K + 11 - Remembering What We Gained

Yesterday a friend of mine posted a set of  videos created by a local resident after Katrina.  They were a compilation of what was before and the complete and utter devastation of what was left (or more pointedly, what was not left) after Katrina came to our coast that day in August, 2005.  My friend commented, as I did, how unprepared she was for the emotion that watching those videos stirred.  I found myself back on evacuation day, sitting paralyzed in my house trying to figure out what to pack, knowing that whatever we left behind, would likely be gone.   As I continued watching, I remembered like it was yesterday, the long 13 hour evacuation to Perry, FL with our rag tag band of people, pets and boats, scared when we were barely to Mobile after five hours.   At one of our rest stops, the Florida rest area just before Escambia Bay, the scene was one that I could only describe as a cross between the Twilight Zone and Apocalypse now.  We were all weary, anxious, zombies.   So many people, headed East, many with no destination but a singular purpose to get away from Katrina.  When it was all said and done the devastation and loss of life was staggering.   But amidst the devastation, the miracle was what happened next.    We came together as a community bound by a common enemy that was Katrina and it brought about a unity not seen in all the years that I have lived in South Mississippi.   There was no color, no social status;  just people, recovering from likely the most devastating event most of us will ever see.   In joining together, we became strong.  We overcame and rebuilt together.   We re-established a sense of what was important and it wasn't what we lost, but what we found that day and in the days, months and even years after Katrina passed.   We discovered that when the chips are down, we can depend on one another and that deep in our hearts there is love, kindness and caring in every single one of us.  My hope is that each year as this anniversary comes and goes, we not forget this valuable realization.    :-) Peace   
#katrina #unity  #MSGulfCoast