Looking back: AFP publisher visits Gulf Coast after Katrina

Three years ago, I visited Long Beach, Miss., to learn more about what Valley volunteers were doing to help in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. A local group, The Valley Responds, was regularly sending volunteers to rebuild the region.

I will never forget what I saw, both in terms of the devastation and the will and resolve of the people that I met there to rebuild. I am just hoping and praying that they don’t have to endure this a second time.

Part one: Impressions of Long Beach (10.31.05)
Part two: A Halloween to remember (11.01.05)
Part three: Rebuilding their homes, lives (11.02.05)
Part four: Life is an adventure (11.03.05)
Part five: The healing power of God (11.04.05)
Part six: Valley responds … or not (11.07.05)

With Gustav headed in the direction of the Gulf Coast again, my thoughts went back to the families that I met on my trip.

By now, their lives are likely back to a regular pace – with ballfields and schools and churches rebuilt. I’m sure, for most, the normalcy made them put Katrina out of their minds – that is, until news of Gustav hit the airwaves a few days ago. With Gustav, experts warn this could be the storm of the century.

My thoughts are with the people I met in Long Beach and Pass Christian – like Stella Wolf, who as a healthcare worker rode out the storm with her husband, and Elizabeth Fortenberry, who was operating a school out of a makeshift facility, and the Kimble family, whose home was intact but not liveable after the storm. And I will never forget Marsha and Corri Allen who tried their best to find a silver lining knowing everything they had – except each other – was gone.

It is hard to imagine that these same families have likely fled again … and don’t know what they will come home to.

As a journalist, we are told to be impartial in news stories. And yet, as a person, I came home to the Valley deeply impacted by my trip to Long Beach. The stories were real and the devastation was unimaginable.