Lou and Kim's Journal 4/14-4/20/06 Pass Christian, MS
04/28/2006 18:18
Hello
All,
My wife, Kim, a nurse, my 13 year old son, John and I spent
roughly a week in Pass Christian, MS. trying to help rebuild and
restore that community. I did keep a journal of those events and am in
the process of organizing it into what I hope will be a readable form.
To start off with, however, I'd like to share some observations
about what we witnessed and experienced in that community:
April 17-Random thoughts- Everywhere you go down here, you see curious painted symbols on many of the buildings. These symbols are a large X (sometimes in a circle, other times not) with letters and numbers in the four quadrants. Kim learned from one of the Americorps people that these symbols were actually records of the structure being inspected by various agencies and or contractors, the date of the inspection, the number of dead animals and the number of dead people found inside. Starting from the left middle quadrant are the letters of the inspector, the top quadrant is the date of the inspection (usually around 9-1 from what I have seen), the right hand quadrant is the field for animals and the bottom quadrant is the field for the dead. When you see one of these post-Katrina glyphs, you find yourself hoping that the bottom quadrant is either blank or filled with the number 0-for all the obvious reasons.
Animal care is something that seems to have gotten lost in the storm, so to speak. We actually visited the Southern MS Animal Rescue Teams and Services (SMARTS) to see if they needed help. In speaking to the man who was running the place, we learned that they had just treated, with the last two days or so, 45 dogs for heartworm in various stages. These animals were someone's pets, someone's companions and friends who had been left behind, or had gotten lost, and now were in need of treatment.
With all the potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes in this area, it is no wonder that heartworm would be so prevalent. It isn't hard to make a quantum leap to guess at the health risks this will also pose to the people leaving here as spring turns to a Gulf Coast Summer. Speaking of health risks, Kim has pointed out that all of the people (volunteers and residents alike) are spending so much time in the sun (without any protection-either as a result of not having it, or not really thinking about it because of everything else that is going on), that there could well be a significant skin cancer issue in the coming years. Katrina, the storm that keeps on giving, or maybe put a better way, keeps on taking-lives. . There is no real sense of time here, other than the rising and setting of the sun. But, for the people who call this place home, seeing another sunrise and being given hope that there are brighter ones coming, is almost all they dare to hope for.
Please feel free to respond or email me about our efforts. But above all, if you can, go down there and help. There can't be too many hands or hearts pitching in to try and put things right.
My wife, Kim, a nurse, my 13 year old son, John and I spent
roughly a week in Pass Christian, MS. trying to help rebuild and
restore that community. I did keep a journal of those events and am in
the process of organizing it into what I hope will be a readable form.
To start off with, however, I'd like to share some observations
about what we witnessed and experienced in that community:
April 17-Random thoughts- Everywhere you go down here, you see curious painted symbols on many of the buildings. These symbols are a large X (sometimes in a circle, other times not) with letters and numbers in the four quadrants. Kim learned from one of the Americorps people that these symbols were actually records of the structure being inspected by various agencies and or contractors, the date of the inspection, the number of dead animals and the number of dead people found inside. Starting from the left middle quadrant are the letters of the inspector, the top quadrant is the date of the inspection (usually around 9-1 from what I have seen), the right hand quadrant is the field for animals and the bottom quadrant is the field for the dead. When you see one of these post-Katrina glyphs, you find yourself hoping that the bottom quadrant is either blank or filled with the number 0-for all the obvious reasons.
Animal care is something that seems to have gotten lost in the storm, so to speak. We actually visited the Southern MS Animal Rescue Teams and Services (SMARTS) to see if they needed help. In speaking to the man who was running the place, we learned that they had just treated, with the last two days or so, 45 dogs for heartworm in various stages. These animals were someone's pets, someone's companions and friends who had been left behind, or had gotten lost, and now were in need of treatment.
With all the potential breeding grounds for mosquitoes in this area, it is no wonder that heartworm would be so prevalent. It isn't hard to make a quantum leap to guess at the health risks this will also pose to the people leaving here as spring turns to a Gulf Coast Summer. Speaking of health risks, Kim has pointed out that all of the people (volunteers and residents alike) are spending so much time in the sun (without any protection-either as a result of not having it, or not really thinking about it because of everything else that is going on), that there could well be a significant skin cancer issue in the coming years. Katrina, the storm that keeps on giving, or maybe put a better way, keeps on taking-lives. . There is no real sense of time here, other than the rising and setting of the sun. But, for the people who call this place home, seeing another sunrise and being given hope that there are brighter ones coming, is almost all they dare to hope for.
Please feel free to respond or email me about our efforts. But above all, if you can, go down there and help. There can't be too many hands or hearts pitching in to try and put things right.