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Our Apartment
after
Hurricane Katrina

You should have come to this page from our introductory page about Hurricane Katrina.  This page contains photos of our apartment after the hurricane, 29 August 2005, Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi.

This was the apartment parking lot.  The vehicles scattered around are not running -- they were parked neatly -- when the storm surge hit, it moved them around and dropped them as you see them here.  All were totaled from flood damage.  All first floor apartments were under water and ruined.  Folks were still living upstairs.  The two baskets and wheeled cart in the foreground were filled with small items we salvaged from our apartment -- not much to show for 39 years of marriage.

This was sad.  The front seat of my faithful 1989 Nissan pickup after it was under 6 - 8 feet of water -- the white roll is a set of house plans for the house we were building; two plants I had put inside the truck before the hurricane, thinking they would be safe; yellow tape measure, ruined from salt water; bed of truck was filled with my carpentry tools, all ruined from salt water submersion.   Truck was totaled -- after 190,000 trouble-free miles.  The microphone is attached to my amateur radio transceiver -- Yaesu FT-857D, almost brand-new -- totaled.

We knew we were in trouble when we saw the water line on the front door.

And when we opened the door and got our first look -- and our first scent -- of the living room - - -

Notice the water line on the wall and across the face of the grandfather clock.  I opened the clock and swung the pendulum -- clock started ticking and is keeping perfect time.  Note the water line at the bottom of the sofa and the ottoman (where the TV remote is lying)  These pieces must have floated.  The wooden chairs also must have floated and come down randomly as you see them here.  Mud was six inches deep on the floor and the place smelled like -- well, it smelled -- we could only stand to be inside for five minutes at a time.

This is an antique Hoosier cupboard that we took apart and rebuilt in 1984.  The top was above the water and we rescued it.  The bottom was destroyed -- wood was swelled, joints came apart, could not salvage it.  The single malt scotch on top of the Hoosier was high and dry -- salvaged it.  The bike was done for -- salt water in the gears, etc.  To the left are two tables sitting on top of our kitchen table (48-inch round, oak) -- before this photo was taken we pulled the two tables out of the mud and set them atop the round table -- saved all the tables.  Notice the water line on the drop-leaf table.

Master bedroom.  The bed is undisturbed -- except it was under water and the mattress was full of water.  We retrieved the quilt and it is fine after several washings.   Note the chest of drawers lying on its back -- drawers were full of wife's clothes and jewelry, chest was ruined from submersion and mold; broke open a drawer to retrieve jewelry, saved most of it; notice the mold growing on the bottom.  We saved the bed frame -- headboard, footboard, and side rails.  Bedside tables were done for -- submerged, swelled, split, molded.

Here's the second bedroom -- same as the master -- mattress was waterlogged; chest of clothes was waterlogged, split from swelling, molded; computer was on the floor, under water, ruined; printer fell off its stand into the water, ruined.   Not in this photo to the right was bookcase and our family files -- all submerged and ruined.

Close-up of computer desk.  Saved the monitor.  Problem with the LinkSys router is -- router was fine but its power supply was submerged and ruined -- ditto for the fax/printer and the scanner.

Photo below shows my Meade ETX-90 telescope on the living room floor, buried in mud.  Total loss.  As best I can figure, this scope would have survived the hurricane -- it was on a tripod and the scope was a foot or so above water level.  I looked at the wreckage in the apartment and it looked as though one of the ottomans in front of the sofa floated, bumped into the scope, and knocked it over where it came to rest as shown in the photo.  The other scope, an Orion XT-8 Dobsonian reflector was in our storage unit in Pass Christian, MS -- under 20 feet of water, it was ruined also.