Pics of Bilouxi
As we got closer to the beach, buildings started to look like this.I hope nobody was using that toilet when the storm hit.
This was the scene on both sides of our hotel and pretty much as far as the eye could see
All the gas stations looked exactly like this. Only the ones further inland were still in buisness
This was dawn over the marina. Everything ripped to shreds.
There were signs of rebuilding but for the most part only timeshare properties were coming back online.
posted by Bill Rowland @ June 10, 2007
33 Comments
33 Comments:
"I hope nobody was using that toilet when the storm hit."
If he was, I'll bet he didn't have to strain to go...
I had no idea there was still so much destruction down there. I think living in that environment would be very hard on the soul.
See, that makes me really sad, because NOLA got ALLLLLLL this attention, and these other places are being virtually ignored by people, and the destruction is much greater and longer-lasting. :-/
Wes has an uncle that lives in Bilouxi. They got lucky. It missed them and got the house next door. But these are the first pics I have seen.
Not a good time to buy property down there. I have heard that it is near impossible to get homeowner's insurance along a lot of the coastal regions.
This year the hurricane season is supposed to be a busy one as well, depending on who you listen to...
Shit!! I didn't even know about it. Two years!!! It's like a ghost town. Did people just move away afterwards? That looks eerie.
The beach sounded OK, but not as nice as one in ummmmmm Fiji perhaps? I was hoping you weren't going to say "body bits" were washed up on shore!! ewwwwww
Still glad you're back =D
bobg: If you click on the pic you can see the shower and pipes are still attached.
minijohnb: you could really tell when talking with the residents.
squeaky: indeed, there were some big time casinos that just washed away, Now there is only one running in a wrecked building that pretty much ruined the economy.
snowmanpoop: that's pretty much the way it was further in one house standing and one leveled.
kb: a lot of people moved away, their jobs at the casinos and in the tourist trade just disappeared.
No body bits but I wouldn't have been surprised.
phosgene: Yeah I could tell hardly anyone was rebuilding except the big guys. there were a few trailers but mostly all I saw was debris hauled away.
You're right Squeaky. If it weren't for THESE pictures we'd never know that anywhere but NO got hit by Katrina. Probably because these people didn't raise a fuss over who to blame like the NO politicians and their constituents so the MSM had no controversy to report on. Only controversy is news worthy anymore. The ruin of people's lives doesn't matter to the media unless there's someone to blame. The storm is only news until it's over.
Thank God for private groups and individuals, but there is only so much they can do without a major influx of capital. Yes, the area is hit by hurricanes but for all those who have permanently left there are many more who have remained. How are they to rebuild, where are they supposed to find work, where are they to find health care, and where are their children to go to school?
Tough questions, but the Gov't. can't ignore them forever...no matter how hard they try.
Thank you for the pictures, Hammer. "...The ruin of people's lives..." Dan O. said it best.
Veritas et Fidelis Semper
Amazing! Doesn't look like a hot holiday spot does it? Funny how the news skips over some areas completely...and then in a while, the interest just fades away when obviously more needs to be done.
Looks like an opportunity to me, but I don't have the money. It's sad that it looks like that.
Even two years onwards, it is hard to wrap one's mind around the magnitude of the destruction. After years of getting hit by hurricanes that always killed less than 10 people, we built up an idea of hurricane damage that cannot even scratch the amount that was caused by this one.
Greatest country in the world or the poorest, when something as cataclysmic as this strikes, there is barely anything that CAN be done in the immediate future to recover. And it is blind pride to think that it can be rebuilt just like that. How do you eat an elephant - one bite at a time, or all at once?
Galveston, Texas was a major port city until it was wiped out by a hurricane, never to return to its former self. How long did it take San Francisco to rebuild after its earthquake? Many European cities were still rebuilding war damage a quarter century after WW II ended.
Many of these cities WILL either unincorporate and die, or be stubs of their former selves. People will resume their lives in new areas (at least they didn't have to be refugees in foreign lands, like many of our grandparents).
Considering the hubris of building in the hurricane plain in the first place, let's ask if it is wise to force a rebuild, or allow human and earthly natures to take their course.
It's sad that places like Biloxi still haven't recovered from Katrina, but since most of the media & government's attention has been focused on New Orleans, I can't say that I'm surprised.
It'll take them years to get back to normal, if they ever do.
I really hope they can prevent that from happening again. It's hurricane season now.
That is scary to know that there is that much destruction down there yet. I have to say we had some pretty weird shit happen up here in the northern states in the last five days. We lost like two very tiny towns but still scary shit. Oh well enough of that. I will let you go for now. Talk later. Glad you are back though.
