My Journey: August 31,2006 Reunion-Denise Swanson

BaySt.Louis and Waveland had bunches of celebrations too. Which I guess is a good thing for us. I guess it gets your mind off of the bad things for a bit. I found out about it when I bought todays local newspaper, well Wednesdays, the 30th. It is in the SeaCoast Echo if you'd like to look at it online. Their web addy is: www.SEACOASTECHO.COM http://208.62.60.4/40/article_460.shtml There are some good pictures in it. I was looking on the internet and found a article on Denise Swanson. She is one of the people that the recovery center has on their blog for somebody to adopt her and her family. She has been adopted and they are building her a house. The story is in the www.Pearlington.blogspot.com And alot of stories are at: http://websearch.cnn.com/websearch/search?query=Denise%20swanson/adopt%20a%20family/ GodBless all the organizations and Churches, and volunteers that are here and are helping our town try to get back to normal, if there is a normal anymore. I Thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. ....................God Bless...............................................

My Journey: Another day, made it thru the 29th.

Well the 29th. is finally over. Channel 4 news station here in New Orleans had a thing about ringing bells on the 29th. to help people get thru the day. Their web addy is www.wwltv.com if you'd like to read about it. They had celebrations yesterday to ring the bells. The schools and fire stations and the news were all selling them. I went to Slidell to a fire station and bought a few of them. They are pretty and sound real nice. They cost $3.00 each.I gave one each to Laurie, Larry, and Herbie at the Recovery center. I hope they rang them !! I rang mine a few times yesterday. I can't believe it's been a year now since the hurricane. It's been a long, long tiring year for me, and I'm sure thousands of other survivor's and volunteer's. God Bless them all. When you look around here you'd think it happened yesterday. Pearlington recovery center had their volunteer reunion. From what I read they say it turned out really good. It was in the local newspaper here. I'm really happy for them. I'm glad they had some time off to enjoy themselves. Lord knows they surely deserved it. If you'd like to read about it in the paper go to www.sunherald.com , it was in there Sunday. I have another site I think everyone should check out. A young woman named Kristin Dambrino had came here sometime after the hurricane with her dad, he is in the National Guard ( I think) but she was so effected by the sights she saw here, she wrote a song. It's called A Pearlington Prayer. Her web address is: www.kristiandambrino.com/media.html , it is a beautiful song. It makes me cry everytime I hear it. Well, I'll see you all again soon, God Bless...............................................................................

My Journey: August27,2006

Well its almost a year now since Katrina. Not much around here has changed. There is a disturbance out there looking like it might come this way. I sure hope not. I guess I'm going to start getting things together tomorrow just in case. It will be ironic if we get another one around the same date as Katrina was. I will be praying for all of us. I'm tired and going to lay down. Will try to write more soon....................................... God Bless.....................................

My Journey: August 16, 2006: another day........

<- store in La. just over state line.

