What a trip.
I really can't explain too well how bad the area actually was. For miles, every single building was completely destroyed, and this is nearly 4 months after the hurricane. Entire buildings 10-20 stories high (mainly riverboat casinos) were moved miles from their original locations.
I cannot explain how frightening it is to see an enormous casino sitting in the middle of a city block nearly half a mile from it's original location. What used to be blocks of houses is now nothing but piles of rubble, bricks, wood, branches, leaves, glass, personal possessions, furniture, just a dump.
It was as if somebody had bombed the entire area. Every building completely destroyed, everything abandoned and quiet. It was eerie.
I have a few pictures I took on my camera phone, but they do not give the Biloxi, MS area any justice. Imagine the worst devastation you've seen in a war movie (like the final scene in Saving Private Ryan), the condition of the area was worse than that.
ID being goofy in our makeshift cabin/tent in "Tent City":
ID and JMoney making use of a bridge accross a pile of mud in "Tent City":
ID trying on his work gloves (these were very much needed):
GNasty sporting the mask (the military made us wear these - there was lots of bacteria in the area):
Thousands of houses looked just like this or worse:
There was nothing you wouldn't expect to find in the rubble under someone's house:
Everywhere you went, the "ground" was actually piles of boards, bricks, and other building materials:
Closer to the gulf, mud covered nearly everything. This is a huge uprooted tree:
[ December 22, 2005, 03:30 PM: Message edited by: DJ FC ]