Free Republic

RON ELIAS/SUN HERALD ARCHIVES/1996 Downtown Pass Christain, on the morning of Aug. 18, was a pile of rubble, as proven in this Daily Herald photograph. Some of the remaining buildings would later be destroyed in Katrina, for Pass Christian once again got the high-water mark. “Hurricane Watch Posted” warned the front page of The Daily Herald on Aug. 16, 1969. In a classic twist of irony, the Mississippi Coast newspaper advertised Pass Christian’s Moonlite Drive-In would, in a few days, show the film classic “Gone with the Wind.” That was Saturday. Hurricane Camille struck Sunday night — 40 years...

College students are replacing the sun, sand and surf of a typical spring break with the mud, muck, mold and mildew of Katrina relief, according to a campus ministry spokesman. Campus Crusade for Christ has drawn thousands of students from campuses across the nation to spend their respective spring breaks helping Gulf Coast communities recover and rebuild. The campus ministry had originally planned on 8,000 participants but drew another 2,000 student registrants to the Katrina-devastated lands. Students flew and traveled by bus for up to 36 hours from such cities as Berkeley, Calif., and Buffalo, N.Y., for the "rolling" spring...

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. (AP) -- Dreams of the future here are just sketches: Friendly streets lined with a welcoming mix of homes, stores and sidewalks. Neighborhood parks for play, picnics and a shady respite from the Southern sun. A bustling waterfront. Reality lies on the ground, for mile upon mile of this hurricane-blasted stretch of Gulf Coast, a mess of splintered homes, flattened trees and tent cities housing hundreds still homeless nearly five months after Katrina. Many people are neck-deep in that reality, scratching for the basics of meals, shelter and a job. But a high-powered group of community leaders,...

Approximately 225 people were on hand to enjoy Thanksgiving dinner inside Trinity Episcopal Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi Thursday. Along with a few dozen local residents and Trinity parishioners, about 125 college students - volunteers for Campus Crusade for Christ chapters in Colorado, Ohio, West Virginia, and Michigan, plus a group from Galluadet Universit, all there to do the filthy and backbreaking work of cleaning up the massive amounts of debris still littering the Pass Christian area - chowed down on turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, rolls, iced tea, applie pie, pecan pie and pumpkin pie. Following a late-morning worship service,...

PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. (AP) - As Hurricane Katrina approached, local historians were confident a vault filled with precious pre-Civil War pictures, maps and documents cataloguing the history of this Gulf Coast community would be safe. Hopes were high after the storm passed. The former bank building that served as the Pass Christian Historical Society headquarters washed away, but its vault still stood. Workers opened it to find wet, sopping papers - the ruined history of a seaside town. Most of the collection including town ledgers and old newspapers is lost. "Apparently, the vault did not hold back water," said Lou...

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 4 - On Friday afternoon, Leonard Sprague, a general contractor in Gainesville, Fla., saw the electronic plea. "I hope someone can help," someone using the name ZuluOne wrote to an online bulletin board. "I am trying to get a current overlay for the area around 2203 Curcor Court in Gulfport, Miss."Mr. Sprague knew that "current overlay" meant a bird's-eye view. And an altruistic impulse combined with an urge to play with a new technology propelled him into action. Using his PC, he superimposed a freshly available posthurricane aerial photograph over a prehurricane image of the same neighborhood....

The news coverage has explained that Pass Christian MS is completely gone. Does anyone know if Menge was also ruined as well? I am trying to find out if "Gospel Singers of America is still standing. It faced the beach but was situated on Menge much higher than anything else. Please let me know if you hear anything, thanks.

Hurricane Katrina cost more lives and destroyed more property than any disaster in Coast history, the Red Cross said Tuesday. Unprecedented destruction on the Coast and elsewhere will prompt "the largest Red Cross response in the history of the nation," national Red Cross spokesman Peter Teahen said Tuesday. Mississippi Coast history, prompting "the largest Red Cross response in the nation's history," said Peter Teahen, a national spokesman for the relief agency. Hundreds are feared dead, said Biloxi spokesperson Vincent Creel. "It's going to be much higher than anything we've ever seen," said Jim Pollard, spokesperson for the Harrison County Emergency...

It is with heavy heart I write this... I have finally reconnected with my best friend who is a paramedic who was sent from Georgia 2 days ago to Gulf Port, Mississippi before the hurricane hit. He just reached me within the last 10 mins via emergency cell phone to tell me he was alive. Thousands of bodies have been discovered throughout Mississippi in Gulf Port, Waveland,Hancock County,Bay of St.Louis. They are hanging in trees and they are pulling them out 30 at a time. Entire families found drowned in their homes and washing up on shore. The stories he...