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Hurricane
Katrina
Slide
Shows
of
Ocean
Springs,
Mississippi
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Homes in
Ocean Springs |
Businesses in Ocean Springs |
Click on Film Strips
Above for Slide Shows
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Ocean
Springs
-
Katrina
Photos
NEW
Ocean Springs City of Recovery
Added Jan. 13th, 2006
Ocean Springs 100 Days After
Before & After Ocean Springs
Photos
One Month After Katrina Photos
My Friend Gara's Ocean Springs / Katrina
Photos
Click Links Above to
View Pages
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Photos
Taken Sept. 21st, 2005
Photos of Front Beach
Fort Maurepas & Ocean Springs Yacht
Club
Ocean Springs Harbor
Ocean Springs / Biloxi Bridge from
O.S. Side
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Photos
Taken Sept.
6th, 2005
National Guard, Power
Crews & the American Red Cross
Photos of East Beach
St. Andrews Area
Misc. Photos of Katrina Aftermath
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Photos
Taken Sept.
5th, 2005
Golf Hills Area
Fort Maurepas Destroyed
Jackson Ave. off Front Beach
Seafood Factory at Jackson Ave. & Front
Beach
Ocean Springs Businesses
Missing Pets Throughout The Coast
Library, Villa Maria & Bradford O'Keefe
Oak Park Elementary School
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Photos Taken Sept.
3rd, 2005
Homes on East Beach
Homes on Jackson Ave
Boats
Gas Lines, Home Owners and The National
Guard
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Ocean Springs would like to Thank
Everyone for their kindness in our time
of need.
Please do not bring Clothing or Water.
I'm happy to report that due to the
overwhelming outpour
of help,
we have nowhere to store these
items at this time.
Thank You!
ITEMS THAT ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED
Can Goods &
Non-Perishable Foods
Baby Shampoo
Baby Wipes
Diapers
Baby Formula
School Supplies
Cot's, Sleeping Bags or Air
Mattresses |
Cleaning Supplies
Mops, Brooms
Paper Products
Hand Sanitizers
Rubber Gloves
Blue Tarps for Roofs
BLEACH * BLEACH * BLEACH!!! |
Donation
Drop-Off Locations
Due to the large outpour of
assistance...
please contact the Distribution Centers before you arrive
Toy Drive Donations
School Supplies & Non-Perishable Food
Swingster's Distribution Center
Government Street Next Door to Ocean
Springs Lumber
1611 Government St.
Click to enlarge
St. Paul Methodist Church
Hwy 90 & Hwy 57
(228) 872-7108
(228) 872-9983
Click to enlarge
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An Outpour of Kindness From Around the
Country
Over the past couple of weeks we've
been blessed with hundreds of emails
offering our city help from around the
country and overseas as well.
While each and every donation we've
received has been a blessing in it's
own I thought I'd bring to light one
very special family's offer of
assistance in our time of need.
A week or so ago I received an email
from the Neuman Family of Maryland
titled "We would like to donate
a Chevy Suburban"
Seeing the subject line I thought
there must be some mistake?
Needless to say I quickly opened
their email which read...
My husband and I have an extra
vehicle, being a suburban, which we
thought we could donate to a church,
an organization, etc...to help haul
materials, people (fits 8 adults
easily), a family who has lost their
own vehicle, etc...We would be
driving south from Maryland and
could leave the end of this
week...Please advise...
We also have lovely quilts, bedding,
nearly new clothes, shoes, and could
bring anything else that you would
need...
My wife and I met the Neuman's in town
and escorted them to the church who is
now looking for that special family to
receive such a generous gift.
I might add that the Neuman's
would have been here a day earlier but
they had to stop off in
Pensacola to secure a rental for their
trip home. Not only did they
bring the Suburban which I'm sure will
be the answer to some needy family's
prayers but they loaded it to the till
with much needed supplies and a TV
Antenna for us as well. We took
them on a small tour of what a
category 4 hurricane looks like.
And after passing car after car that
was destroyed by Katrina I'm sure they
returned home knowing that their gift
was very much in fact needed.
We'd like to thank everyone who has
contacted OceanSprings-MS since the
storm hit for their overwhelming
support and generosity.
Through it all there has come to light
one very positive outcome from such a
devastating time in our lives.
And that is the friendship's that
where build with so many people from
all over the world.
Thank You and may God Bless Everyone
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CALM AFTER THE STORM
06 Sep 2005
By Lonnie D. Root
OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss.,
Sept 6 After spending the day (about
12 hours) knocking on doors or where
doors use to be at times looking for
lost loved ones from the hundreds
emails I've received over the days
since the storm by family members
desperately trying to make any kind of
contact.
I had finally had enough. With still a
good hour before our 8pm curfew I went
down to the beach to shoot some more
photos of the devastation. While
walking through the wreckage, seeing
personal effects, clothes scattered
about, toys covered in mud or broken,
photos of better days, pretty much
little bits and pieces of peoples
lives? Real People! I kept thinking
who were they? Where are they now,
what are they doing for a home, who
was the child who once owned that
Sesame Street book or the Barbie Pink
Jeep now mangled under the limb of an
oak tree and power lines???
