- <h2>Katrina five years later: Bay St. Louis</h2>
Katrina five years later: Bay St. Louis
BAY ST. LOUIS, Mississippi (WALA) - TAKING A DIRECT HIT
It was ground zero. Hurricane Katrina sent a 30 foot storm surge crashing into Bay St Louis, Mississippi. Nearly every structure in town was destroyed. Five years later, the town is recovering, battling back from a day that everything changed.
On the day of Katrina, Bay St. Louis was cut off from the rest of the world. Highway 43 was a river and the Highway 90 bridge was blown apart. Folks who stayed were on their own.
SURVIVING AGAINST THE ODDS
Kevin Guillory, who still finds it hard to talk about, survived that day, and according to neighbors he was hero. He came to the aid of several people who stayed behind at the Bay Town Inn.
"My friend calls me and says, 'I'm in trouble,' and I cross back over and it's about knee deep then. But then we get in the house and the waves were breaking at the front door and we had a couch with a ladder holding it back and finally it started coming apart at the hinges, and seven of us and two dogs ended up in room number five," Guillory said.
But the water and the waves kept coming. Guillory tried to keep everyone together as the Inn broke apart.
"We drifted into this tree here and three of us and a dog ended up in this tree, two of us and a dog ended up on a roof down Demontlazon and one got pushed underneath here, swept away, and the trustees found her that afternoon," explained Guillory.
They found her alive. In fact, they all made it through alive, including the dogs. The only thing that died was the tree they clung too. It has now become a landmark with angels carved into the dead limbs.
"The swells would come. They would go underwater and I was on that limb right there and it would slap at me and three and a half hours later we finally decided to come down and take refuge," Guillory said.
RISING FROM UTTER DESTRUCTION
Five years later, Bay St. Louis is gradually being rebuilt, with most of the effort going into Main Street, giving the town a central core.
"It seems like it's really coming together finally," Natasha Ruetten, who runs the Buttercup Café, said.
Ruetten said the revival of Main Street has made a big difference in healing the small community.
"That's the heart of the city," Ruetten said. "If you don't have your heart, then where are you going to go from there?"
The waterfront though, is still a long way from being revived. Many surf-side homes and businesses have never returned. The new normal on the water is to build homes up to 20 feet off the ground.
PICTURING HISTORY
But what has been lost is not completely lost. Remembering what was is part of the mission of the Hancock County Historical Society. They've collected more than 30,000 pictures, street by street, before and after Katrina.
"It draws them back and many people come in and are astounded by what they see and find. It does help ground them. They go back and remember what was," said volunteer Eddie Coleman.
Ironically, Bay St. Louis has the highest elevation on the Gulf Coast. A ridge running through downtown is 25 feet above sea level. However, it wasn't enough to stop the storm surge.
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/weather/hurricane/katrina-five-years-later-bay-st-louis
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Downtown Meridian
Downtown Meridian has many notable and historic buildings including General Supply Store, Hamasa Shrine Temple Theater, Terminal Hotel, MSU Riley Center for Education and the Performing Arts, Hulett Furniture, and Weidmann’s Restaurant. |
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