This past weekend, we visited a friend in Bay St. Louis and had a great time exploring the Coast.
Even five years down the road, efforts are still being continued to rebuild after Katrina. I wondered how exactly I wanted to say that because one would think it might be different after all this time.
I was honestly shocked at how the land, trees and houses still have a stripped, bare look to them, even after all this time. I'm not sure what I expected. I knew it wasn't going to be what I remembered from my trip there as a teenager but it was still surprising to see so many concrete slabs and with steps that went to no home at all, stilts standing up by themselves upon which once houses stood. It was sad.
Many people have rebuilt enormously massive homes along Highway 90 yet so much of it remains untouched.
Bay St. Louis was a lovely little town and we did quite a bit of walking around it. Granted it was January, but it was eerily still and quiet. One part of Beach Boulevard is closed off and still being worked on, but you can easily walk it.
I woke up Sunday morning at the ungodly hour of 6 a.m. Needless to say, I never wake up that early but my internal alarm clock knew I wanted to go on a walk. So, since I couldn't get back to sleep by 7 a.m., I went ahead and got up.
The weather was chilly. It was so quiet outside and you could hear the seagulls chattering away. Our friend lives right down the street from the Bay. His house wasn't harmed nor his neighbor across the street because the ground was a little bit higher; however, his neighbors (and the rest of Bay St. Louis) weren't so lucky. And is storage facility where his things were kept was blown away and ruined.
As a matter of fact, there is an old bus station in his front yard. It would be such a terrific studio! Apparently everyone tells him this.
So, I headed down Beach Boulevard to find a good spot to sit on the beach, but it took a little while because the slopes were steep and not conducive to people accessing it. But I noticed a pier way, way down the Boulevard (not this one below!).
This used to be the old public pier but as you can see, got washed away. Below is a side view and you can also see the new bridge across the Bay.
The train came by at least every 45 minutes. I liked to hear the whistle and watch it head across the Bay.
Directly on the corner by the railroad tracks was what I can only assume was a former bank?
I walked past Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church, which barely came through Katrina and had to be restored.
St. Stanislas College, a Catholic boarding school, has a pier but it was closed, although that was a good place to get to the beach. Below you can see the train crossing the Bay.
I found a place to sit and watch and listen to everything. It was a large mound of hodge-podge concrete slabs covered in mud and barnacles. The sea gulls kept chattering and crying as they flew by and landed on the sand nearby and killdeer coasted back and forth on the air currents.
The church bells began to ring for 8 a.m. Mass. A Pelican slowly flew by a few times, lighted on the pier posts and skimmed the water. Later I spotted him diving into the water for fish.
The walk was just the thing I needed. Time to think, time to breathe, time to be.
No comments:
Post a Comment