Well it finally hit me, that was more
then enough for one day and more then
I could take. Call it sensory overload
but It was just too much. I had
spoken with so many people who's loved
ones where trying to see if they were
still alive? Passing on messages of
love and sympathy. Then taking down
messages to relay back to each of
these troubled families. Maybe it was
one person to many for the day? Who
knows. The emails never stop so
realistically it's never enough.
Just one more house you tell yourself.
One more mangled street to navigate
then you're done. Yet only to go
home and try to place back together
your own tattered lives. Ok
maybe one more after this one?
Maybe...
 I
turned my attention to the few people
who decided to live where they once
had a home. An older guy in a tent who
spoke as if nothing happened acting as
if he was simply on a camping trip?
Another with his aging mother living
in half a house with no power and no
water, who proudly told me "We still
have the top floor, you see that
brick? The water made it all the
way up to there" Saying so all the
while with a smile across his face
that made your heart sink at the same
time lifting your soul.
I spoke with them, shared stories and
just visited like we were neighbors
and friends for many years. Yet they
where total strangers with the only
common thing between us being that
damn storm.
Then I shot some pictures. Some
NON-HURRICANE pictures this time! Just
a few images, what I could find in the
middle of all the ruins that is.
And so this is what I got. . .
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In the days right after the storm.
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By OceanSprings-MS.com
Posted: Sept. 15th, 2005
Looking out my front door after
the storm is somewhat a blessing
compared to neighborhoods just
down the street. Yet still
looking out my front door the
first thing you see is our huge
Pine tree that once towered
majestically over our
house which now lays snapped,
broken at the base while leaving
behind this three foot mount of
grass and roots that protrude from
the ground. Someone up there must
like us just a little? Cause this
massive tree had many undesirable
places to land in our yard yet
chouse to lye perfectly
between our home, the mail box,
our magnolia that I planted when
my grandson was born and the two
cars that we had to leave behind.
One of which will still start but
the wheels are frozen solid from
the flood waters.
House after house on our block has
been stripped of most of it's
shingles and sadly some of our
neighbors such as my dad's home
now have trees laying through
their houses. Others have large
pieces missing of their homes from
the wind. Hurricane boards are
still fastened to the windows in
part because hurricane season
isn't over and to keep the
Mississippi heat down some while
we await the teams of power trucks
from all over the state who
caravan down after each sort to
help.
Yard after yard there's not a bare
spot of grass to be seen. As all
the yards are covered in branches
and debris. The street faired
the same but friends and neighbors
have cleared a path so that you
can drive to your home. Or as
close to your home as you can get
that is? Later the city will
arrive as before with other storms
and bulldoze the streets clear
leaving mountains of debris and
limps piled along the sides like
snow drifts from ploys after a
snow storm in our northern states.
The days after a hurricane are
hot. Very hot and the humidity is
off the charts. You spend your
days digging out from the storm
until your drenched from head to
toe, and to the point even your
socks are soaking wet. There's
plenty of work to do and be done
and for most you have the luxury
that your place of employment
either no longer exist such as the
casinos or that it's inhabitable
to work in such as mine that was
flooded to the second floor. So
you have plenty of time to focus
on your home, your families home,
neighbors and those friends you
haven't met just yet.
Traffic the first few days is
almost nonexistent. The streets
are deserted and eerie. With the
exception of an occasional police
car or rescue crews looking for
survivors there is no one. We are
a ghost town. Abandoned, broken
and from what later I've been told
forgotten?
Each day after "Landfall" the
streets become a little more like
streets. Signs from storefronts
still litter the medians. A few
cars of families who have ventured
out to see the destruction.
Followed by dozens of utility
vehicles and then the Red Cross
rolls in. Truck after truck you
see them rolling down the highway
heading towards your town! And
then you see the people as
they line the streets cheering and
waving them on.
Lastly the National Guard arrives
like a military invasion on some
lost country most school kids
couldn't find on a map? Hummer
after Hummer, choppers and fully
geared soldiers armed with M-16
automatic rifles. As they set up
camp taking over our regional
airport. But the Guard is a god
send to see and a welcomed sight.
After all, the arrival of the
National Guard means you might not
have to jump up two or three times
in the middle of the night to arm
yourself and run looters out of
your neighborhood as we've had to
do night after night? Maybe you
can actually get some sleep if
that's possible with these
southern 90 degree nights and 100+
humidity? But you try.
The nights are dark. The kind of
darkness some people have never
seen before. I personally haven't
seen this kind of night since my
days camping in the rocky
mountains. It's a dark so dark
that your eyes really never
adjust. So with each trip out to
your newly made "out house"
because of the lack of water
inside, you pray that you don't
step on one of the abundant amount
of snakes that come in from the
storm. The nights are lonely but
somewhat comforting. And the
light from your lantern barley
cuts thought it's darkness.
