Jack A. Neal Photographer Presents Katrina's Wake

Editorial Note - Like all Mississippians, Jack A. Neal has been profoundly affected by the unprecedented devastation that followed Hurricane Katrina, as it destroyed much of Mississippi's Gulf Coast, and continued a path of destruction Northward through Mississippi. "Katrina's Wake" will remain a work in progress through at least 2006. It will represent Jack's efforts to document, with photographs and with words, not only the loss of life and property, but also to share the stories of a proud people as they struggle to put their lives back together.

November 29, 2005 - It's been three months now since a monster storm named Katrina slammed into the Mississippi Gulf Coast at dawn on Monday, August 29, 2005. The right eye wall of the unprecedented killer hurricane made landfall in the Waveland, Crumbled Statue Of Jesus Mississippi Area. The damage reached Eastward across the breadth of the Mississippi Coast into Alabama, and Westward into Louisiana. The destruction wreaked by Katrina was of Biblical proportions, and it's fury or wind and tidal surge virtually destroyed some Mississippi Coastal communities. "This is our tsunami", said Biloxi, Mississippi Mayor A. J. Holloway.

In it's wake, Katrina left death and destruction unparalleled even by the "storm to end all storms", Hurricane Camille, that ravaged the same area, in August of 1969. Waveland seemed hardest hit, In what was once the downtown area, only two things remain standing - the steps to what used to be the City Hall, and a Plaque honoring the relief workers who had responded to Hurricane Camille. The commercial and residential area that surrounded the City Hall are no more. All that remains is a debris field four to twelve feet deep, in some places, as far as the eye can see. A local resident groused to me, "New Orleans had a levee break, but we had a (expletive) hurricane!"

I've now toured the affected area three times, and tried to perform the impossible: to capture, with my camera, the scale and scope of the destruction that was Katrina...at least of what little remains. I have found that once familiar landmarks in Bay St. Louis are gone, with many of its streets no longer navigable, but rather a jumbled mess of debris piles from destroyed homes and cars. The idyllic hamlet that once was Pass Christian simply no longer exists. Vacant lots are all that remain where historic estates once overlooked the Mississippi Sound.

Long Beach along Highway 90 is an endless scene of vacant lots where beautiful old homes once stood, having proudly weathered all previous storms. Trash and debris are strewn throughout the tree tops.

Gulfport and Biloxi, the heart of the Mississippi Coast, have been obliterated - For miles and miles the scene is one of utter and sheer destruction. . . Katrina's Wake continued on Editorial Page 2 . . .