| Posted on Tue, Sep. 06, 2005 | ||||||||
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LONG BEACH: Finding beauty among the ruins
Sun Herald
LONG BEACH, Miss. - My neighborhood looks like it was struck by a hurricane and a train wreck simultaneously. The tidal surge obliterated homes. Huge shipping containers shattered them.
Tons of poultry and other meats, bound for foreign destinations from the State Port at Gulfport, spilled between the railroad tracks and the beach all the way into Long Beach.
The few of us whose homes appear to be structurally sound worry that they will be condemned as biohazards.
I normally live in a concrete stucco house with a flat roof on Rich Avenue, near the boundary of Long Beach and Gulfport. Its sturdy walls did not collapse in the tidal surge. The six houses south of me are all gone.
One by one, I'm trying to account for neighbors. It's a blessing each time I see someone's face or hear news.
Sometimes, beauty can be found among the rubble.
Sun Herald photojournalist David Purdy and I rushed to St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church on Sunday because we heard the church staff and parishioners had only a few minutes to remove items before what's left would be bulldozed. We didn't expect it, but we found serenity there.
A statue of the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus was still there in the sand. The symbol of the cross was unscathed on the dome of the church. The steel beams of the structure appeared solid.
Rumors have been circulating for days that all our homes will be bulldozed. I'm hoping they're just rumors.
Larry Dubuisson, the deputy chief of the Long Beach Fire Department, said Sunday his city has no such plans.
"We are not beginning to bulldoze anybody's property," Dubuisson said. "I know that for a fact."
On the other end of my neighborhood near downtown Gulfport, at the home of Don and Judy Lowe, I have also found beauty.
It is in Don's spirit. It is in Judy's smile. They've given me shelter after the storm even though their home also sustained damage.
The other morning - it's hard to keep track these days - I awoke early to see a night-blooming cereus fully open in their green house that now looks more like a lean-to.
Blossoms among the ruins are there for a reason.