Katrina: The Storm Still Rages
This photo was taken before Katrina. Watch my video to see what we're doing today.
—Elizabeth Beatty
It's been more than a year since I've slept in my own bed. We don't have a house anymore. Eleven months ago, I turned 16, but we didn't have a party.
Nine months ago I got my driver's license, but I don't have a car to drive.
It sounds like we are a poor, homeless family, and in some ways that may be true. But before Monday, August 29, 2005, our home was located on the beautiful Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Ocean Springs, Mississippi
My home, before Hurricane Katrina, was in Moss Point, in Jackson County, Mississippi, between the Escatawpa River and Beardslee Lake.
When my parents married 23 years ago, they took my grandfather's office (which had been closed since the mid 1970's) and renovated it, doubled the size of it and made it our home.
We had a great life there! Ocean Springs was (and still is) a small southern town—both of my grandmothers lived just around the corner. We could walk to the drugstore, buy something, and tell them to “charge it to Mom!”
Some days it seemed like it took forever to eat at the local lunch counter. It was the town gathering spot and you had to visit with everyone there, and go through a hundred “How's your Mom?” “How is the soccer team doing?” type questions.
Everyone knew everyone and everyone's business—no secrets could remain quiet for very long. If someone suffered, everyone cooked and visited them, and shared the sorrow with them.
We were all here to take care of each other. We never considered what would happen if everyone suffered at once!
Close Katrina
Focus on tryouts.
The last weekend of August, 2005 was supposed to be an exciting time for me. School was going great and we had an awesome new soccer coach.
I had just been cleared by the orthopedic surgeon who performed my knee reconstruction and was finally able to return to the soccer field. That weekend, mom and I were getting ready to go to the Mississippi Olympic Development Program (ODP) team's state tryouts, 200 miles north (away from the Gulf coast) in Jackson, Mississippi.
I was focused on soccer—working out; gathering cleats, balls and water jugs and packing for the weekend. My mother kept the television on a little more than usual. Everyone was talking about the huge Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
Everyone Was Talking
Talk of the huge Category 5 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico naturally led to talk about Hurricane Camille, which hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast in 1969.
Camille is the standard by which every other hurricane is judged and compared around here.
Close As the Katrina story grew, I felt sorry for the people in its path because it can be such a pain to load up and clean up after one of those nuisance storms.
I've Been Through Some Storms!
In 1998, our van was destroyed by the rising flood waters from Hurricane Georges when it hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We lost some trees, and had minor damage to our home.
The summer of 2005 was a very busy hurricane season. In July, we had been hit by two small hurricanes, Cindy and Dennis.
Cindy came on shore as we were leaving for our church youth trip to North Carolina and brought strong winds and heavy rains. We loaded as the storm hit but actually pulled the bus off of the interstate and sat in a fast food restaurant for an hour or two until the weather cleared a little.
Less than a week later, we were not allowed to return home because Dennis was coming through on a very similar path. We stayed a few extra days at church camp and had a blast as refugees!
Hurricanes can be a little unpredictable, and can range from a nuisance as a windy thunder storm to a class 5 devastating killer storm like Katrina.
Close 
Concentrating in goal!
The wrong kind of excitement
The drive to Jackson with my mother was a three-hour drive north. I had carefully packed all of my soccer gear and was pumped up about the opportunity to play soccer with the best players from Mississippi.
Pumped Up!
I was so excited about soccer that I didn't think to pack up and take extra things that I wanted to keep safe in case the storm did head our way.
Looking back, I wish I had taken more clothes, photo albums, scrapbooks and sentimental items with me.
Close The weather was incredibly hot. Even in the city of Jackson the winds were noticeably picking up. All of the adults traveling with us for the tryouts were buzzing about it hitting the coast.
All the Adults Were Buzzing
Sunday afternoon after try-outs, my mother and I drove over to Vicksburg to attend a soccer referee recertification clinic.
Even there, most of the talk was about Hurricane Katrina!
Close By Monday morning we knew our home was in Katrina's direct path. To make things worse, we were in the northeast quadrant of the storm where the winds are the strongest.
We were able to keep up with the news until the television station (in Biloxi) that we were watching was blown away. After that we lost our power, so even though the national channels were covering it, we still couldn't get the news.
Trees were blowing down taking power and phone lines with them. Our cell phones weren't working because too many towers were down.
Trees Were Blowing Down
What a difference a few seconds makes!
This electrical pole broke and hit the cab of a tanker truck. We took this picture on the way home from Jackson to Hattiesburg.
Close The last thing we heard from home was that one of our neighbors had to be evacuated from their flooded home.
Flooded Homes
Hearing that our neighbors had to be evacuated from their flooded home was unbelievable! We'd never had water in our homes—not in Hurricane Camille, not in Hurricane Georges—not ever!
Close Devastating news trickled in from New Orleans, Bay St. Louis, Gulfport and Biloxi. No one seemed to know anything about Moss Point or Jackson County. Was it there? How bad is it? We tried to sleep that night but we had a million questions and not one single answer.
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