Essay: Waveland, Mississippi
As a firefighter there are many calls and events that leave a mark on our soul and change us in ways we never thought possible. My deployment to Waveland Mississippi has left me with many memories both good and bad and has changed the way I deal with people to this day.
We all knew we had a very large and destructive storm that was making a beeline for the southern shores of the United States and loss of life and severe damage was inevitable. We packed up our rescue gear and personnel and hit the road with a destination of Hancock County ground zero for the storm surge and most destructive part of the storm damage.
After driving all night we arrived the morning after the storm hit and my first impression as the sun was starting to come up was why all these people park their vehicles on the side of a major thoroughfare. After a closer inspection I realized people didn't park these cars the where neatly stacked on top of each other obviously pushed by the storm surge.
The closer we got the coast there were no people to be seen just remnants of neighborhoods that looked as if a big giant came walking through and stomped and kicked every structure in its path. We had our work cut out for us and as one of the search managers who task it would be to lead my contingent through the destruction I thought we need more people, supplies, and this was not going to be a walk in the park.
We found a Sonic restaurant that still had an intact covered porch that would offer a respite from the sun and set up camp about a mile from the gulf. After securing our base of operations we got ready for our first work period. We were tasked with a wide area search for victims and survivors so we loaded our personnel into pickup trucks and headed towards the gulf.
As we advanced to our search area we passed a house with a car sitting partly on the front porch. A woman standing out front yelled something about having oxygen and needing help. We stopped and the lady told us that she and her family live next door and they had evacuated further inland and returned to check on her home and the 2 elderly ladies that lived next door. She said they were both inside and were in need of assistance.
With my crew in tow we made entry into the house, or what was left of it, to find both occupants and hear their story. After working all their life they choose to stay and ride out the storm as they had done so many times before no worse for the ware.
The house had nothing that wasn't broken, covered in wet mud, and moved to a new position usually on its side or upside down. Both were dressed in muddy tattered clothes and numerous cuts and scrapes. One had heart surgery one week before the other an insulin dependant diabetic without her medicine for over 24 hrs.
They rode out the storm inside the house and spent the majority of their time tethered to large kitchen appliances when the storm surge came. They explained they felt like they were on the inside of a washing machine for the entire night and both needed medical care. We notified our command we need an ambulance for transport and they stated there aren't any. So we loaded both victims into the back of our pick up and took them to see our team doctors who treated and transported them to a makeshift treatment facility.
As our days of searching miles of debris fields we would encounter so many people who had similar stories and the one thing I was not ready for was the human factor. The Army private who after a year in Iraq had been home less than a week came back to find his home was gone. The family of three, who had a similar story, that were more concerned about our welfare and that we had enough water to drink. In the middle of one of the worst natural disasters and when loss of compassion and trust is expected people reach way down never cease to amaze.
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