katrina four years later
Four years ago I was like most people in the Mid-South, watching coverage of or being involved in Hurricane Katrina. I live in western Louisiana, and we got nothing from it. Hurricane Rita made up for that later.
About a week after it came through, I was involved in a Mormon Helping Hands thing in Picayune, MS. We were given names and addresses of people who needed the most help. They were generally older people’s names.
I don’t think we ever made it to the actual people’s homes we had listed. We would somehow get lost and end up helping anyone that needed it, young or old.
I had never seen such destruction in my life. One hundred foot tall plus pine trees just snapped about halfway up like some giant had taken a chainsaw to them. We would find pieces of those trees and pieces of homes in roads and inside other homes. I just looked like someone had dropped a bomb on the place. Though several sites say that Picayune got minimal damage, to me, it was quite extensive.
There was still no power and the electricity we did have was from several generators. We slept in tents outside the ward building. It was an experience that happens just about every year in late summer, but that is one of the joys about living in a coastal State.
From a post on September 12, 2005.
I got back last night from Mississippi.
I never would have thought wind had that much power. Atleast 80% of the pine trees and 60% of oak trees I saw in Pearl River County where snapped or uprooted. It was almost like 100 tornadoes had come through and just tore the place up.
I could hardly get cell phone service because still some places in the area had no power. Most of the city of Picayune had power, but most of the rest of the county didn’t.
We helped a man to get some tress off the power lines running to his home. He was so grateful for that. Everyone we met were so grateful for our help, especially because it was free. A couple people wanted to make a donation or something to us for our generosity. But that’s not what it was about. It was about helping our fellow man in their time of need.
It’s just a great feeling to know that so many people from this area took time out of our lives to help those less fortunate. There were guys from the Shreveport stake, which includes Coushatta, and from the Alexandria stake, which includes Many and Natchitoches, and there were many guys from other areas I don’t know about.
I know now how really sticky pine tree sap is because I’m still trying to get it off my skin, and it’s working its way off. I also got a little tan from it, which is kind of cool.
So, I had a really busy weekend, and I feel better about helping, even though I feel like I could have done so much more.
About a week after it came through, I was involved in a Mormon Helping Hands thing in Picayune, MS. We were given names and addresses of people who needed the most help. They were generally older people’s names.
I don’t think we ever made it to the actual people’s homes we had listed. We would somehow get lost and end up helping anyone that needed it, young or old.
I had never seen such destruction in my life. One hundred foot tall plus pine trees just snapped about halfway up like some giant had taken a chainsaw to them. We would find pieces of those trees and pieces of homes in roads and inside other homes. I just looked like someone had dropped a bomb on the place. Though several sites say that Picayune got minimal damage, to me, it was quite extensive.
There was still no power and the electricity we did have was from several generators. We slept in tents outside the ward building. It was an experience that happens just about every year in late summer, but that is one of the joys about living in a coastal State.
From a post on September 12, 2005.
I got back last night from Mississippi.
I never would have thought wind had that much power. Atleast 80% of the pine trees and 60% of oak trees I saw in Pearl River County where snapped or uprooted. It was almost like 100 tornadoes had come through and just tore the place up.
I could hardly get cell phone service because still some places in the area had no power. Most of the city of Picayune had power, but most of the rest of the county didn’t.
We helped a man to get some tress off the power lines running to his home. He was so grateful for that. Everyone we met were so grateful for our help, especially because it was free. A couple people wanted to make a donation or something to us for our generosity. But that’s not what it was about. It was about helping our fellow man in their time of need.
It’s just a great feeling to know that so many people from this area took time out of our lives to help those less fortunate. There were guys from the Shreveport stake, which includes Coushatta, and from the Alexandria stake, which includes Many and Natchitoches, and there were many guys from other areas I don’t know about.
I know now how really sticky pine tree sap is because I’m still trying to get it off my skin, and it’s working its way off. I also got a little tan from it, which is kind of cool.
So, I had a really busy weekend, and I feel better about helping, even though I feel like I could have done so much more.