One year and four months ago, the parts of this idyllic community located nearest the water were obliterated as if by a nuclear bomb. Houses exploded. Massive barges anchored offshore, masquerading as casinos, were picked up like bathtub toys and hurled ashore, flattening everything in their path. Human beings clinging to their roofs watched horrified as relatives were washed out to sea.
For most of us, Hurricane Katrina was pretty much a television show. We were shocked by all the people trapped by the storm, especially in the largest city in the region, New Orleans. In fact, since it was mainly a TV show, we were all spending most of our time watching the horrors in that city.
But the hurricane just struck a glancing blow to New Orleans. The damage that ensued when the levies broke is a national scandal; many warnings that they wouldn't hold in such a storm were ignored.
But the full force of Katrina was not felt in New Orleans, but on the Mississippi coast. The storm came ashore at Waveland, near Biloxi. Waveland no longer exists. The twisting buzz saw of the monster hurricane shattered everything it encountered.
Months later, when I first visited the scene, pieces of clothes, houses, animals, cars, boats, officers, and toys were splayed lifeless in the bent trees of East Biloxi. The smell of death and black mold hung heavily in the air. The formerly beautiful beaches were littered with trash, including thousands of dead chickens and shards of toxic wastes.
It was the storm of a millennium.
Since most of us experienced Katrina only as a TV show, we might be forgiven for thinking the show is over. But it is not over. The rebuilding effort will take many years. The local people feel abandoned by the rest of the country, our attention long since being directed elsewhere.
I don't think we can afford, as a nation, to forget.
Please scan the following material to get a sense of how much work remains to be done. Then please give to one of the five grassroots groups listed below. Thank you!
Amy Liu Report
Envisioning a Better Mississippi: Hurricane Katrina and Mississippi One Year Later
A Report of the Mississippi State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Executive Summary
When future generations reflect on Hurricane Katrina, as an event, much attention will be paid to the uneven capacity of government at all levels to manage the unfolding disaster. As important as that reflection is, true judgment and assessment of the period will focus on how the rebuilding process was managed, and the opportunity used to build a better Gulf region.
The opportunity to build a new future for Mississippi is fleeting. Devastation often brings the type of flexibility in hardened views of what government can and should do; and the lessening of social and economic cleavages necessary to realize a new day.
That flexibility and openness does not last long and every opportunity must be taken to push forward the type of policies that reduce physical, social and economic vulnerability. The Mississippi national Association for the Advancement of Colored People with the assistance of the Initiative for Regional and Community Transformation at Rutgers University undertook this project to document key challenges and opportunities facing the state of Mississippi in the next eighteen months.
We did not seek to cover all challenges and fronts, rather we asked creative thinkers and practitioners to suggest broad gauged policies needed to effectuate sustainable change and development.
The key findings flowing from this report are as follows:
* The focus and attention by federal and state policy toward rebuilding has been slow, disjointed and often not reflective of key voices in Mississippi.
* Rebuilding policy, especially those policies focused on compensating individual homeowners have the potential to shift resources meant for the most vulnerable communities to communities (while severely affected by the storm) do not fit the profile and guidelines for serving low-income communities as stated in HUD guidelines.
* The state and federal government responses have not sufficiently addressed the volume of rental housing units lost and damaged by the storm and the need to replace them.
* The state of Mississippi is facing a tremendous insurance crisis that must be addressed in order for large-scale long-term rebuilding to take place.
* While planning for rebuilding is in place, the actual capacity for physical development is limited due to the high demand for skilled labor, building material and project financing.
* Predatory lending practices that plagued vulnerable Mississippi communities before the hurricane are still in force and now retain the potential to drain away resources from newly compensated low-to-moderate income households.
* The faith community that was the first responders and most effective in delivering services are still called to perform similar duties without much assistance, compensation and training for what they do.
* Limited effort and policies are being invested in developing policies for those displaced to other regions by the storms.
* Given the limited base of capital in the private, public and regional philanthropic sectors, civil society in Mississippi must develop and nurture a philanthropic base that will help sustain rebuilding, development and transformation.
The People Who Need Our Help
1. Back Bay Mission is an interfaith effort working on recovery, homelessness, and affordable housing advocacy. This group, which has a long history (since 1922) of social justice work in and around Biloxi, helps the most vulnerable people that few others can seem to reach. There is a convenient online form for donations, or you can contact the organization at:
Back Bay Mission
1012 Division Street
Biloxi, MS 39530
Tel: (228) 432-0301
Fax: (228)374-2922
Email: backbay@datasync.com
2. North Gulfport Community Land Trust
Rose Johnson
4803 Indiana Ave.
Gulfport, MS 39501
Tel: 228-863-3677
You can read more about this remarkable group and how it is trying to rebuild a once vibrant African American community in the wake of Hurrricane Katrina:
http://www.greenrelief.net/article.php?id=346
Mississippi Center for Justice Katrina Recovery Office
974 Division Street
Biloxi, MS 39530-2960
Tel: (228) 435-7284
Fax: (228) 435-7285
The Center maintains a Katrina Victims Legal Relief Fund, that attends to both immediate and long term legal needs, including:
* A grandmother now caring for her grandchildren and needing legal guardianship
* Children who have special needs getting access to essential services in their new schools
* Insurance being denied because companies deem damages caused by flood not hurricane
* Families losing their homes because they can't access their bank accounts
* Veterans not getting their medical and other benefits
* Elderly homeowners being scammed by predatory lenders
* Families needing to file for bankruptcy protection
* Newly disabled individuals who need help getting SSI benefits
* Immigrant workers displaced from jobs at poultry plants and casino hotels
You can watch the Center's informational video at this link: MCJ Video
4. Moore Community House (childcare and family services)
P.O. Box 204
Biloxi, MS 39533-0204
Tel: (228) 669-4827
Email: INFO@MCHBILOXI.ORG
This local institution, which was damaged in Katrina, provides childcare and family services to people in Biloxi. Its website mentions that one donation of $2 arrived with a note, "I just wanted to help." The group answered: "We're so grateful for every gift -- together we'll rebuild East Biloxi."
5. Coastal Women for Change
336 Rodenburg Ave
Biloxi, MS 39531
Tel: (228)-297-4849
I've posted about this group several times, and their eloquent pleas for help for the poor in Biloxi. Please see: New Appeal From A Forgotten Coast and Plea From Biloxi for more details. The group makes it easy to donate online via PayPal.
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