The Ghost of Katrina

Published 8:30 am Sunday, August 29, 2010

    The tree, the remnants of one of the majestic live oaks that lined the waterfront road in Pass Christian, was stripped of most of its limbs.

    It stood naked on a windless, sun drenched day peering out across the debris laden Gulf waters that days earlier had been swept up in the fury of Hurricane Katrina. Hanging on the side of the tree looking out over the brown water was the haunting figure of an apparition born from the most costly natural disaster ever to hit the United States. It was impossible to try and determine from which home, blown and washed away from the massive storm, the window drapes originated. It could have been any of the dozens of structures that once graced the scenic route. Suffice it to say, the image left behind evoked a sense of dread to those who died and those who even today are still trying to recover from the storm.

    Some would say in the days afterward the eerie sight of the tree with its ghostly wisp of cloth hung onto its side was a sign of those who died or were missing. Others would say this was a reminder left behind by the storm that whatever man can build, Mother Nature can destroy. It was an unsettling sight and one that left more than one person wondering what on this earth is really for certain.

    The Gulf coast of Mississippi suffered massive damage from the impact of Hurricane Katrina on August 29, leaving 238 people dead, 67 missing, and billions of dollars in damage. Bridges, barges, boats, piers, houses and cars were washed inland and in some cases were carried back out into the Gulf with the receding waters.

    Katrina traveled up the entire state, and afterwards, all 82 counties in Mississippi were declared disaster areas for federal assistance, 47 for full assistance.

    After making a brief initial landfall in Louisiana, Katrina had made its final landfall near the state line, and the eye wall passed over the cities of Bay St. Louis and Waveland as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 120 mph.

    For miles around the tree, the land had assumed the landscape of a netherworld. Devastation was everywhere. Man and his machines searched the ruins of once proud homes and families for the bodies of those who had perished. No one could have predicted the ferocity contained inside Katrina once she turned her eye on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

— Brian Livingston