The back yard of my sister Charlottes one story ranch home as seen from her living room.

The storm surge recedes.

The next few photographs were taken on Interstate 10 between Slidell Lousisiana and Biloxi Mississippi.

Abandoned cars along I-10.

Debris scattered along I-10.

More appliances.

Broken trees along I-10.

Piles of flood damaged possessions in front of most every house.

The view of the gulf from Maryann's home.

The next series of photographs were taken on Kensington Drive in my brothers neighborhood.

My brother Tom's house.

The next five photographs were taken in Pearlington, Louisiana.

This photograph shows an unusually high tide due to the storm surge from hurricane Rita which struck the west Louisiana and east Texas.

The same view, photographed during Katrinas storm surge.

The same view taken from the kitchen window.

The same deck viewed in the first photograph. Twelve feet below this is a swimming pool which is now filled with bayou water and live shrimp.

 "There is also a large banana tree in the middle of the back yard whose leaves were turned from large full green ovals to stalks filled with dozens of thin green brown flags by the hurricane force winds. But there rising from the center of the banana tree is two large wide green leafs almost 25 inches long."

"Normally both sides of I-10 are lined with pine trees which remain green year round. The unchanging scenery in that part of the country tends to make the drive very monotonous. Today the southland looked as if an uncharacteristic autumn had begun."

"Every so often we’d pass a car that had been abandoned on the side of I-10. One of these cars looked as if it had hit pylon while others were simply left where they were. I wondered if these cars had broken down during the evacuation of the Gulf Coast, or if these drivers had been trying to get through storm and become stranded."

"It was at about that point that we began to see large appliances like refrigerators and a washer machines appear scattered here and there."

"There was also a lot of building material to be scene, but I could not see the communities they had come from."

"Pine trees that had snapped off from 10 to 15 feet above the ground began to appear with increasing frequency on both sides of the road. Pine is a brittle wood so they tend to be the trees that demonstrate the power of the storm most dramatically. But brittle though they may be, these were trees that stood 30 feet high whose trunks were from two to three feet in diameter. Others were even larger."

"The hotel/casino business is the most prevalent industry on the gulf coast. Normally once you get past the Long Beach exit, billboards on pedestals 40 inches in diameter, 50 to 75 feet high begin to line the road. Often there are as any as 10 of these billboards in a row, each showing a different upcoming show at the same casino. There were no signs left on these billboards."

"The billboards themselves had been stripped back until they appeared to be like the feathers on the end of an arrow… pointing directly into the oncoming wind."

"Two or three of these enormous pedestals had snapped 10 feet or so from the ground and fallen."

"Still it looked as if the neighborhood had been mostly spared, that is, except for the piles of debris 5 to 6 foot high that lined the street in front of each house. Sofas, chairs, TV sets washing machines, beds, dining room tables, books records, vacuum cleaners. Most of the damage to these houses was clearly on the inside."

"Four blocks away whole houses are missing."

"We turn into Kensington Street only to see that the very first house on the left has a collapsed front wall."

"On the right a house has had its front and back walls washed out completely. You can see right through it. Two large pine trees have snapped and fallen on the property, one of which has broken the back of the roof."

"The very next house has been washed out completely but is its shell is still standing. A large pine tree, perhaps 50 feet tall has been bent down and rests on its roof."

"Back on the water side there is a house whose side walls have collapsed such that it looks like a cat with it’s back arched.

"As the road bends slowly to the left, and the first thing that comes into view is a large commercial building right… then directly in front of me there is a double barrier with yet another sign...

ROAD CLOSED

DO NOT PASS

Beyond the barrier the paved two lane road continues on 10 feet or so before before huge pieces, some as large as 15 or 20 feet wide have dropped 15 feet or more to a newly formed ravine through which water is flowing. I stop the car to contemplate what lies before me. Beyond the disintegrated road... through the haze of this hot afternoon ...perhaps 2 or 3 miles away, there is a large building of condominium complex. From this distance the complex looks profoundly lonely and lifeless. I cannot tell if it has been abandoned."

This image shows the Rigolets as they appeared before Katrina. The town of Pearlington is indicated by a small red circle.

"If there is less debris visible in Pearlington it is because the houses are fewer and farther apart than in communities like Ocean Springs and Biloxi."

"I pass a stretch of road where there are so many Live Oaks lying on their sides uprooted that it seems ridiculous."

"I come to the yard of a church that has collapsed in on itself"...

..."In front of it there a statue of the Blessed Mother, dressed in blue. She is standing, arms outstretched, with her eyes cast down at the ground."...

"Fifty feet away or so there is another statue. It is a white statue of Jesus. He is standing before the sculpted figures of children and small animals. It looks as if He is trying to explain something to them."

West La Bonita Drive is a short walk from my fathers front door. The destruction here is almost too much to take in.

The remaining images speak for themselves.