This is going to be a mini-report based on what I see and what I know. From afar in Panama City, FL (where I evacuated) I could watch TV and get pretty much the same picture of the situation as did you. The only difference from your perspective and mine was the places you saw destroyed on TV were places I knew, oh so very well.
Now that I have returned home, my perspective is confined to the neighborhood in which I reside and the local surrounds. I live in the western portion of Biloxi which is much higher in elevation than the devastated east end ? the east end (known locally as Point Cadet) is where Casino Row is located. Point Cadet is where the worst of the worst took place. The storm that hit our area the hardest (prior to Katrina) was in 1969 ? "Hurricane Camille". Camille went ashore in Pass Christian, MS with winds in excess of 200 mph, a Category 5. That area was devastated just as Point Cadet is now devastated by Katrina. The storm surge (water) was approximately 30 ? 35 feet in the Pass Christian area (talking about Camille now) and was less the further you went east toward Biloxi. Camille caused a storm surge in the Point Cadet area of around 17 ? 18 feet. People always talked in terms of where the water got during Camille. The consensus was ?if your home survived Camille, it would be always be safe from smaller hurricanes?.
Katrina was headed for Slidell, LA and was expected to fall to a Category 4 hurricane before it went ashore. Slidell is approximately 25 ? 30 miles further west than Pass Christian. You can see the logic that many people held, including me, that we would only experience wind and water slightly less than Camille.
The difference between Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Katrina that made so much difference is Camille was strong but very compact while Katrina was huge. The amount of water affected by Katrina was enormous. The result was, as I have written in the
To our Gulf Coast TeAm mates ... thread, a storm surge hitting Biloxi at least 10 feet higher than that experience by 1969?s Camille.
There is no way of knowing who evacuated and who stayed. The only way to determined who stayed and who died is to use dogs and dig them out. There are areas where the debris of homes is all piled into one huge heap. It is going to take heavy equipment to dig in and discover what lies within. That is why the death count is slowly working its way higher.
On the brighter side of things, electricity was restored to my neighborhood Sunday night. That is the news I was waiting for and Kathleen and I started back from Panama City at daybreak on Monday morning. My neighbors tell me the crews that removed the fallen trees, put up new power poles, and restored electricity to the Bent Oaks Subdivision were from Canada and Connecticut. I cannot hold back the tears when I see people from so far away coming to help. Things like that are never forgotten. Just in the last few months we (Mississippi) delivered a brand new fire engine to New York City. Ever since Camille the Mississippi Gulf Coast has responded to disasters in other areas with love and generosity. It is emotionally overwhelming when you are on the receiving end. (pause, I can?t see the computer screen).
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Even though the western portion of the city is higher in general terms, the area is honeycombed with bayous. Those low lying areas were flooded. My son just started his new home one month ago right down the street on the last lot in Bent Oaks with deep water access via Bayou Talley. The foundation slab was just completed about two-weeks ago at an elevation of 13 feet. This is way up Back Bay where the waters of Camille only got to around 10 ? 12 feet back in 1969 ? so if it was high enough during Camille it would be high enough, yeah right. His neighbor next door got 8 feet of water in his home.
The fortunate folks in my neighborhood are for the most part just starting to trickle back in. Everyone is doing what they can to clean up and remove debris.
I have two large oak trees blown down on my property. Luckily, they were blown down toward the street and away from my house. I?ll have to wait for some help with big chain saws to work on those.
Some of you may have seen pictures I have posted in the past of my swimming pool area with the huge screen enclosure. Well, the screens are completely shredded but the frame structure is intact. The pool looks a little scary. You can just imagine the ?Creature from the Black Lagoon? rising up (you older Sci-Fi fans will remember that movie).
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On a sadder note, my brother (remember JJ and the prostate surgery) had about 6 feet of water go through his home. He tells me all of his furniture is located in the small ditch (of a small bayou) behind his house. He will be staying with me during the course of restoring/rebuilding his home. I have a large home but only a few bedrooms so we are going to do a little rearranging to make things more accommodating.
One casualty of the storm is the A/C unit that serves my office and bedroom area. It is cool this morning so I?ve decided to take the time to write this up while the temperature is bearable.
This is a little long for a post on a forum ? so please excuse. I am quite long-winded you know and without interruption I can go on and on and on.
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Time to do a little outside work. Later,
Smoke OUT