Yesterday I looked at the MSN homepage. There was a link on there for msnbc. They are doing a special report on two towns in Mississippi. The towns are BaySt.Louis and Waveland. Which they are about 15 miles east of Pearlington. Pearlington is right on the coast just before the Louisiana state line. When you leave Pearlington going west, if you go over the green bridge your in Louisiana. In fact there was a small store there until Katrina hit, and they called it Pearlington, La. Slidell,La. is about 10 miles west of us. Alot of people even from this area don't know where Pearlington is. I think they get it confused with Pearl River County, La. Thats why we have so much trouble being recognized here. This town has been over looked bad by the government, especially Fema. I'm so glad that God has sent his Children, our brothers and sisters here to help us. If it wasn't for them I"d hate to think what shape we'd still be in. Which alot of us still are but I know they can only do so much. Most of them have so much compassion. You can feel it and see it in them and know they do by the things they do for us. Laurie the manager at the Pearl Mart is from N.Y. and has been here since Feb. {I think} She works her fingers to the bone. 24...7.. she is working. And 2 residents from here are the managers also. The Red Cross left us, and they were going to shut the Recovery Center down. Thats when the residents stepped up and said they'd take it over. Or it would be closed now. Our town is unincorporated. We don't have a mayor or nothing. So I guess the decisions around here are made by the three of them???? So it's up to them to decide who gets the help around here and who doesn't get any help??? !!!I'm going to try to put the link for them in here today. Ha, I'm not real great on some stuff, kinda learn as I go. When I first got a computer back in 2000, I taught myself, I cheated tho I bought the book for Dummies !! LOL But it helped me alot. I'd went to school back in 79-81 for Computer Tech... thats when my mom died, and my world fell apart. { the 1st. time} OK, here it is http://www.pearlington.blogspot.com thats for the recovery center. Now I want to give you one for the msnbc article, which has some great pictures too, Ok, here it is: http://risingfromruin.msnbc.com/stories.html I hope I can still interest you all who ever might be reading this. I know their stories will be alot more interesting . There are alot of other survivor stories there that are just amazing. I have some Katrina experiences that happened to my friends that stayed here during the storm. There were 4 families that stayed that live on my street. My street only has I think 12 families on it. They are alot braver than I was to stay here. I think if I'd stayed I'd be dead right now.Will would have been sleeping because he worked nights, and I would have totally freaked out. Everybody that stayed had to climb trees, get on roofs, get in boats. Whatever they could do. And they all say one minute the water was 1" and the next minute you were swimming. And they said snakes, deer, alligators, rats, spiders, racoons, dogs, big cockroaches, fish, any animal imaginable was in the trees and water with them. Good God it gives me goose bumps just thinking about it. I'm glad the eye of Katrina came in the day time. I think if it had came at night there would have been alot more people killed...............God Bless...............

My Journey: another day August 15,2006

<- volunteers from N.Y.

I've came many miles on this Journey, but still have many more to travel....................................
I wish all my pictures hadn't burned up in the R.V. fire. I had alot of good ones from the days right after the hurricane. I also had a few thousand pictures on my old computer that got flooded. I even put the tower up on top of the desk, but it didn't do much good cause the desk flipped over. BOOHOO!! Well I had alot of things that meant the most in my life to me that got burnt up. Everything I'd packed and took with me when I left home on the 28th. of Aug, 2005. Oh well as much as I want to I can't bring any of it back. It all still feels like a dream. It seems too impossible for it to have happened. I still have nightmares about it all. And with the year anniversary coming up makes it even worse. I raised fancy guppies and sold them to a pet store in Slidell. I had so many pregant ones and little babies that all died in the salt water. When my trailer filled with water they all just swam out of their aquariums and then died. I had 3 aquariums. I loved all my fishes. The aquarium in my bedroom was under my bed along with one of my dressers. You know that water had to be some kind of bad to move things around like that. I couldn't open my laundry room door, or the 2nd. or 3rd. bedroom door or the other bathroom door. Stuff was moved around and jammed against the doors. Pots in my cabinets were still filled with water. The volunteers that emptied my trailer poured the water out of alot of stuff. Those volunteers were from N.Y. They were a great bunch of people. The second set of volunteers that came and gutted my trailer were Presbyterian Church youth group from Felton California. They were a great bunch of kids, they worked really hard too. And it was terribly hot. I am so grateful to them all. I hope if they do come to the reunion I'll get to see them. I hope they will come by to see me. Well I'm going to lay back down and try to get some more rest. I woke awhile ago hurting and I had a terrible nightmare. God Bless...................................... This picture was taken from outside looking into my bedroom. Thats a king size bed, and it had to float up because of my dresser with the mirror on it and my 20 gallon aquarium was underneath it.I think also one of my night stands was under it too. The mirror on my dresser never cracked. I kept my bed frame, I hope I can paint it or something to be able to use it again. It was beautiful, its called "Pineapple" on top of the 4 posters there was a big pineapple carved in the wood. I had to throw away all the rest of the set, the drawers warped and it was a big mess.........God Bless..........................................................