Funny, no not funny ha-ha, that Biluxi is totally ignored by the national media. Think something called PC bullshit is involved?
Maybe?
Beuhler?
our daughter plays softball with a young lady whose family was displaced here because of katrina - they think it's the best thing that happened to them, although they lost everything they ever owned. the mother is an emergency room nurse and the father a police officer - sometimes we must be stripped down. sad it had to happen this way.
that lone toilet really tells a story, eh? probably scared the shiite out of them!
What a weird landscape!
These pictures are scary. From far abroad, i imagined that everything was back to normal again, as there was not anymore news about Katrina, and its damages; and America is supposed to be a great an rich country that is able to help its own people.
But maybe it is better to clean the place and not rebuild anything, as there will be still hurricanes in the future.
What an awful mess. Hammer, I am so glad you're back... missed you!
Dan O: Bilouxi has a completely different class of people, hard working, honest and community oriented. They pretty much are trying to pull themselves up by their bootstraps,...not newsworthy...sad
Deborah: Not sure where the money is going to come from, It was goig well as a gambling, beacch resort mecca, but it remains to be seen if the big boys will reinvest.
Jeannie: the beach was nice and the weather perfect. It was hard to ignore the devestation but I liked the place so much from my last visit I felt it needed someone to stop and spend money.
I would have gambled too but I would have had to take a shuttle bus to get to a half wrecked building. Not sure why the news forgets places like this.
Janet: That's exactly what I was thinking.
mts: well said. We are into instant gratification these days, and I guess the process seems to slow for some. San Francisco took ten years after the 1906. People's fear will have to subside before the major reinvestment comes.
Brandon: I'm hoping it comes back eventually.
little lamb: The place had escaped a major hurricane for over 100 years unless they get really unlucky they should be ok. I think
Tweety: There seems to be weird bad weather in lots of places, fires, tornadoes and now hurricaines.
Mad Z: We don't have Al Sharpton raising hell about a city full of victims probqably because Bilouxi doesn't strike me as that sort of place.
nanc: That seems to be the case for a lot of folks. I know my family would be the same way.
evalinn: It was eerie
Kitem: It may take a couple of hurricaine seasons to get confidence back up. Not sure if people are taking their insurance money and skipping town..maybe the insurance companies aren't paying.
melodyann: thanks, glad to be back!
Just heartbreaking..and I have to say it must have been a real lesson not only for the kids but for you and your hunny as well. I feel blessed to be where I am at this moment. Thank you for reminding just how lucky some of us are. My mind is a blur just thinking of how I would cope with this.....
So sad!
Wow...That is devastating...and what we are 2 years now from when Katrina hit?
Flyinfox_SATX
So depressing that life hasn't tried to rebuild yet!
Incredible pics Hammer. I agree with most of your commenters, you'd think that New Orleans was the only place hit. Well, Katrina didn't hit New Orleans directly, it was Gulfport, Biloxi, and places like that that pretty much got wiped off the map. And apparently the folks who lived there wouldn't whine for the cameras with their hands out like in N.O. so the media stays away.
Oh shit! That is shark heads. We wondered around in there and I walked behind it and it was the first time I had been on a beach.
This is scary stuff. I imagined it was all back to normal. Goodness, even the countries striken by the Tsumani have rebuild more than that!!!
The rebuilding is hard to get started when the trash is piled up asshole-high EVERYWHERE! It's a great testament to places like this that a lot of it has been scraped up and hauled off. Next has to come tearing down the wrecks that weren't totally destroyed - and maybe even salvaging a toilet or two in the process. Only then can the real rebuilding begin. Given the magnitude of the destruction I've seen in other places decimated by hurricanes, I'm guessing it will be about 5 more years before things start to look more "normal".
WOW! Little touch of reality there eh Hanmmer? Was that tough to see and think of familys and pets etc. being displaced- or had enough time passed since Katrina?
J
That brings back memories. I was homeported in Gulfport (about 10 mi. away), I think I remember thatlast building- it was on the 'bananna' pier.
Ohhh, it's spelled Biloxi, there's an Air Force base there.
I'm not suprised that the casinos were gone, , , they made sure they'd float way at the first hight tide- making it a floating casino law.
It's crime that those folks didn't get more credit for tsking care of themselves, while everyone blathered over NOrleans. Maybe the slowness of the recovery reflects good sense; why rebuild just to have it blown away again? Move inland. That's what I would do.
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