Nights are quiet like you've
never heard before. At first
you hear the constant roar of
generators throughout the
neighborhood for those families
lucky enough to have one before
the storm hit. Then in time the
roar of these generators turns
into a peaceful hum. You don't
hear the trains at night like
you use to. No sirens blaring,
no cars racing up and down the
highways. There's no breeze,
the night air lies dead around
you with very little sound to
it if any. I'm not sure where
our birds or squirrels have went
to escape this mess but the
trees are bare and silent.
Though I expect they will return
soon though.
Dinner is at our home is the
only hot meal you'll have for
the day so it's a welcomed
time. Spaghetti and canned meat
sauce cooked over the propane
burner outside. Which is
considerably better then the
other option you've had the
night before yet still lacking
so much from the spaghetti meals
you've made before. Lunch you
have a choice, dry tuna straight
from the can or peanut butter
sandwiches made from deformed
bread that's getting a little
old. Or my personal favorite
Vienna Sausages! When the
relief trucks arrive you'll have
MRE's of every variety. And
you'll have some canned goods
mostly beans, chili more Vienna
sausages and yes tuna but it's
ok. Other luxuries such as
bread, milk, cheese,
coca-cola or meat wont be seen
for weeks. And eating out is
just a memory these days.
Bedtimes are earlier then
before. Maybe because of the
hard day you've had but it could
be from the lack of a normal
life? You can't do laundry or
run the dishwasher, you have no
power. Of course there is no
Letterman on TV. No cherished
reruns of Green Acres or
Gilligan's Island on TV Land.
Then you hear on the scratchy
sounding radio that Gilligan
(Bob Denver) has died! And it
makes you even sadder then what
you already are. Yes you listen
to the radio for hours trying to
catch just a bit of information
on what's happening outside your
own little world? How are the
Braves doing? What's going on
with the war effort in Iraq?
But all you get is reports of
what's been lost and how many
bodies they've found so far and
how help is on it's way but not
yet here. You tire quickly of
anything that resembles
hurricane news yet you soak in
every bit of information as if
someway that allows you to be in
control of this uncontrollable
situation. We have an
unfinished game of Monopoly slid
under the kitchen table that we
attempted to play by lantern the
second night but was unable to
finish and never returned to.
Maybe tomorrow night if everyone
is not so tired.
Morning time comes and you wake a
little earlier then you would have
before just to catch the few
moments of the day that is cool,
quiet, peaceful and free of the
hustle of rebuilding and cleaning
out. We sit on the porch in beach
chairs because our others floated
away and are now part of one of
these mountains of debris. We sit
there drinking coffee made the old
campfire way on a propane burner
in an old metal pot. The kind
with the little glass bubble on
top that makes the most welcoming
sound in the world as you start to
catch a glimpse of the smell of
coffee in the air. You talk about
what's to be done for this day.
You talk about how it will all be
better but will take some time.
You talk about how something's and
some people will never be the
same? And you talk about how lucky
you are.
Yes another day and it doesn't
look as bad as it did yesterday.
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Condition of
Ocean Springs;
You may have an
idea from the vast media coverage that
Ocean Springs received extensive damage
to our businesses, roads, utilities and
of course our homes. I have not had a
chance to fully tour the city as many of
the roads are not accessible. However I
can say that;
* The National
Guard has been posted throughout the
city and Southern Mississippi is now
under Marshal Law with a curfew between
8pm - 6am.
* It's been
estimated that over 30% of the houses in
Ocean Springs alone has been damaged
beyond repair or completely wiped clean
from it's foundation.
* 90% of our roads
have been restored as of today and they
are getting utilities back on line
including phone service as fast as they
can.
* Highway 90 is fine and accessible.
* Washington Bridge
is fine and accessible.
* Government Street is fine and
accessible.
* Highway 57 and Beachview Drive is
accessible.
* Most of our
down town section received heavy but
possibly repairable damage. The Walter
Anderson Museum, Mary O'Keefe Center, The
Gazebo in Marshal Park and the Train Depot
each survived the storm better then to be
expected.
* Fort Maurepas was
Destroyed
* Seafood Factory on Front Beach -
Destroyed
* St. Andrews, Front Beach, East Beach and
many of the houses (NOT ALL) in Gulf Hills
were Destroyed
Only but a couple homes on East Beach
remain standing all others where taken
down to just the foundation.
* Ocean Springs
Hospital is up and running with some roof
damage.
* Ocean Springs Library received minor
damage
* City Hall & the
Police Station are fine and operational
* Many of our Elementary Schools received
extensive damage to the structure and
roof.
* Ocean Spring High
received roof damage to the Gym and the
Middle School is being used as a
distribution point so it looks good from
the road.
* We seem to have
plenty of water, Ice and food at this
time. The Red Cross is doing a wonderful
job along with individuals and church
groups who have apparently loaded up their
personal vehicles and drove supplies down
to us and are handing them out randomly in
parking lots?
* Most stores and even some "Fast Food"
restaurants have reopened with limited
items
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UPDATE Gas lines are
getting better as more and more stations
regain power. Line no longer exist
and are back to pre Katrina.
* Our SPIRITS ARE
HIGH vary few problems have been reported
in our community at this time.
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