Can you believe it? At the end of this month will be the fifteenth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. From October through mid-December 2003 I was on sabbatical speaking to a variety of audiences about my father’s experiences during the Holocaust and as a US Army PFC. During that time, I took advantage of free time to tour the Gulf Coast, especially Gulfport and Biloxi. Absolutely beautiful! You can imagine my dismay – everyone’s in fact – when that killer storm demolished so much of the coast. But in November of ’05, three months or so later, I went back.
I was driving along Interstate 10 that crosses the area, having landed in Mobile, Alabama. The closer I got to Mississippi the more apparent the destruction became. I wanted to see Biloxi and Gulfport for myself, my next turn would be the perpendicular highway from I-10 to Gulfport. All along the way there were signs (and getting larger and larger) informing drivers “Route X is closed,” “ROUTE X IS CLOSED,”
“R O U T E X I S C L O S E D!” While I don’t recall the number of that highway, I do remember that at one point there indeed were barricades keeping you from continuing to the Gulf itself. And patrolling the barricade was a police officer.
I stopped, rolled down my window, and waited. “Ummm, Sir, can you read?” I replied, “Yes, I can read but I want to continue down this road.” Looking at me as if I was insane, he said, “Ummm, Sir…it’s CLOSED!” “Officer, I understand, but please let me through.” He continued, “Ummm, Sir, if I let you go through, do you know what you’ll find when you get to the end of this highway?” Of course, I didn’t know but asked him anyway. “You will find,” he said, “someone who looks just like me. He will send you back up this highway, and you’ll see me again.”
I was not going to take no for an answer. “I’ll take that chance…and I’ll let you laugh at me, but please let me try.” Well he let me through to continue my journey. So, I get to the fork in the road (you can hear the organ play that “fork in the road” music). Turn right and I’d head to New Orleans, left and I’d be in the direction of Biloxi.” I decided on left.
Oh, for the entire distance to Biloxi there were NO police officers, in fact there was no one at all!
Driving east I saw what to me was Noah’s Ark on the other side of the road. It was huge and I couldn’t figure out what it was. I mean HUGE! Well, it was a casino that had been blown from the water across the highway, miraculously landing not on the roads – east or west – but on a field beyond.
At one point some bridge was washed out; I had to return. But I went beyond that right turn that would have taken me back to my friend and continued towards New Orleans. I chose to get off the coastal highway and check out regular neighborhoods, as it were.
The first thing I saw was utter destruction of homes. All that was left were staircases, lots of staircases that once people would climb to their homes. No homes to climb for. As a matter of fact, these staircases were called “staircases to nowhere.” I saw a bonfire and learned that many homeowners camped behind what had been their houses to keep away looters (as if there was anything to loot anymore). In front of that staircase was a sign, “Bob and Mary’s Fantastic Garage Sale.” I kept going and saw a real house standing. There was something funny…” climbing” up the roof was a huge Santa Claus heading to the chimney. I said to myself over Santa and the garage sale-sign, “If people didn’t have a sense of humor, they’d have nothing at all!”
By the way, as I drove back up that road, I was looking forward to greeting the officer who was kind enough to let me through. “What took you so long?” he asked quite puzzled. “Officer, not a soul stopped me,” and I told him what I had seen. I think he told me to have a nice day and driving away I believe I saw him scratching his head.
I realized that the devastation was far worse than anything we had seen on tv. Very sad indeed.
(Speaking of Katrina, even the residents came up with their own jokes…The Mayor of New Orleans denied cancelling the first Mardi Gras after the hurricane. He said, “I expect a record number of floats on Main Street this year!”)