My Journey: More Pictures of Pearlington

...............God Bless..............

My Journey: August 13, 2006 a few pictures

THIS IS A HOUSE BOAT ON TOP OF A HOUSE BOAT. AND A TUG BOAT ON THE SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY. THIS IS BY THE PEARL RIVER , A COUPLE MINUTES DOWN THE ROAD FROM PEARLINGTON. THE TUG BOAT IS PRETTY FAR FROM THE RIVER!!!!!!!...............God Bless..........................................................

My Journey: Just another day: August10,2006

This is a bank vault! It was all that was left, Katrina took the rest.This is on Coleman Ave. in Waveland. Anyway I noticed in the Pearlington Blog that they are putting other families to adopt in there besides only people that have been volunteers here. They're finally putting older disabled people. Which I think is great. I wish I could work. I'd love to have a job and money to repair my trailer. I worked all my life, since I was 13 years old. Until 1995, when I hurt my back, I was 41 at the time, i had 2 back surgies, one in 1996 and one in 1998. I live in cronic pain everyday, and I have to take strong medications to be able to cope with everyday things. I have Glaucoma. I have Diabetes. I have High Blood Pressure. I have every disk in my neck messed up but the bottom one, and don't want surgery on it. I am in remission for my breast cancer which I had surgery , chemo, and radiation in 2002. And am still having trouble with that breast. And have to take a pill everyday for 5 years. In 2005 I had Carpol Tunnel surgery on my right hand, was suppost to get it on my left, but thanks to Katrina never did. What else??? I hope and pray nothing !! But no one at the recovery center has asked me about my disabilities. I guess cause I can get around, and I'm not 70 or 80 years old. It really used to make me mad. When I was going thru radiation, I was so burned that I couldn't even put my arm down. People would ask " How are you?" Well you look good. And the same thing when I was going thru chemo. Well you look good ! Looks are very deceiving, because you sure don't feel good inside. I wouldn't wish chemo on my worst enemy. Or the pain that I live in every day. I don't want people to feel sorry for me. I'd like people to know and understand how I feel. I've been in pain every day of my life since March 25, 1995, and it gets old, and really sucks..................... ............................................................................................ I read in the paper today that the man in Diamondhead died. The man that his wife poured the boiling grease on him. He died last Friday. That is really sad. They still haven't found her. Now she's wanted for murder....Update: she turned herself in ...................................................
There was also a big article about the anniversary of Katrina. It said its going to effect alot of people. And if you need somebody to talk to they're going to have hotlines open for people to talk to someone. It said especially don't be alone on that day. Go to a professional if you need to. Like a shrink !!! I think most of us need more than a shrink !!........God Bless........................

My Journey: my 1988, 883 Sporster "Ruined"

"JAMIE"
Well this is what my Harley looks like now, after going thru the hurricane, on the left side, and left bottom left pictures. The ones on the right side are of me and a friend, he's the one that got it running! I guess it will have to be completely torn down and redone to be any good. I'll tell you the story of my bike. One of my bestest friends owned the bike. She found out in Oct. 2001 that she had breast cancer, and I found out in Dec. 2001. Her's was found too late. They caught mine early. We both went thru surgery about the same time. And radiation, and chemo. So at least we had each other to lean on. We would go to "Look Good, Feel better" together, The American Cancer Society has it for cancer patients. And we'd go to the meetings and walks. Well my friend Jamie went thru alot of pain and grief. She had a young daughter,4. Also a daughter 21. Me and another friend got together and gave a benefit for her. So her last Christmas was a good one for her baby girl. Well as far as her gifts, not her mom dying on Christmas day. She left us Christmas day 2004, and went to a better place. At least she is out of pain. And it snowed that day, it was like a blizzard here. But one of her last wishes was to see her bike run again. A good friend of mine helped me work on it and get it running.It was only the linkage. So she got her wish, it was running again.I rode it a few times before the hurricane. Anyway she left me her bike. Now I don't know if I'll ever get the money to redo it...It will have to wait until after I fix my trailer, or something to live in. Well.........God Bless..............................................................................

