures sometime soon and add more thoughts then.