Hancock County, Mississippi
Today was the first day we spent in Mississippi, and it was very different from all the other days of our trip. We woke up rather early to head over to the Hancock County Library in Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. Upon our arrival we were greeted by a number of library officials and even some city officials. The people who worked at the library then began to tell their stories about hurricane Katrina, and they had so much to tell that this portion of the meeting lasted for nearly three hours. I feel as though it is absolutely impossible for people who have not lived through it to understand what the devastation was like, but these peoples’ stories really helped to provide some insight. The most incredible part of this morning for me was a presentation given by Prima, the main librarian. This presentation entailed many before and after picture of the libraries, along with a before and after of her house. The before picture showed her beautiful house and pool on the water, and the after picture showed all that was left of the house: an oven and a dishwasher. I can’t even describe the goose bumps I had when listening to this presentation. We heard a variety of stories about the devastation the library staff faced, and how the community really came together to overcome such tragedy.
After spending the morning at the library and having lunch, we went on a tour of the area given by our friends at the Hancock county libraries. The things we saw on the bus tour of the town and of surrounding towns were absolutely incredible. I know that I am one of the many people guilty of thinking that the recovery process in Mississippi was mostly over, and the sights we saw on our tour absolutely confirmed the opposite. There were countless numbers of foundations where houses used to be, and so many houses still had a huge amount of damage. The rubble from the disaster was everywhere, and it was very hard to think that this occurred nearly two years ago. One typically thinks of two years as being a sufficiently long time to recover, but parts of this community look as if they were hit by the storm yesterday. It is just so chilling to see the images we saw on the bus today and realize how little progress has been made in some of these areas in almost two years. It just goes to show how much dire need of help this community was in; because half of the town is still completely ruined after what I had thought was a long time. It is obvious that the devastation from this storm is much deeper than I had ever imagined, even after looking at countless images of the terror Katrina brought. It was so moving to hear all the stories, and I am now really looking forward to interviewing some people tomorrow and recording their oral histories. It should be really interesting and moving to hear more stories in-depth, I just hope I don’t cry!
After spending some more time at the library in preparation of our interviews tomorrow, we headed back to the hotel for our group reflection. We were on our own for dinner, so Ronnie took a bunch of us down the street where we had a little bit of a choice of what to eat, and then went back to the hotel for the night. Last night I had a good time losing money on the slot machines, so tonight I’m planning on winning it all back. This time I’m going for roulette though, as I learned my lesson about slot machines last night.