A Few Pictures

Here is a sampling of photos I took on my trip home. Even as I review these and try to decide which to include - it is still so hard to comprehend that I saw this destruction with my own eyes. That this is really, REALLY real.

We'll start off with some of the easier ones - relatively speaking...

This is my sister in law's new school. These two rows of mobile classes constitute TWO schools' (pre-Katrina) Middle Schools. Her class is the third on the left. We went in the class. They were enjoying an early Thanksgiving meal. Of the 20 some odd students in the class, about 6 of them were NOT in FEMA trailers. FEMA has provided thousands of travel trailers to families that are displaced - HAVE NO HOME.

There are port-o-potties located between mobile class rooms. One of the classrooms I visited had new computers on every table - they weren't hooked up yet and the teacher did not know who donated them. But they were there and they were beautiful!

There has been such a reduction in student population, a reduction in teaching staff is inevitable. And there she is - smiling and carrying on like the professional she is.

These are my two girls playing with their Mississippi cousins in their Grandparents' back yard. Those trees in the background - if they had fallen in the other direction would have blanketed my parents' home.

This is the razor wire that runs along the north side of the railroad tracks in Long Beach. At each crossing, there is a national guard post. You are not allowed into the area unless you have a pass proving your residency. It was this railroad track and the berm it sits on that protected much of the coast - including my brother's home - from the storm surge.

The house is on top of the car!!!!!

This lot, a block off the beach near the Long Beach/Gulfport line once held a home. This home was once owned by my friend traveling with me today.

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I took the following two pictures on Highway 90 between DeBuys Rd & Long Beach.

That sidewalk, those steps - they lead to a slab - where a home used to be...

That's a FEMA trailer in the background - right behind the stairs that lead to nowhere.
The sign says it all...