Katrina after the storm and four years later

These are drawings I did right after Katrina and the same spots from a couple of years ago.  Progress has been slow but steady. These are all areas that I worked with teams from Camp Coast Care and like a soldier who fought on a battlefield, I consider these sites sacred ground. And these drawings are my favorite of my 20-year-career.

In Long Beach, Miss.  Six people died here. Where the white truck is was a carport.  This is my favorite drawing I’ve ever done because of the deep meaning it has to me.

Although new houses are starting to pop up like mushrooms and the debris is gone, the area still is an open field.

Beach Blvd on the Waveland and Bay St. Louis line. Million dollar homes were washed out to sea.

Infrastructure has been replaced. New homes are sprouting up as well.  Lots of empty lots and a beautiful view remain.

A home  in Waveland, Miss. that had survived Camille did not survive Katrina’s tidal surge.  I helped clear the debris off this lot.  The couple, who had lived in the house since 1968, relocated to Bay St. Louis.

The area four years later.

In Long Beach, Miss. off of Hwy. 90.  Congress was trying to cut Katrina relief when I drew this, which made the battered flag very symbolic.

The columns and flag are long gone, but the sign remains. A new house has popped up in the distance to watch over the former home site. The relief wasn’t cut thanks to Sen. Thad Cochran.

The storm surge did a price cut on the Long Beach Walmart.

Four years later, the Walmart reopened. Just farther back from the sea that had left such a mortal gash on it that fateful day in August 2005.