Gulf Coast Katrina After effects & Vicksburg, MS--LOTS of Flooding!

We enjoyed our time on the Mississippi coast, but were amazed at the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina (now some 6 years ago) that is still visible today. The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf coast campus is located in the town of Gulfport, MS and has a beautiful ocean front location. Unfortunately, this area was heavily hit by the hurricane and much damage remains. This building is typical and is now only a shell.

Here, you can clearly see the broken windows that were shattered by the huge storm surge. While you cannot enter any of these buildings for safety reasons, you can see the severe damage inside in this video. This damage is typical of most of the original buildings on campus and much rebuilding remains to be done.

Driving around the area revealed many foundations-- with no house, such as this one. We were told that rebuilding is very slow due to property insurance problem. We wondered how long this will take and when this beautiful area will fully recover.

We left Gulfport and headed up to Vicksburg, MS. We had heard that the Mississippi River was in heavy flood stage, but after calling the Ameristar RV Park were assured they were open for business. While the RV Park was in great shape, closer to the river found heavy flooding.

This building is the original Yazoo and Mississippi Valley Railroad station -- now underwater. We have visited this area before and would estimate that the river is a good 40' above where we saw it before.

The depot was not the only building under water! This large hotel/casino is usually well away from the river. Now, it is closed as the river literally runs through it.

This closeup of the casino shows how much of the building is in the water. We were told that over 2 million cubic feet of water per second is running through the river now!

We can't imagine how much damage this flood will cause or how long it will take before the water finally recedes. We certainly wish the folks who live in this area the very best for the future.