Gulf Coast Tour (post Hurricane Katrina) / Winter 2006

• Outside Little Flower Catholic Church in Mobile, Alabama, is a sign that reads:  "There are 5,250 abortions every hour (in the world)."  If that doesn't give one tremendous pause...
•    After an interview at the Mobile Register newspaper, we noticed that not more than a quarter mile from the newspaper office is a cluster of makeshift tents that sit below the incline of a highway on-ramp.  In front of one of the tents sat: a wheel chair.  Most cars that travel the on-ramp (are) sheltered in garages.  Meanwhile some of our poor, or veterans, our crippled... sleep in tents, or worse, all over the country.  What would it take to convert some of these garages to apartments for the disadvantaged? Love, and a few nails.
•    We went to Citronelle, Alabama, to research Lisa and Craig Kalloch's 5-acre perma-culture.  The day we toured the Kalloch's, there were also three people from Bellngham, Washingon, there.  One of them, Eric Conn, said he had had a business in Bellingham called "Food Not Lawns."  He would cover existing lawns with sheet mulching (using all kinds of compost, etc.) to reclaim the 'dead green,' chemically-treated lawns for rich soil, gardens and even "perennial food forest systems."  Conn would plant things like fruit trees, then fruity shrubs (blackberries, blueberries...).  The land, as a result, becomes so much more productive and educational, he added.
•    We headed into the Gulf Coast region of Mississippi, and the beginning of the Hurricane Katrina devastation area...  Our first stop was Pascagoula, which was hit extremely hard.  For a half mile in from the coast, it looked like a war zone.  Tom Caffrey, a life-long resident of Pascagoula, gave us a tour.  Winds at 145 mph, a tremendous swell of water and "renegade waves" of up to 27 ft., tore houses literally apart.  All that was left of many was: a concrete slab.
•    In Picayune, Mississippi, I interviewed Tammie Norsworthy who lost her daughter during Hurricane Katrina.  A heart wrenching story.  They had lived just north of Pascagoula, Mississippi, in Helena.  The 12-year-old daughter had cerebral palsey and had gotten sick with pneumonia two weeks before the storm.  Her condition continued to deteriorate, and the day before the storm hit she was brought to Pascagoula's hospital.  As the storm approached, they were going to Life Flight the girl to a hospital in Mobile, Alabama -- but the winds were too strong, Mrs. Norsworthy relayed.  After the hurricane, the electricity was out in the hospital for quite some time and without functioning respiration equipment, etc., Mrs. Norsworthy's daughter grew worse.  She eventually died on Sept. 25.
•    While in Picayune, Mississippi, I interviewed Frances and Jack Huck.  Several years ago they converted a free-standing garage on their property into a two bedroom apartment for Frances's elderly mother and an aunt.  Frances said it was a tremendous blessing having her children living so close to their grandmother and aunt as they grew up.  "Also, my mother had loved us growing up and I wanted to return that," she said.  Note: Our belief is that Social Security should be about more than just a Fund.  It should be about an elderly person feeling as "secure" as possible in their family, their neighborhood and their community -- emotionally, physically and financially.
•    I was interviewed by Paul South, the managing editor of the Mississippi Press newspaper.  At one point he asked me my take on the American people in general after all my traveling.  I said it was my opinion many Americans have a "myopic" view of the world.  That is, we are so focused on ourselves we don't 'see' tumble down shacks in hardscrabble Third World neighborhoods with open sewage spilling into the streets.  I said the FEMA trailers here would be considered mansions there.
•    We went into New Orleans, driving by the 9th Ward and French Quarter areas, both of which were devastated by the flooding.  This looked like a war zone, too, with police seemingly on every corner standing watch.
•    We headed south into 'Cajun Country'.  Steve Harrington of Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, told me that after Hurricane Rita hit here (shortly after Katrina), residents didn't wait for the government.  They scrambled some 300 pleasure and fishing boats and went door to door rescuing people.  No one drowned in Vermilion Parish.