Published: August 29, 2008 12:39 am            

Remembering Katrina

The storm that changed our community and our lives

jjacob@themeridianstar.com



Three years ago today, Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast, causing massive destruction, changing the lives of millions of people, and taking hundreds of lives.

In New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the destruction was massive. Even after it happened, it's almost hard to believe it's true. In Meridian, the wrath of Katrina was not as intense as it was along the coast, but it was a serious force to be reckoned with nonetheless.

For Meridian and Lauderdale County, Katrina caused hundreds to lose power; some even lost their homes. Some went more than a week without power or were trapped in their homes due to fallen trees. Food spoiled in freezers, air conditioners failed during one of the hottest times of the year, and county residents went without running water. Many people couldn't bathe, cook, or flush their toilets, and fights broke out over bags of ice.

But in many cases, the hardship brought out the best in people.

Steven McCartney, who is director of the Meridian-Lauderdale County Public Library, lost his home to a fallen tree during Katrina.

"There's some absolutely wonderful people that helped us rebuild our house," he said. "There was a camaraderie in the community that I've never seen before."

"Unfortunately," he added, "I don't see a lot of it now... But when the going gets tough this community comes together."

Nancy Heisser also lost her home to a fallen tree, and said she stayed at her sister's home until her own could be rebuilt by Habitat for Humanity.

"That's what family and friends do," she said. "But what amazes me, strangers do it too. Strangers offer you shelter in storms ... people I didn't even know in California were sending me checks."

Thad Quarles, executive director of the East Mississippi chapter of United Way, said that local charities also experienced greater unity and sense of community because of Katrina .

"We learned a really good lesson from that," he said. "The lesson was there's a better way for agencies to collaborate, and the way you do that is communicate and coordinate delivery of services. And before Katrina I think we were doing that, but not to the extent that we're doing it now."

United Way funds 17 charitable agencies in East Mississippi. Quarles said that Katrina not only helped unify local charities, but inspired them, through the county's board of supervisors, to set up an information referral service as well. Now, anyone who needs information about any charity in Mississippi can dial 2-1-1 and get it through United Way.

But it was individuals like McCartney and Heisser who were touched most by the events of the storm.

McCartney's house was damaged during the height of the storm, and he said his family slept at the library while waiting to re-enter their home.

McCartney had gone to take a nap just before the tree hit, but felt very uncomfortable. Just after he left the room, he said he heard an "earth-moving, house-shaking crash."

"Right where I was laying just moments before was my neighbor's Oak tree," he said.

Not long after, while the wind was still howling and the rain was still pounding, McCartney said he heard a knock on the door.

It was his neighbor, a 75-year-old man, who came over in the middle of the storm to apologize about his tree.

"He just wanted to make sure that his neighbors were OK," McCartney said.

His friends and neighbors and some city officials, McCartney said, helped enormously to get him through the storm.

"The city came to our rescue," he said. "It meant a lot."

For Heisser, it was her faith that helped her make it through.

"I think that (faith) was the reason we were able to go on with our lives after Katrina took everything away," she said.

Heisser is glad she was not in her home when the storm hit. She had just returned home from a hospital stay, and she got a feeling, she believes divinely inspired, that she ought to get out of the house and instead visit a friend who had just entered the hospital.

When she came home, her house was destroyed. But her home was rebuilt by Habitat for Humanity, and she was able to move in a little more than two years after her home was lost.

Now that she has a new home, what she misses most is her yard.

"My release from all my pressures was my yard, I spent all of my free time in that year," she said. "And it was beautiful ... from them bulldozing down the house and bush hogging, oh, it was a terrible mess."

Heisser said she will never restore her yard, but family members were able to salvage for her photo albums filled with pictures of the yard.

The albums look ravaged on the outside, but, she said "the memories inside are untouched. So I keep it like that."

McCartney said Katrina brought back for him memories of 1969's Hurricane Camille.

The storm occurred when he was 9 years old and living in Long Beach. He went with his mother to safety in another town, but his father was head of the Red Cross there, and stayed behind.

"I still have vivid images of going back along Highway 90," he said. "But nothing compares to what Katrina did in my mind... I never thought I would see anything like Camille again in my life."

"Katrina was tough," he said, tearing up a little. "Still gets me emotional ... It was a beautiful time despite the things that were happening. The experience for me was life-changing. It made me appreciate really what we have."

        

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