Hurricane Katrina Photos from Ocean Springs, MS

What's left is not much....just a few trees.... on the front of the campus of the Gulf Coast Research Lab in Ocean Springs off of East Beach. The back of the Campus did a little better. The Caylor building still stands. My sister works in the Caylor building and has been there. All of the Research buildings are pretty much wiped out. I haven't heard the status of the Dormitories where the students from Ole Miss and USM would come to stay and do a semester of their studies in Marine Biology, Wildlife and Fishieries and the likes.


The remains of a home that sits right next to the USM's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory down on East Beach. I live about a half mile from this devestation. I cannot even BEGIN to describe to you the feelings that washed over me when I saw this amount of devastation. I had feelings of a perverted voyaeur for even capturing these images on my digital camera. Someone once lived in this place, called it home...perhaps even had plans to have a bar-b-que out by that pool for labor day weekend. Unfortunately, Katrina changed those plans and affected countless lives for many, many months and perhaps even years to come.


This is as far as I could make in my quest to get to the Front Beach area of Ocean Springs. The debris field was just to high. In the small clearing in the trees you can see what used to be the East Biloxi Casino Row Area....in the larger pictures you can actually see some of the details of the hotels that made it such as Casino Magic, and Isle of Capri.
Fort Mareupas (not sure of the spelling please forgive me I'm too tired to look it up), used to sit up on the hill in the "triangle area" of the Front Beach just to the left of the "hole/clearing" in the trees.



Another house on the South end of Dewey Avenue in Ocean Springs. I grew up on Dewey Avenue in OS, and this area was once my "playground".....I was trying to get to the Front Beach area after returning home from evacuating to Fla, to see how my prescious childhood "stomping grounds" had fared....but the sights were almost unbelievable.



This house is at the corner of Dewey Avenue and Helmers Lane in Ocean Springs. As you can see, the roof took quite a beating with the Southeast, and then Southwest winds....This area is not far from the "Front Beach" area of Ocean Springs.



Lovelace Drug Store at the corner of Washington Avenue and Government Streets. There is a yellow poster attached to barrels underneath the barely hanging sign. The poster speaks of the dangers of walking under the dangling sign that has been a cornerstone of the community for as long as I have lived in Ocean Springs (45 years).







Elizabeth Keys Vocational Center---Part of the OSH School System






This is what's left of the Dollar general off of Highway 90 in Ocean Springs in the old Delchamps Shoping Complex.