My Journey: August 10, 2006: my trailer now

These are pictures of what my trailer looks like now. My next step is to redo the electric and then the insulation. Hopefully somehow I"ll get the money to do it. I sure hope a grant comes thru, or a miracle................God Bless....................................

My Journey: its August 2006

I've lost track of days. When we first got back it was a day to day job trying to clear off the front part of my yard. We finally got it cleared enough to get the R.V., and 2 fema trailers in here. It was alot of back bending, sweaty work. The R.O.E. which is the corps of engineers came and inspected my property. They wanted me to have my house and my mobile home both bulldozed down. But we kept thinking the trailer was salvagable. So I decided to try and save my trailer. It was all I have left. With no insurance and no money it was my only hope.Neither me or Will could go into that trailer to get rid of all the stuff inside. Finally I had a church group come and they emptied the trailer of all its contents. They were from N.Y., and they were wonderful people. I never could have done it, it was too heart breaking. And my health won't let me. There wasn't much that could be saved. It was heart breaking to see all my wordly possesions out there on the street waiting to be picked up by the garbage trucks. And having to look at it day after day for a couple weeks. Then after awhile another church group came in and over a week or two they gutted out my trailer. They were a great bunch from Felton, California. They were the Felton Presbyterian Youth Group. Such a great bunch of young guys and girls. They worked so hard . It was so hot, but that didn't discourage them a bit. Well then I had a big problem. I had to get my trailer off the ground and back up on blocks. I couldn't get any volunteers to do it. I called and called businesses to try to get someone to do it. I finally got a company. I was on a month waiting list and it cost me $2,700.00 to get it done.And fema gave me a total of $5,000.00 to repair my trailer, Ha what a joke! But now at least i'm at a point where maybe I can do something. but what I don't know. I've been spraying inside with bleach for the mold. Which really the mold wasn't too bad. We had left windows open before we'd left here last September, which I think helped. Thankfully I have a well built trailer. It has plywood floors and 2x4's in it. I think there are a very few trailers left here that are in pretty good shape. Most of the people that had trailers, there wasn't much left of them. So I feel I am luckier than others. At least I have something to work with. ................................... The picture of the volunteers are on the matress, and in the street.They were the one's that took everything out of my trailer. The other picture is how it looks now since I've gotten it re-leveled, and put back on blocks...I keep in touch with a few of the girls, I'll have to ask them if they can e-mail me a picture to post on here............................................. GodBless.........................................................

My Journey: Going Home, February 2006

The flow well : above The 2nd. R.V.

We went looking for a R.V. Well I finally found one, I figured I could live in if I had to. And I shouldn't have much trouble selling it once I didn't need it anymore. So we spent days loading it up with our goods. This time I got full coverage ins. on it. So we decided we'd drive it home and leave it there. Then come back and get the truck and the U-haul to pull the motorcycle home. In the meantime Will had called Trentt Lott and that got Fema moving on the ball. Fema called Will and set up a date to come inspect to put him his fema trailer. So the United way bought us a well pump, {ours had blown away}. Anyway we left that park and went home.We just took the R.V. home and stayed about a week.In Pearlington the Red Cross was at the school feeding people each day. So that was great. We got some of the front yard cleared off. But we had to head back to Alabama to get the rest of our stuff. We stopped by the flowwell in Picayune while we were passing by there. They cleaned it up alot, there was trees all around it last year when we were using it, but now they'd cut them all back. The water still tasted so good. I guess they cleaned it up because it saved so many peoples lives. Will finally got his fema trailer around the end of Feb. And I finally got mine the end of April......................God Bless.....................................

