Things are a #badword#ed up like a soup sandwich over there.
I visited a friend in Ocean Springs who stayed in him home and had to swim out the back after the water came up too quickly. The 4 neighbors in the house to his right drowned. There is not a single home in his subdivision more than 10 feet high. I was bouyed by his enthusiam though. He said, "Doug, my children and wife left, and I stayed here with mother who refused to leave. We're alive, breathing and looking forward to God blessing us with another beautiful day." Then he said, "I hear they have it really bad in Gulfport, can I give you some things to take over there?" He wanted to give back what I'd brought him to give to others. Real jewel in the crown type stuff if you ask me.
I stopped taking pictures after an hour, you just become so desensitized to it. Whoever gave Haley Barbour grief for comparing the coast to Hiroshima can kiss my white ass. It does look like an A-bomb went off! Further west in Biloxi we found some other friends that are all living in tents on what used to be their front lawns. The neighborhood has banded together and the one house still standing (though flooded) has a generator and everyone has pooled their gas and food. The men take turns guarding the entrance to the neighborhood with a shotgun and the blessing of the BPD to shoot anyone breaking curfew. The women were making dinner a little while ago and they asked us to stay and eat. As tempting as the vegetable soup smelled, I couldn't take from them. They were peeling potatoes with a butter knife, they couldn't find anything else to cut with. I said goodbye to my very sharp gerber paraframe and went on to Gulfport.
Travel on interstate 10 was easy but odd to see tugboats in the median. In Gulfport the ANG is everywhere. They have 49 south blocked just below 19th street so I didn't get to see any of the casinos though I did glimpse the Copa before we turned right. Memorial Hospital looks like a kid with a .22 took dead aim at all the glass. There is none left. I know some doctors there but they wouldn't let us into the building. Only patients and one visitor per is allowed. The information gal had no way to know if any of them were working. We found a clinic offereing free walk-in care. We pulled alongside and unloaded one truck of it's bandaids, neosporin feminine products, diapers, wet wipes and water. The doctor that went with, went in and took a box full of drug samples to docs inside. Everywhere we stopped people wanted water. I was proposed to twice by women who enjoyed the ice cold Coca-Cola we had with us. In Gulfport, unlike anywhere else we went, FEMA and her gov't functionaires are very visible.
Random observances: Funniest plywood sign: "KATRINA - U-CAME, U-SAW, U-BITCH!" We saw a many riding his lawnmower down Pass Rd with a case of MREs strapped to the back. There was one line at a Hancock Bank several hundred cars long, just to use an ATM. There are generators for sale everywhere, CASH ONLY. Everyone has a beard, these days, me included. We saw more gas lines in Pascagoula than in Mobile or Balwdin Co's. Glad to see some of those cash only generators are being used. It stinks over there. I have been to Mogadishu, Somalia and it was flowery compared to S. Mississippi. I suppose the mix of flood debris, mud, and fish rotting in the trees is enough to turn any stomach. How is one home completely destroyed by rushing floods and the one next to it is sitting pretty with a fern hanging from the porch? We didn't see a single home with power. How on earth are they going to get all those miles of power lines back up. Pike Utilities from NC deserves a pat on the back, i saw more of their yellow trucks than MS Power trucks. Speaking of out of town guests, how odd is it to see FL Highway Patrol and Alabama State Troopers patrolling the roads of South Mississippi? I let a few people check make calls from my phone, which miraculously worked, and I cryed like a baby when they were able to speak to family members in other cities. People are people, and they all want to be just that much more comfortable, but the biggest thing for almost everyone was to know that someone cared enough to come over. The people of South Mississippi are strong, #badword#it are they strong. I am so proud of them. I had a business meeting in Biloxi 6 days before the storm, and I told my wife that I could see us living there one day. I saw nothing today to change my opinion.
When my friends send me copies of their digital pictures I will post them here for all to see. Words can never describe what we saw today.
