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Rita's Story A recounting of accual events the day of the hurricane. |
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It is Saturday the 27th of August, I went to bed thinking here we go again, we have to pack up and leave again for another storm is on its way. My husband had been telling me about it for the past few days, and I told him, “I’m not worried about another storm.” He had been worried about the last few storms this season and they had not amounted too much. I told him he was overreacting again. I’ve been running from storms ever since Camille, I was 6, now I’m 45. Sunday morning I woke up and turned on the weather channel and saw the pictures of Katrina on her way, and said, “Let’s pack like we’re not coming back, and haul butt out of Pearlington.” My husband Terry and my son Michael loaded the truck up and we headed up to Starkville, MS where our daughter is attending Mississippi State University. We stayed with her and her roommate Kaley, in a two bedroom apartment. Some of Kaley’s family drove up to Starkville also. We ended up with about nine people in the apartment. We had a little rain, wind and the electricity went out for about an hour, nothing to it I thought. The next day we saw the news reports and realized we could not travel back home for a while. I had no idea how my 80 year old father and 75 year old mother did during the storm, nor my three sisters and their families. We had no communication for days. Finally after four days we decided to head back home, we had trouble finding gas, but we made it. We drove across the green bridge towards Pearlington, and looked to the right where cabins used to be on the river. They were gone. Driving through our neighborhood I could see the houses were still standing. I thought we were okay. We drove up to our house and stepped into about 3 inches of mud. I could not even make it to the house to look in the door. My husband and son went in and told me the ceiling was on the floor, the furniture was upside down, and the mud was everywhere. We stayed in the truck that night. I finally got in touch with my whole family. My parents had weathered out the storm in an attic and had spent most of the time praying. They lost everything but everybody was okay. Then I realized we did not even have a place to rest our heads. Everything in our world was either gone or destroyed. But I couldn’t help but think that this was a new beginning. I was right. I returned from work one evening, my house had been gutted by some awesome people from Huntsville, AL. These people not only cleaned my house they gave me more hope. For it was all just stuff. It is now April 9, 2006, and this is the first chance I have had to get to a computer and see this website. Thank you all for helping the community of Pearlington out. Ya’ll seem to keep returning and returning. Keep it up! Ya’ll are Pearlington’s angels. Eventually we will have
to demolish our house and put in a NEW house.
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