Early on day 5 as we entered Louisiana the first signs that we were nearing the hurricane's path of destruction were the trees that had been snapped in half like toothpicks.
6am on day 5 we arrived at the Church of God in Covington, LA. This church was letting the people of Pastor Troy's church camp out on their property.
They had to make do with what they could. Here, they had constructed a shower out of a few 2X4s, a tarp, and a garden hose. There was no electricity or natural gas, so no laundry or hot water, and the septic system had overflown, so... no bathrooms.
The first order of business was to get the RV unloaded. We were anxious to get into the areas that had been badly affected by the hurricane. We were looking forward to actually putting some of the supplies that we'd been hauling into the hands of the people of Louisiana, and Mississippi.
These are some of the kid's who had lost their homes in New Orleans. Their families belong to Pastor Troy's church, and they were sticking together to help their neighbors through the storm.
After we were finished unloading the RV we ate a quick breakfast buritto and headed towards Gulfport, MS. As we drove along the damage became worse and worse. Lot's of torn up roofs like this one, and also billboards along the freeway that had the signs torn off of them, and the frame work bent up like it was tin...
When we got into Gulfport the damage was everywhere. We also saw this convoy of military vehicles.
As they drove past we saw that they were Marines. Rudy and Brian are both Marines and they said "I never thought I'd see Marines deployed on active duty in the streets of America!"
On the outskirts of town we came across a big church that had a huge relief effort going on. They fed hundreds of people for breakfast lunch and dinner!
When we left this church and headed towards the shore is when we started to see some of the really severe damage.
The destruction was unbelievable. The stench was unbearable. Rudy has been in combat situations, he tells me that's what decomposing bodies smell like.
This yacht was probably 200 yards from the shoreline.
This young couple was wandering through the rubble, stunned, dazed. We asked them if they needed water or any supplies. They said that they were with family so they didn't really need anything. I asked them what they were looking for. They replied, "Our house is in here somewhere."
They stopped here and said, "that's it. You can tell, because that's my truck on top of the house." They went on to tell me that her Great Grandfather had built this house over a hundred years ago, and they had just taken a loan out last year to buy the home. They lost everything. Their home, their furniture, clothes, wedding pictures, family keepsakes, everything...
There was a paper mill in Gulfport, and these rolls of paper were found up to, and over a mile away from the factory. It's hard to tell by the picture, but these things were HUGE. They had to weigh several thousand pounds each!
This young man and his mother were cleaning up their yard. They were almost a mile away from the water. The hurricane was so powerful that it picked up a section of the pier from the shoreline and dropped it in their front yard!
There weren't many people still in the areas that had been hit hardest by the storm. We offered what help we could to those who were left.
