No one expected it to be that bad, Clarion Ledger

[Guest guest]

'No one expected it to be that bad'

By Riva Brown

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BAY ST. LOUIS — With Hurricane Camille in 1969, Jordan recalls the

water only coming to the railroad tracks in the Middle Town area of Waveland.

This time, with Hurricane Katrina, it came over the tracks — and over their

heads.

" The weatherman said it's going to be badder than Camille, but no one

believed it, " said Jordan, who has lived in Waveland 30 years. " No one expected

it

to be that bad. "

Jordan, 51, said he was in his house with 25 people, 14 of them children. As

the waters rose, the adults got the kids on the roof, then he and some others

took a boat and rescued 15 to 20 other people. Along the way, he saw at

least seven bodies floating on the water.

Many people in the low-income Middle Town area rode out the storm because

they lacked the money or transportation to leave, Jordan said.

Wiping sweat from his brow, Waveland Mayor Tommy Longo said, his voice

quivering, " We're still in search and rescue. It's critical right now. We're

sending teams to isolated areas. We're working on getting all major

thoroughfares

open. We're just working on getting water and ice and food to people.

" At this point right now, our whole focus is on human life and sustaining

human life. "

Longo said in his city alone, the death toll is approaching 50.

Amid the stench of death, rescue workers tried to help the living Wednesday.

Trucks and volunteers from Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas

brought food to people whose homes and lives were devastated by Katrina.

People grabbed food off the trucks. " They're kind of panicking. Most of them

lost everything, and it's kind of like security for them, " said Dee Lumpkin,

deputy director of the Hancock County Emergency Management Agency.

At least 14 bodies are being stored at Edmond Fahey Funeral Home in Bay St.

Louis in a cooler powered by a generator. Coroner Norma Stiglet said downed

trees have kept emergency personnel from recovering many other bodies.

Emergency personnel identified some of the dead from the homes they pulled

them from, Stiglet said. Others will have to be fingerprinted.

" When you're born and raised here, you know 90 percent of the people ... It's

just hard, " Stiglet said. " It's hard to hold your head up and do your job. "

Caked in mud and sweat and almost unrecognizable, 4th District U.S. Rep. Gene

worked the phones Wednesday at a distribution center on U.S. 90,

negotiating with the National Guard to fly in planeloads of supplies —

including

body bags and a portable morgue.

" The problem is there are so many National Guard people in Iraq, "

said.

He called the magnitude of the devastation " mind boggling. I'm guessing tens

of thousands of homes are gone, " said. He included his Bay St. Louis

house in the count.

, 30, said at least three deaths were at the Bay Park Apartments

in Bay St. Louis where she lives with her five children.

The dead were mostly elderly, she said, including one man who couldn't get up

the stairs and drowned in the rising waters.

Holding her 2-year-old daughter Ayanna on her lap, said she was getting

ready to go, then decided to ride out the storm. " I wish to God I hadn't, "

she said.

She gathered her children into a bathroom in their second-floor apartment.

" We were all in there huddled up, crying and praying. I like to have a panic

attack. I had to calm myself down. I could hardly breathe. We were just

crying and praying for our lives, " said.

She saw a man jump off his balcony into the waters rising around the complex

to save a woman clinging to a rail by the swimming pool.

" Something's got to give, " she said. " I can't live like this. I don't know

what to do. I understand what it means when they say 'evacuate.' I understand

what that word means now. "

Longo also was left homeless by Katrina's fury.

" Everything I've got is gone, but my family is still alive, " said the father

of five.

He slept in the yard of the fire station in Waveland on Tuesday night. " I'll

worry about my personal toll after I take care of everybody else, " he said.

He talked about what he saw in those dark hours. " There's not a foot of

ground in Waveland that wasn't under water, " he said.

He vowed: " We're going to be back bigger and stronger. "

also remained optimistic: " Things are not going to happen

instantaneously. I've just never seen so much devastation. It's going to take a

long

time to get through this, but we're going to get through this. "

Katrina left death and destruction, but members at Central Bible Church in

Bay St. Louis say their faith has been renewed.

Katt Hosty, 42, who lives in the Lake Shore community, said 20 to 25 people

sought shelter at the church.

As people huddled in the building, water crashed through the back door. They

ran up the stairs and stopped on the ninth step, where they began to sing

Victory is Mine.

The water began to recede.

" I was thinking God was good when I looked and I seen that, " Hosty said. " I

thought it was a miracle. "