Special Blog from the Gulf Coast - "Jesus rose again and so shall we"

“Jesus Rose Again And So shall We”. – Sign posted on a vacant lot in Gulfport MS.

We altered our route the past two days so as to ride along the Gulf coast and see what conditions are like in the communities along the north shore of the Gulf of Mexico. I had expected to be consumed with the cleanup efforts and the state of the beaches. There was some of that – more later. What I was not expecting, was to be overwhelmed by the lingering effects of Hurricane Katrina.

When Katrina hit, the media focused on the devastation in New Orleans. The Mississippi coast got scant attention. Well, the seventeen mile stretch we rode from Bay St. Louis to Biloxi was as blighted as anything I have ever witnessed, and this is five years after the Hurricane.

The house we stayed in last night, in Gulfport, was one of the survivors. It is two blocks off the beach and it was flooded by the 20 foot tidal wave which destroyed all of the beachfront homes in front of it. We were the beneficiaries of a totally new interior and an ocean front view across the vacant lots where houses once blocked the view.

In the seventeen miles we rode along the coast, ninety percent of the ocean front lots contain only foundations. Interestingly, the bulk of the live oak and palm trees survived the tidal wave, but the houses did not. Yes, there has been rebuilding, but it is all by commercial chains. There were more Waffle Houses than private houses along the beach. What has been rebuilt is the schlock: Waffle House, McDonalds, CVS and Wal-Mart. And about a dozen casinos. However, where the private homes once stood it is one great park - oak trees, foundations and an ocean of For Sale signs. The beachfront has not been as vacant since the French were in command of the area.

As far as the oil spill is concerned, we saw numerous cleanup crews making their desultory way up the beach with scoops and bags. The beaches themselves are pristinely white and spotlessly clean. We stopped and spoke to one of the workers, a journeyman laborer from Georgia who had come down in search of work. He told us that there is still a good deal of tar washing up on the beach every day, but the lack of energy amongst the crews indicated that no state of emergency exists.

If you are convinced that Katrina was a once in a hundred year event, if you do not need bank financing and if you can handle the insurance premiums, you can get a million dollar view for a tenth of that. Right on the beach, nothing between you and the Gulf of Mexico but a strip of white sand. And a few tar balls.