Sister Kim
Registered: May 2008
Posts: 13
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I did this page after our first trip to the Gulf Coast in February 2006, to help rebuild from Katrina. The experience was wonderful, and overwhelming. Scrapbooking enabled me to process what I experienced, and is probably what enabled me to return several times. I used pieces of blue tarp because so many homes had roofs covered with the plastic. The pictures are from a website and show top and bottom, before and after views of the same site in Biloxi.
The journaling reads:
I can’t put it into words. Mile after mile of devastation in Biloxi. Only the mammoth casinos remain along the beach where once there probably were numerous businesses catering to tourists. The beach has primarily been cleared of rubble, but across the street, it looks like a war zone. Buildings that haven’t been flattened and removed are in piles of debris. Large buildings left standing are open on the bottom one or two floors, except for steel beams. You can look through them to the blocks behind. Many lots where large homes once stood have a cleared slab with front steps leading nowhere. More debris is hanging from the trees. A totally destroyed area, and we are told the degree of devastation increases the closer one drives west toward New Orleans. Paul handed me the camera and said to take pictures. I couldn’t. I felt numbed – it felt intrusive, and I also sensed an inability to capture it fully. We traveled about 10 miles and I had seen enough – I was glad when we turned north, away from the beach and the most obvious destruction.
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