James Patterson Smith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617030239
- eISBN:
- 9781617030246
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617030239.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This book presents an account of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the ...
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This book presents an account of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the unprecedented devastation of sixty five thousand homes when the eye wall and powerful northeast quadrant of the hurricane swept a record thirty-foot storm surge across a seventy-five-mile stretch of unprotected Mississippi towns and cities. The author takes us through life-and-death accounts of storm day, August 29, 2005, and the precarious days of food and water shortages that followed. Along the way, the narrative presents episodes of neighborly compassion and creative responses to the greatest natural disaster in American history. The heroes of this saga are the local people and local officials. The book addresses the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s long struggle to remove a record-setting volume of debris and get on with the rebuilding of homes, schools, jobs, and public infrastructure. Along the way readers are offered insights into the politics of recovery funding and the bureaucratic bungling and hubris that afflicted the storm response, and which complicated and delayed the work of recovery. Still, there are ample accounts of things done well, and one chapter gives us a feel for the psychological, spiritual, and material impact of the eight hundred thousand people from across the nation who gave of themselves as volunteers in the Mississippi recovery effort.Less
This book presents an account of the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Rooted in oral histories, it tells the dramatic but underreported story of a people who confronted the unprecedented devastation of sixty five thousand homes when the eye wall and powerful northeast quadrant of the hurricane swept a record thirty-foot storm surge across a seventy-five-mile stretch of unprotected Mississippi towns and cities. The author takes us through life-and-death accounts of storm day, August 29, 2005, and the precarious days of food and water shortages that followed. Along the way, the narrative presents episodes of neighborly compassion and creative responses to the greatest natural disaster in American history. The heroes of this saga are the local people and local officials. The book addresses the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s long struggle to remove a record-setting volume of debris and get on with the rebuilding of homes, schools, jobs, and public infrastructure. Along the way readers are offered insights into the politics of recovery funding and the bureaucratic bungling and hubris that afflicted the storm response, and which complicated and delayed the work of recovery. Still, there are ample accounts of things done well, and one chapter gives us a feel for the psychological, spiritual, and material impact of the eight hundred thousand people from across the nation who gave of themselves as volunteers in the Mississippi recovery effort.
Andrew W. Kahrl
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781469628721
- eISBN:
- 9781469628745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/northcarolina/9781469628721.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, African-American History
Focusing on the history of the Methodist Church’s Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi, the chapter shows how seaside land ownership and development acquired a spiritual dimension and became ...
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Focusing on the history of the Methodist Church’s Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi, the chapter shows how seaside land ownership and development acquired a spiritual dimension and became integral to separate black institutional development under Jim Crow. In 1923, the African American Methodist Bishop Robert E. Jones acquired 300 acres of real estate along the Gulf of Mexico for the purpose of developing a Chautauqua-style retreat for black Methodist congregations in the Deep South. Through its programs and activities, the Gulfside Assembly exemplified the tenets of black middle-class respectability and religiosity during this era. The founding of Gulfside coincided with a land boom along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which, as the chapter shows, rendered it highly vulnerable to attack and forced removal. To hold onto the land and keep “the Gulfside Idea” (as its promoters called it) alive, the resort’s administrators outwardly accommodated Jim Crow and worked to forge mutually beneficial relationships with local white officials and businessmen. In tracing Gulfside’s struggle to claim its place along a changing coastline from the 1920s through the 1950s, the chapter also highlights an early stage of coastal capitalism in the South and examines its environmental impact.Less
Focusing on the history of the Methodist Church’s Gulfside Assembly in Waveland, Mississippi, the chapter shows how seaside land ownership and development acquired a spiritual dimension and became integral to separate black institutional development under Jim Crow. In 1923, the African American Methodist Bishop Robert E. Jones acquired 300 acres of real estate along the Gulf of Mexico for the purpose of developing a Chautauqua-style retreat for black Methodist congregations in the Deep South. Through its programs and activities, the Gulfside Assembly exemplified the tenets of black middle-class respectability and religiosity during this era. The founding of Gulfside coincided with a land boom along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, which, as the chapter shows, rendered it highly vulnerable to attack and forced removal. To hold onto the land and keep “the Gulfside Idea” (as its promoters called it) alive, the resort’s administrators outwardly accommodated Jim Crow and worked to forge mutually beneficial relationships with local white officials and businessmen. In tracing Gulfside’s struggle to claim its place along a changing coastline from the 1920s through the 1950s, the chapter also highlights an early stage of coastal capitalism in the South and examines its environmental impact.
James Patterson Smith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617030239
- eISBN:
- 9781617030246
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617030239.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This chapter discusses the recovery of schools in the aftermath of Katrina. The massive destruction of school buildings and the loss of faculty and staff housing presented unprecedented challenges. ...
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This chapter discusses the recovery of schools in the aftermath of Katrina. The massive destruction of school buildings and the loss of faculty and staff housing presented unprecedented challenges. In the three Mississippi Gulf Coast counties, sixteen entire public school campuses and five parochial school campuses were destroyed in the storm, and another 2four schools suffered severe damage. The decision of individual districts to get the schools up and running as quickly as possible met a critical need for Katrina’s youngest victims. Studies confirmed that school life, with its routine, safety, and sense of caring, was a vital in the recovery of children.Less
This chapter discusses the recovery of schools in the aftermath of Katrina. The massive destruction of school buildings and the loss of faculty and staff housing presented unprecedented challenges. In the three Mississippi Gulf Coast counties, sixteen entire public school campuses and five parochial school campuses were destroyed in the storm, and another 2four schools suffered severe damage. The decision of individual districts to get the schools up and running as quickly as possible met a critical need for Katrina’s youngest victims. Studies confirmed that school life, with its routine, safety, and sense of caring, was a vital in the recovery of children.
James Patterson Smith
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2014
- ISBN:
- 9781617030239
- eISBN:
- 9781617030246
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University Press of Mississippi
- DOI:
- 10.14325/mississippi/9781617030239.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Environmental History
This chapter describes the chaos in the aftermath of Katrina. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, 238 lives were lost, businesses employing tens of thousands were obliterated, and more than 216,000 ...
More
This chapter describes the chaos in the aftermath of Katrina. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, 238 lives were lost, businesses employing tens of thousands were obliterated, and more than 216,000 individuals and families lost their homes. Bureaucratic systems failed Mississippians in their hour of need. Katrina also revealed that the nation’s lead disaster agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was underfunded, understaffed, and suffered from serious mismanagement.Less
This chapter describes the chaos in the aftermath of Katrina. On the Mississippi Gulf Coast, 238 lives were lost, businesses employing tens of thousands were obliterated, and more than 216,000 individuals and families lost their homes. Bureaucratic systems failed Mississippians in their hour of need. Katrina also revealed that the nation’s lead disaster agency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was underfunded, understaffed, and suffered from serious mismanagement.
