Waveland: hurricane Katrina Damage Photos

[vacanechaser]

Wanted to let everyone here know that i finally have the Waveland trip in October finished and online... After shooting over 300 photos on that trip it took alot of time to post process and re-work photos that didn't get my seal of approval after seeing them on other monitors and so on, I am about ready to throw the camera and computers out the window... lol..


Anyway, here is the link to the first page of the Katrina aftermath in Waveland.. First page will load fairly quickley, however, page 2 has the most photos- near 65 of them to load.. So it will take time to down load them all but i think it is well worth the time to see the destruction they are still dealing with... hope all enjoy...

http://www.vastormphoto.com/afterkatrinapg1.htm

Jesse v. Bass III
http://www.vastormphoto.com
Hurricane Intercept Research Team

[x-y-no]

Amazing photos, and great work putting them together into a presentation!

[JtSmarts]

No words can really describe the devastation in those pics.

[KatDaddy]

Amazing photos indeed!

[P.K.]

No wonder Mike was so shocked after his trip to Waveland.

[Blown Away]

I don't think stilt homes would have made much difference along the coast. I was amazed how the foundations left in Waveland had very little elevation from surrounding grade. Hopefully the building codes will require some elevation. Very sad and unreal photo's.

[Anonymous]

Now that, is catastrophic damage.

[f5]

how high does the surge have to be to wipe an entire towns off the face of the earth?HRD suggest downgrading Katrina to a marginal CAT 3 with this strom the SS scale doesn't mean anything beacuse is based only on wind speed and this proves that surge can do more damage than what an Andrew type storm(mostly wind) can do

[southerngale]

Incredible photos.

[vbhoutex]

Those photos come the closest I've seen to really showing the true devastation that I know has occurred. I say that because like several who went through Katrina and/or Camille have said, pictures normally do not do justice to what you see up close and personal with it. Many of those pictures are deja-vu for me from Camille. No I am not comparing the two, just it is the same type of total destruction I saw after Camille. Very good job with the pics!!!!

[wxmann_91]

Thanks for sharing the photos Jesse. Completely amazing pics.

[johngaltfla]

I work with a friend who just came back to see his dad in Waveland over Thanksgiving. His church group stopped just west of Mobile, in Pascagoula, Biloxi, and Waveland. He said pictures do not do it justice. He said the trees are all black, probably due to the salt water. In Waveland the biggest problem is the lack of law enforcement against the fradulent contractors and the ongoing looting problem. Before his father could get back from the evacuation to his home, the looters had picked it clean of everything.

He then went on down to Metarie where his sister lived. The destruction in the east side of New Orleans looks worse than what was shown on television. Downtown is fine, but there are lots of businesses that want to open up and employ people, but they can't due to a lack of health inspectors to give them the approval.

My friend also said that you couldn't go 1 mile without seeing a 'For Sale' sign in front of what was left of people's homes. His father got the notice on Wednesday that the grace period his bank gave him on making payments on what was left of his home was over and that he had to make 3 months payments on December 1st. His response? Come and take it. There's no floor, no ceiling, no sheetrock, no siding and a high watermark line along the studs (it surged up to 6 feet and he's on the north side of the railroad tracks) which are quite visible now. The banks are in a lot of trouble because alot of these retirees are living week to week on their pension and government checks and don't have the deductible for their insurance to put down to pay for the repairs to their homes.

This is a very, very sad situation. And I fear that this region has been forgotten by America and the suffering will continue for many years to come.

[vacanechaser]

Thanx alot guys... I tried my best to try and capture what we were seeing there.. The destruction is so total and complete everywhere you looked, it was hard to catch that perfect shot... We herd some of those stories you were talking about with the banks and the like... Really is sad... Yes the trees are all brown and from the salt water and salt air... With the water coming up that high, it didnt leave much.. Every structure south of the railroad tracks as you saw was destroyed... north of there a different stroy...


Thanx again

Jesse V. Bass III
http://www.vastormphoto.com
Hurricane Intercept Research Team

[brunota2003]

That is sad, kinda wish you guys had been able to find the storm cases, but evidently Katrina didnt want to expose her information to us, maybe next year though...

[MWatkins]

Growing up, I must have seen 5000 pictures of the Grand Canyon and countless movies featuring it on the large screen, but I have never seen one image or movie that captured what the Grand Canyon is really like.

To suggest that these photos don't capture what happened in Waveland is not a fair comparison. It's like comparing a VHS movie presentation on a tiny TV to the same movie on an Omnimax screen.

These images, and I think Jesse had about 300 more pictures, do as good a job as you can possibly at capturing the horrible reality of life after Katrina in Waveland.

And you know, I've told 20 or so people about that trip, and they all ask the same question...where's Waveland?

Og course, most people watch TV or read newspapers, and the mainstream media could care less about what is going on down there. But the reality is, unfortunately, the media provides information most people want. Most people care about what Hollywood actor is dating whoever by orders of magnitudue more than what real people experience in real life. Why do you think Katrina specials air after midnight on relatively obscure cable channels while the 3 major networks run some stupid entertainment "news" show when everyone gets home from work?

So I guess all anyone reading this board can do is use images like Jesse's here to remind people of what has really happened. I suppose if we all tell 20 people, we can continue to keep the story going.

MW

[brunota2003]

another sad part is the fact that they talked about NO for like two weeks, then just completely dropped it, like it was no big deal... There wasnt even one word mentioned about Waveland other than the damage is bad, please... You know what, why dont we stop ONLY talking about NO, and try to talk about the littler towns, hey Mike, I know where Waveland was arent you proud of me??? lol, if a Cat 3-4 were to hit here in eastern NC, I bet everyone will talk about the damage in New Bern or Morehead City, but will they talk about Havelock??? Probably not, the only way we would get into the news is if during the hurricane a nuclear bomb went off, and even then we still would probably be in there for about ~1 min... "1,000 people died today during hurricane blah after a nuclear bomb went off, leveling MCAS Cherry Point, the largest Marine Corps Air Station in the world, and Havelock, NC, ok, moving on, the damage in New Bern..." its just the way the media is, must focus on the super negative things happening in citys, and not in the more rural areas, same thing is happening in Iraq, I dare you to fine me just one time CNN has mentioned the positive aspects of the war in Iraq...Thats right you cant find any, point made...

[Jim Cantore]

Thats beyond catastrphic

[MGC]

Yep, minimal Cat-3 if that according to HRD. I see the devastation every day and I am still in awe......MGC

[MWatkins]

Yep, minimal Cat-3 if that according to HRD. I see the devastation every day and I am still in awe......MGC

To give you an idea...here in SFL things have really gotten back to normal...most of the destroyed street signs have been replaced...the power and cable grids are back and there are all-new traffic lights everywhere. There are still pockets of damage...and they are visible...and there are people who are still out of their homes...but it is nothing near what MS is like...nothing. That's the difference between a strong 1 and a moderate 3...

MW

[Brent]

Amazing pictures.



Proof that the surge does not come down because a storm weakens(I hate to use that word in Katrina's case).