Block · one region of the page, as the scanner read it. It may hold a whole story, part of one, several, or an advertisement; stitching blocks into articles is the next step. Text is supplied OCR.
Page 6 · column 2 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
means Christ’s body is gone, as is so much in and around Bay St. Louis and neighboring Waveland, ground zero for Hurricane Katrina. All along a still somewhat pretty stretch of water, 200 residents died during the storm, nearly every home and commercial establishment within miles north, south, east and west of the beach is gone or damaged beyond easy repair, and many former residents have left, never to return.
Yet, as Christians believe Christ rose from the dead, so too do those who remain behind believe their tight knit, family-oriented communities will rise again, though the battle seems all uphill. The places they lived, whether apartment buildings, suburban brick ranch-style houses, bungalows, or somewhat palatial beach houses, were largely lost to or severely damaged by flooding and/or high winds, tornadoes, and storm singe, with the exception of some close clustered quaint homes in downtown Bay St. Louis.
Chinches and schools were devastated too. Hit by waves 35 ft. high, Christ Church is now housed in a Quonset hut, as is St Clare’s, a Catholic Church down the street. Two local elementary schools will sopn be demolished and the students possibly consolidated by busing elsewhere. Across tiie board, insurance money critically needed for rebuilding is caught up in multiple adjustment disputes, and for sale signs abound, as well as talk of letting more casinos and condos in, especially in Waveland, where more tax money is critically needed to repair central sewage and water lines.
On the high ground, the Loudoun Medical Group Clinic at Bay St Louis, the area’s only public health clinic, housed in a beautifully restored rail depot, still sees patients for flee every day— more than 18,000 patient cases since the storm—thanks to volunteer medical personnel from our very own Loudoun County, from the local area, and from around the country, including our companion, Judy Reidinger, a nurse, who worked there during our sojourn. But the clinic, like the Federal Emergency Management Administration’s (FEMA) trailer parks housing the area’s poorest residents, closed at the end of May—in advance of a new hurricane season.
87.6%