A World Turned Upside Down - My Katrina Photo Essay

[intheflow]

Hello, Folks. I'm just back from working relief on the Mississippi coast, and I need to let you all know just how bad it is. The entire Mississippi coast if GONE. If I didn't know for a fact Katrina happened three months ago, I could have sworn it happened last week; the damage is that severe, the clean-up and rebuilding almost non-existent. We hear about NOLA--I went to Louisiana and it is bad there--but lost in the politics about Blanco vs. BushCo. is the fact that Mississippi is faring no better at all under Barbour. In fact, the only normalcy for miles is in the French Quarter, an acute irony given it's reputation before Katrina. Here's a small sampling of what I witnessed on both the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts.

When the hand of God scoops out
your house,


and livelihoods are strewn about like
God's bath toys.


When clothes and linens drape playgrounds
like Spanish moss,


and your past seems to mock your present.


When every house for a hundred miles of
coastline has a search date and a body count,


and your country has forgotten you,


at least the Café Du Monde is still open
for business.


In New Orleans, art...


and artists survive.


Still, in a world turned upside down,


skeletal trees punctuate sunny beaches,


and gathering storm clouds aren't quite
so picturesque any more.


When your neighborhood becomes a
"Where's Waldo" puzzle,

(Can you find the classic VW Bug in this picture?)

Thanksgiving at home


becomes reality unhinged.


The surreal becomes the norm;


doors become street signs;


and Jags and school buses achieve
equality among the trash heaps.


When stairways lead only to heaven,


and armadillos move into your
shattered home,


what else can you do but


This is devastating reality of Katrina
three months after.

*Edited to remove family identification from one of the photos by cropping the shot.