An excellent series of full panoramic photos of the Katrina disaster
have made by VR photographer Edward Fink shortly after Katrina from a
helicopter 700 feet in the air. The series was first seen on the
Washington Post website and his website bigeyeinthesky.com, which has the
whole series, is
linked here.
The photos were shot several weeks after Katrina before any debris was
removed. The photo link (left) is of Biloxi's Casino Row area.
Rebuilding
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The Biloxi Town Green continues to be a bright spot in Post-Katrina
Biloxi. Biloxi is leading the way regarding recovery and the Town
Green has been a strong presence in all the new that is happening
within the city. This photo was taken in mid February of 2007.The television show, Extreme Makeover Home Edition, built the
the Katrina Memorial and restored the city's Town Green as a way to
help everyone feel more positive about the future at a time that was
truly bleak. There is no question that the project was a success.
(Scroll down to the see the site as it was presented in 2006.) |
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As the 5th anniversary of Katrina approaches, the City of Biloxi has
begun renovations, June 8, 2010, of the USS Biloxi
Memorial at the park in front of the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor.
The USS Biloxi
was a light cruiser that distinguished itself in
World War II. The 608-foot, 10,000-ton vessel, known by her 1,200
officers and crew as “The Busy Bee,” earned
nine battle stars during her service from January 1944 to May 1945. (More
Here) |
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It has been over four years since hurricane Katrina and much has
changed. The above photo was shot from the 27th floor of the Beau
Rivage in Biloxi Looking west in early November 2009. Here you can see
the Biloxi Lighthouse and the beach. The lighthouse is nearing
completion of a restoration project that repainted the exterior and
restored its electrical systems. The beach highway has been rebuilt
and the stately oak trees no longer look as if a tornado went through
the area. |
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This is a Sept. 30, 2009 photograph of the rebuilt
Grass Lawn home in Gulfport. Hurricane Katrina completely
destroyed the original 1836 home on August 29, 2005. The home is owned
by the City of Gulfport and used as a public meeting and reception
facility on the beach in Gulfport, Grass Lawn is among the city's
iconic structures and appears on the city's official logo. |
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This is a view of the City of Biloxi photographed in November 2007
from just west of Edgewater Mall , the city's largest shopping center.
In the distance are are Coast Coliseum, and farther still, condos and
the Beau Rivage. From this view, it is easy to imagine that Biloxi has
fully recovered from hurricane Katrina, but that is not the case.
While the city is looking better than since the storm, there are
hundreds of homes that have yet to be rebuilt, and most of the
businesses along the beach highway have not yet rebuilt. |
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The new Biloxi-Ocean Springs bridge fully opened April 7, 2008.The
bridge opened to traffic on two lanes November 1. The former bridge was destroyed by Katrina on Aug. 29,
2005 and left Biloxi's Casino Row on a dead end highway. Now that the
bridge is fully operational, it is expected to help move that slow
recovery of the Coast into a higher gear. The bridge serves the
Coast's busy U.S. 90 highway, which is the key artery for the area's
tourism and business traffic. |
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Also open fully is the Bay St. Louis Bridge. This bridge links U.S. 90
west from Pass Christian in Harrison County to Bay St. Louis in
Hancock County. The bridge was fully opened during the first month of
2008. It too replaces a lengthy bridge that was destroyed by Katrina. |
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This is a photo of part of the
Ohr-O'Keefe Museum on the beach in Biloxi. Hurricane Katrina,
along with the former Grand Casino Barge that was washed onshore,
severely damaged the museum, which was under construction prior to the
hurricane. While the Grand's barge has been removed, the museum
property remains severely damaged. The Ohr-O'Keefe Museum will
eventually be finished, but considerable work is ahead of the staff,
and money is badly needed. The museum is operating currently in
temporary offices. |
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| This photo is of the newly constructed Hurricane
Katrina Memorial at the Biloxi Town Green. The memorial was built as a
project by the television show Extreme Makeovers Home Edition as one
of several projects they have undertaken on the Coast. Work crews
constructed the memorial in only five days and was completed 2/16/06.
The memorial consists of a mosaic wave, symbolizing Katrina's storm
surge, and a black wall with a glass case filled with personal art
from Katrina victims. The project included re-landscaping and new
sidewalks at the Town Green, which now sits like an oasis of green in
the center of downtown at the beach highway. The granite on top of the
black wall is the water height during Katrina. |
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This photo was taken in Long Beach showing a whole neighborhood
where the wreckage from houses destroyed by Katrina have been removed.
What is left are tons of smaller bits an pieces of homes and lives
that the heavy equipment didn't remove. Trash is everywhere. Many
homeowners are not coming back and not rebuilding but trying to sell
their property. You can multiply this image by nearly 80 miles of
shoreline in Biloxi, D'Iberville, Ocean Springs, Gautier, Pascagoula,
Gulfport, Long Beach, Pass Christian, Bay St.Louis, Waveland,
Pearlington. |
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This photo was typical throughout the Mississippi Coast in
the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
It shows the complete destruction of homes in a neighborhood in Diamondhead,
MS in Hancock County. But even with such destruction, the resilience and
humor of one home owner is evident. While this photo is typical of the destruction on
the Coast, there is no photography that can accurately depict how bad the
damages are when seen first hand. Photo Credit: Bruce W. Smith:
Editorial Services
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