Camping Out - D'Iberville (North Biloxi) Mississippi

September 10, 2005 ~ Camping Out ~ D'Iberville (North Biloxi), Mississippi

Photos copyright Tim & Lori Seaborg 09/10/2005

We found many families in D'Iberville camping out in their yards.  We were a little surprised by that, as we thought that everyone was in a shelter or living in their damaged homes. 

The man in the center photo was sleeping, along with his grown brother and elderly parents, in the storage shed in their back yard.  They grilled under the white tent. A makeshift shower was created with a garden hose and privacy created by pieces of lumber. 

In the left photo, you'll see a tent.  Many families slept in tents, but some were not fortunate enough to have even that, so they slept under a tarp attached to their house, as you can see in the right photo.

These homes all flooded from 5-8', but none were in a flood zone, and it had never flooded there before.

We asked them why they didn't go to the shelters.  There are many shelters available, including one on the Carnival cruise ship in Mobile Bay.  They said, "Well, how would we get there?"  Their cars, most of them, had flooded, too, and weren't working. 

One person said, "They've told us to go to Florida, to shelters there, but why would we want to go to Florida? Our jobs are here, we need to be here."  It's just not that easy to uproot somebody, as generous as we'd all like to be to them.  They just want their homes back.

The people in the left and right photos are likely not living on their land anymore, since it was government land, or "the projects," as we call it.  Mississippi came and told them, on a Friday night, that they must be out of the area by Sunday at 5pm, or they'd be arrested and fined.  We met the people on the Saturday between the announcement and the eviction.

The people were the poorest sort, and had no place to go, and no way to get there.  We heard the same story from house to house, all through those projects.  They looked lost.  Many were teary.  One woman pleaded with us to go speak to the mayor.  One man said, "They told me to go to the projects in the next county, but there's drugs there, and crime.  I have a middle school aged daughter.  We're going to be sleeping on the streets of Biloxi tomorrow night, because there is no way I'm taking her over there."  Another man (the one in the striped shirt in the left photo) said, "My daughter moved to Colorado, my wife died two years ago, and now this is happening.  All I have left is my drinking.  I know that's not a good thing, but sometimes it makes things easier."

Their local mayor, Rusty Quaid, had come in on the second day after Hurricane Katrina hit, and gave them all a bag of ice and a water jug, with a promise that he'd be back soon with trailers for living.  He said he'd also bring mattresses.

On the Saturday we visited, almost 2 weeks after the storm, the mayor had not come through with his promises of mattresses or trailers.  We had quite a few questions for that mayor, the most pressing being, "Why aren't you providing transportation to shelters for these people?" but it was a Saturday evening and Mississippi wisely chose Sunday for the eviction. 

You can't argue with city hall on a weekend.

8:57 PM - Sep. 19, 2005 - post comment