Gulf Coast Devestation Lingers

So I've been travelling a little bit to some places in the country I've never been and had an interesting experience last night that I had to share.

Last week I was in Milwaukee, WI and this week was my first time in Alabama (Montgomery) and my co-worker and I decided to drive down to Biloxi, Mississippi to check out the gulf and so we could say we'd been to Mississippi since neither of us had ever been.

On the way we drove through rain storms like nothing I've ever experienced in Oregon. It was like a fire hose was being aimed directly from the sky onto our car. We're on a major interstate and traffic immediately came to a halt because you literally couldn't see beyond your own windshield. It was very scary. More so on the way home in the pitch black.

As we headed into Biloxi I was stunned by what I saw. The waterfront was deserted, buildings were just gone from their foundations, palm trees sheared off, debris everywhere, houses and buildings with the windows and doors completely missing. Apartments with spray painted messages like "Mom we're ok". As we drove further down the coast it only got worse.

With much of the media attention on the New Orleans area I was completely unprepared for what we saw. It looked like a war zone and we were there more than a year after the storm. There were a few casinos that were rebuilding but it looked like most of the construction was around debris removal rather than rebuilding.

We stopped to get gas and I asked the cashier if there was a good local place to eat and she said "No Maam, none of them's been rebuilt". I was like, "Wow, nothing local's open?" and she said nope.

A whole town and the only things rebuilt are large national chains like Outback and Ruby Tuesday.

We did walk down to the water and it was unbelievably warm. There was still quite a bit of debris in the water and the beautiful white sand beaches were littered with bits of glass and wood. Beautiful but destroyed.

I'm headed home today but I'm so glad I went to Mississippi because I wouldn't have believed that it was still so bad if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.