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KATRINA UPDATE 18
By Sherry Stultz
Sunday, April 23, 2006

http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/ss_katrina/

The Mississippi version of Hurricane Katrina is lost in the national press,
with a few documentaries and reports here and there, but largely dwarfed by
Louisiana's saga and the focus on restoring New Orleans. I am here in
Mississippi and though the levees broke the day after Katrina and thousands
suffered great loss in the New Orleans area, the real structural devastation
was the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It continues to suffer under the strain of
recovery.

The debris is of major concern; the goal is to have it all removed by June
1st, before next hurricane season arrives making all loose objects deadly
weapons in the wake of high winds. There was a photo I meant to take back in
October of the bayou just north of East Beach in Ocean Springs, but I
neglected to photograph it and then later assumed it would just be lost.
However, it remains almost exactly as it did the first time I saw it,
cluttered with wooden boards, siding, insulation, plastics of all kinds and
things I cannot identify from a distance and will not risk going in to
determine what more lays there (see below for link to photo). A few times I
have seen local people salvaging things out of debris field, but it is still
an environmental disaster and eyesore. The media may have forgotten this
area, but the physical scars along the landscape are a constant reminder of
what was lost.

As a Hurricane Katrina survivor, I feel I have the right to address the
issue of who is to blame. Congress is investigating the days preceding and
following Katrina's landfall and I imagine many of you are shocked at the
response times and lack of organization and communication from our federal
government and how poorly it is correlated with state and local agencies.
So, who is to blame? Well, you are. You didn't mis-read it. I said you are.
I am, too. It's called apathy. It's called "someone else's problem." And for
lack of any neat catch phrase it's called "Americans."

We are more concerned with American Idol and our latest gadgets and whether
or not we can have the perfect vacation to really examine how weak our
country has become. We are not prepared to survive a major disaster.
Physically and emotionally we are at our worst: inactive, preoccupied, and
self-absorbed. We do not hold our government accountable for anything, nor
do we participate in our state and local governments. Ever attend a local
election? What percentage of people in your town actually elects the mayor
and the board of alderman? Local elections are important because they can
restore the weaknesses that state and federal bureaucracies have created,
but since there is less advertising and coverage, participation is minimal.
Katrina was my wake up call. Many people here have changed their lives and
priorities since the storm, but do we really need a swath of death and
destruction to tell us we need to pay more attention?

What has impressed me? Thousands of ordinary people who came here to help us
and continue to come and help us rebuild the area. I took one photo on my
way to the local library of a group of young women from Dana Hall School in
Wellesley, MA and a group of young men from Belmont Hill School in Belmont,
MA (see below for link to photo). They came to Ocean Springs to assist with
ongoing clean up. It was hot, muggy spring day and they were cleaning up
trash, debris and fallen limbs on private property. No one got paid and with
the exception of my picture, no one was trying to get a spot on TV for
notoriety. This was just pure altruism and perhaps a lesson in reality.

What about the rest of America, burgeoning with wealth? The silence is
deafening. I kept thinking where are the corporations? All these big tennis
shoe companies that make clothes and accessories could have loaded up trucks
full of essentials and driven them down to Hancock, Harrison and Jackson
County and passed out underclothes, t-shirts, shorts, socks and shoes. The
press alone would have been cheaper than paying some sports icon and given
them a social boost. We did get clothes, though. Piles and piles of old
things to be sorted that eventually molded and rotted in boxes in front of
churches because there was not enough time to sort them and no place to
store them. In a nation as rich as America these boxes of molded clothes
were a disgrace that surprised me. It was such a small thing compared to all
the other noise roaring around me, but it nagged at me. America should be
better than that.

Of course I cannot name all the many people and companies that have donated
time and money, because they do exist, but so much more should have been
done. Few of you probably know that John Grisham and his wife Renee set
aside five million dollars in a relief fund and donated thousands of dollars
directly to people along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, signing the checks
themselves to help folks who were overlooked, ineligible or simply too
exhausted to fight with FEMA or their insurance companies anymore. A friend
of mine, who lost all her possessions in the tidal surge, was denied by the
insurance company because of no flood insurance -- a recurring story all
along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She received a check for $12,000 to
replace her belongings. What a relief that was to her and the thousands like
her to whom the Grisham's have directly donated money.

Tired, depressed faces are everywhere. The winter months, our most pleasant
weather, brought winter illnesses, only to be compounded by the poor air
quality that remains an irritant since the day after Katrina. Sickness is
more common this year than ever before. The stress has made everyone so
vulnerable.

The last picture is of the Hurricane Katrina Memorial and perhaps that
should conclude this report on the conditions along the Mississippi Gulf
Coast (see below for link to photo). It doesn't end here though. For me it
will, because I am leaving the area, and call me paranoid, but I will not
live next to the Gulf of Mexico ever again. No, this long, harrowing event
called the "aftermath of Hurricane Katrina" will be with people here for a
long time.

The honeymoon period is over and the fight for survival dominants our local
news. The thousands of people without flood insurance received the
opportunity for block grants if they did not live in 100 year flood plain
and maintained no flood insurance, but suffered water damage. That doesn't
begin cover everyone, though. In fact, it excludes thousands of people like
the Grisham's are helping that were advised not to buy flood insurance or
whose insurance agent refused to sell them a policy because they were not in
a flood zone. Katrina redefined the flood zones along the Mississippi Gulf
Coast. What do you when you are ineligible for the block grants and your
insurance company has offered $12,000 for your $180,000 home you are still
paying a mortgage on? Well, according to FEMA you are now eligible for an
SBA loan. That's right you take a second mortgage to rebuild your home or
you let the bank foreclose and take your property.

No one was really exempt from Katrina's storm surge or the government's ill
preparedness. Renters lost it all unless they carried insurance for contents
and walked away with some FEMA money and relocation assistance. Home owners
everywhere, from modest priced dwellings to lovely beach side mansions, face
the same dilemma if they did not have flood insurance and lived near the
Gulf: take on more debt to rebuild or walk away and let your life's savings
and your good credit wash away. I should qualify that "near the Gulf" could
be as much one mile north of the water in some areas. Homes that have been
along the north side of Highway 90 for 120 years that never took on water in
previous storms were reduced to slabs.

It's hard to watch the news everyday because we are more aware of the
information in our world than ever before and though there is great news to
be heard, the networks brush it aside for sensationalism. However, we can't
keep ignoring that there are better ways to live in our democracy. It's time
for us to look inward at our cities and communities and begin to knit them
back together so they can become sustainable -- not if, but when we have to
deal with a change.

We are not exempt from nature, whether it's disease, drought, flood, or
fire. America is sprawling and the federal government will not take care of
our needs or problems. It's naïve to assume that this is still possible. If
you've read my Hurricane Katrina blog this entire time, you may have noticed
a theme emerging: everyone must become a member of his/her community, not a
resident of it. Membership implies activity and participation -- knowing and
assisting with the diverse talents with which each person is endowed. It
will take sustainable communities to maintain this nation. I don't fire off
apocalyptic ravings. This is pure pragmatism, a highly overlooked version of
creativity.

Photos referred to in this report:
http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/ss_katrina/photos3.html

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PREVIOUS KATRINA POSTS FROM SHERRY (& PHOTOS):
http://www.nhne.com/specialreports/ss_katrina/

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Published by David Sunfellow
NewHeavenNewEarth (NHNE)
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