My Journey: getting close to Christmas 2005

This is the mountain above the campground , the geese are in the lake at the campground and the other picture is our Christmas dinner. The other two are my Christmas tree. You can go to : www.gadsdentimes.com and look up Sunday December 25, 2005 and read the article about us there. It starts on the front page and is called "Living and Celebrating".





this is my tree !
Days have came and gone, and all the days were like the last.We decorated a little to try to get in the Christmas spirit. I bought a 12" tree to give Sally & Eddie. I bought a 3' tree one for me & one for Will. They had optic lights on them and were real pretty. People from the "GADSDEN Times" newspaper came and did a interview on us to put in the paper on Christmas day. It was about the survivors spending Christmas away from home. So we were in that paper. Some of the people in the park were in the Huntsville paper also I think. All the friends and family came for Christmas again to cook and spend Christmas with us.None were my family tho. I was just busy on the phone with Fema asking why I didn't have a trailer on my land yet. Days came and days passes. I finally got fed up and said I wanted to look for another R.V. again so I could go home. Now you couldnt get any help unless you were home. You had to get on lists to get a shed, a list to get your debris removed. Etc... I have yet to this day gotten a shed. All my stuff I was able to keep or have accumliated is just sitting on the ground covered with a tarp. I get tired of asking people for things. Well Christmas came and went, it was a very depressing time for me........... God Bless ......................

My Journey:Living in Guntersville,Ala. Fema Park, 05

Everyday was trying to find out info. from Fema, and just trying to make it another day. I had Fema reps. at the Fema # tell me they were too overhelmed to help. Others would tell you anything just to get rid of talking to you on the phone. We applied for Fema trailers on our land, but no word , except we were on a list. The park had so many deer , we would feed them. They somehow helped take the pain away a little. Well at least we had something else to put our minds on. So days then weeks and months would go by. It was raining alot. And getting colder and colder. We definetely needed a fire if you wanted to spend any time outside. The United Way people came and helped us as to what extent they could. They got us into doctors if we needed one. And stuff like that. They helped people get work done on their vehicles. All kinds of good stuff they'd do for us. They were a great bunch of people. Thanksgiving was getting close, me and Will signed up at the office to get a dinner brought to us by the local churches. I told Sally about it , and they all signed up too. Well we all got a surprise. Sally & Ed's kids all got together and came up and we all had a home cooked dinner. It was great, we used a smoker and a BBQ grill, and everybodys stove & ovens. It was great !! But seeing all them made me more home sick, and Ed was in the hospital in Huntsville with a bad staph infection he got when they operated on his shoulder. It was real bad for a while. Thank God he did finally pull thru and got better. Wills trailer top picture. The other is mine. These are some of the deer.The deer would be in herds. We watched babies with spots grow up. It was a sight seeing them run and play. A few times a big ole buck would get close and they"d blow at you. They love peanutbutter and bread. Some of them would eat bread out of your hand. The one deer is licking peanutbutter off of that stump. You could ride around the park and see the same deer at the same place everyday waiting for a hand out. You would see 10 to 20 deer at a time. They'd walk all thru the park, they weren't very scared of people. When you rattled that bread bag they knew it. Will used to put peanut butter on the end of a stick and they would lick it off. They were great.....God Bless...................

My Journry: in Guntersville Alabama 2005

We got to the Fema park. It was really a Beautiful state park. Fema just loaded it up with trailers. But there were hardly any survivors living there. Thats something I can't figure out either. The last year I've been in a daze, just bewildered and depressed and you'll just have to excuse some of my words , I guess. My mind goes faster than I can write. And believe me it takes me a while to write, as I only use 1 finger. LOL Anyway back to my journey: Friends of mine and in-laws, and neices & nephews of Wills lived there. So we were at least thankfull we weren't alone there. Sally & Ed had a nice house 3 blocks from the beach in Waveland. And lil Ed & Sam lived in Bayside park, they have a 1 yeay old. And now shes due again soon. It was beautiful at the park. I guess thats what helped me keep my sanity. They had 18wheeler trucks there filled with clothes, food, and home essencials. So that helped us all. Well Ed & Sally's house was completely swept away. And Lil Ed & Sam's house got water in it, had to have it bulldozed. So we were all in the same boat. It was getting quite cold there in Ala. The man folk would get wood and build us big fires to sit around. We had alot of times sitting around that fire talking and dreaming, and remembering.We cried alot and we laughed alot. And worried a whole lot. .......... Sally & Ed lived a couple blocks from where these pictures were taken....God Bless........................

