Ken Forrester's
Hurricane Katrina/Rita
Habitat for
Humanity Rebuild
Gulf Coast
Experience
Links to pics at bottom
I arrived late the night of 18 Novemeber 2006. It was too dark
when I arrived to really approciate how much this area had
changed. I recall that back in 1982 whien I was at Keesler AFB
for computer programmer training that I had written my mom and gushed
over how beautiful the big stately home along the gulf coast
were. The gleaming white columns, Live Oaks full of foliage, the
manicured lawns, and the wrought iron fences that bordered the
sidewalks facing the open gulf and the wide sandy beaches hankened to a
slower, gentler life than I had ever experienced before. I never
really got to know the locals back in 1982 nor when I was again
assigned to Keesler AFB for training in 1992 but here it is 2006, one
year after the hurricanes and I am getting tot know some of the locals
quite well.
The morning after my arrival I started right off the bat working on
building houses. I spent that Saturday working in Gautier across
the bay from Biloxi. Later that day though I drove around and
explored the area and did so again Sunday morning. Wow, this
place was so desrtoyed. Gone are all the coastal mansions,
leveled are all the business that had dotted the drive between Biloxi
and Gulf Port to the west. Sometimes the total destruction went
as far back from the gulf as a thousand yards. All that was left
standing along most of the seventy miles of coastline were the Live Oak
trees. Whole housing developments, huge churches old and
new, beautiful mansion, gone, all gone. In the places were
driveways to nowhere, broad porch steps leading to the front door of a
home no longer there, the ground covered with scattered bricks, shards
of glass, lots over grown with weeds bowing to the wind blowing off the
gulf.
I will try to keep those of you interested in ths place and my
experiences down here informed. My goal is to update this week by
week. I will include some photos, a journal and random
thoughts. Click on the links below to explore. Thanks, Ken