My Journey: Our R.V. Burnt on Oct.13,2005

This is a Beautiful church we stopped at in Trenton Georgia to pray and ask God what the heck is going on?? We had bought the R.V. towards the end of Sept. The Fire & Police report said it was a electrical fire, it started under the hood. We called the man and woman whom we'd bought it from, they more or less said to bad. I'd even sent them pictures and the police and fire reports. They knew we were Katrina victims, just loosing our homes and all possessions. They even owned a business in Tennessee. We'd only drove it one trip to see my son in Tellico Plains ,Tenn. Thats where they lived but they lost their house right after Katrina took ours. Well .....................................................................God Bless..........................................................................

My Journey: heading to Tennessee Sept.2005

Our burnt chaps and jackets, burnt R.V. ...............




So I was able to make my phone calls. I called my sister, she said she'd called the Red Cross and got things set up for when we got there. As much as we dreaded leaving the comforts of the motel room, we did. We got to my sisters in Crossville Tenn. It was great seeing them. The next few days we spent running from the Red Cross to others that helped us. The churches gave us some clothes and food. We got a paper from Red Cross to get a few new clothes and some food from Walmart. Things were still hectic all the running. Well the week-end came, my sister was gun ho about getting her swimming pool down, and mowing her 5 acres of land. We were up at 7am. And she starts giving orders. We had plans for that day to go look at a R.V. so later in the day sfter her and her husband had gotten drunk, words were spoken. I said we don't need this, after all we'd just been thru. They said "You are out of there now. you need to get on with your lives" Well it wasn't that easy. maybe for them, but not for us. So I called the Red Cross lady and she put us in a motel again. Days went by..... and we'd gotten the $2,000 from fema. So we went looking for a R.V. so we could go home. We'd called Fema for a trailer but they said it would be awhile. We found a R.V. for $4,000 and bought it. We loaded it with all our wordly possessions. We'd gotten a microwave, and a coffee pot, and all the necessities we would need to survive back in Pearlington. We left headed for home! We were so happy to be going back to nothing, but it was home. We had just gotten south of Chatanooga and stopped for gas and a rest at a place called Rising Fawn. We got situated and ready to go. I had pulled up beside Will waiting to go. I heard the starter sticking. I told him "Stop trying to start it" He said "He wasn't"He took the keys out of the ignition and it still did it. Then we saw smoke coming out from under the hood. I ran and got the dog and put him with me. Will grabed a fire extinguisher, and I ran into the station "Yelling to call the fire department". A man had a fire extinguisher heading out the door. Will at that time was busy trying to unhook the U-haul trailer with his motorcycle and extra gas cans in it, to get it away from the blazing R.V. Luckily 5 or so other men went and helped him get it off and pushed away. So all we could do was sit there watching all our wordly possessions going up in smoke. Before we left I'd tried getting in touch with my ins. co. but to no avil could I. So I said we'll just get it home then I'll get it straightened out. Finally the fire truck got there but it was too, too late. The fireman was able to save a few things , but not much. Luckily our $$ was saved. It was under the bed matress in a big yellow envelope. So all me and Will could do was hug each other and cry. The police man called a motel and got us a room back in the closest town, which was Trenton, Georgia. We had to wait for the fire and police report. Those were the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. Now we had a U-Haul with no way to pull it. We ended up buying a truck so we could pull the U-haul, luckily the $ didn't burn up! And we ended up in a fema trailer park in Guntersville Ala. where some of Wills relatives were staying. We both got a nice trailer to live in. But it still wasn't home....We were back to before square one..God Bless............