On this edition of Beyond Katrina, Mississippi's first responders come to the aid of a coast swept away.

Agribusiness takes it on the chin in the wake of the storm.

City leaders, planners an developers map out a new course.

Coastal cities take their first steps toward recovery.

It's raining cats and dogs who need good homes.

Residents tell the Katrina story in their own words, and some surprising new hope has sprung.

Hello, I'm John Johnson and welcome to Beyond Katrina.

Many of your favorite shows and MPB have pooled talent and resources to bring you this series.

A look at where we go from here in the wake of one of the nation's worst natural disasters.

Over the coming months, we'll bring you stories from Mississippi Roads, Farm Week conversations, the guest, old gardener, and MPB news, as well as our friends at Wlox News in Biloxi.

Right now, let's take a look back at the heroes, the first responders from Mississippi who were on the scene at a moment's notice.

Mississippi Outdoors brings us the story of those who came to the rescue before anyone else.

I wish you, my man, would have reached down and wipe down tears away.

Step down.

Save.

Once again I say amen.

But it's still raining.

There's a thunder roll.

I barely hear you whisper through the rain.

I'm with you.

And your mercy for I raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away.

Now praise you in the storm.

And I will lift my hands.

But you are who you are.

This is Hurricane Katrin as it came ashore in Gulfport, Mississippi, east of New Orleans, 145 miles an hour.

A storm surge as high as 30ft.

When the coastal highway went under, the camera team retreated to the Holiday Inn across the street.

The motel shudders as waves roar into the lobby.

And guests flee for their live from a building peeling apart.

This car came sailing through the front door of the motel.

Big, big wave midway Plaza stolen from.

Ultimately, the floodwaters reached the second story of the building.

This is what a monster category four hurricane is all about.

Once a week.

We've been flying these hurricane stories for ten years now.

We've covered them in Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.

And they do not compare to to what we've seen today.

It's just absolutely, beyond description.

It's, everything was destroyed.

There's a.

Homes, businesses.

We're looking at a lot of freight, vehicles from the port of Gulfport there that were stacked in the port area.

And they've been washed all through the downtown area of Gulfport.

At firs we thought they were railcars, but it appears that there's where the 18 Wheeler containers washed out of the port of Gulfport.

That's just it's beyond words.

I this is just unbelievable.

The first week and a half to two weeks, we were seen in groups of 50 officers when we first got there.

Everybody was kind of up road and nobody knew where to go.

And we were focusing on, rescue missions, trying to find people that were hurt and we needed to get them out.

We did that in Waveland.

We did that in Pakistan.

And, other areas between there.

And after that was complete, we were assigned a mission to work with Biloxi PD along highway 90 to secure and keep looters off of it.

Traffic was just part of will.

I view a strategic point spread all along highway 90?

We've got to shut the fuck up.

Nobody comes in here unless they've got an address here.

Look at their driver's license, because their main function was to make sure people' property was not being looted.

They didn't have a lot left to start with, and we didn't want to see people.

What little bit they di have little people walking off.

That was their main mission during that week.

Now, look, we've got a long, hard way to go.

These people down here have been devastated, as you see.

This is terrible.

This just like this all the way down.

But at its worst I've ever seen these people devastated.

We're here to give us a real.

What w decided to do is best to go out and go to each and every one of the barrier islands and islands that are inside the coastal waters of Mississippi, and look for any survivors or make any recovery that we possibly can.

We're also looking at th the impact that the storm made on the wildlife on the structures on the island.

You know, anything that we can find to sho the impact that the storm made.

We want to make sure everybody's okay and everybody's accounted for.

The islands have taken a major hit.

We've noticed a lot of changes in the land structure.

The trees, a lot of trees are down.

We've lost a lot of vegetation.

We also notice on the islands, on the barrier islands, Horn Island and Chip Island, that that a lot of the freshwater that wildlife was used to go into wasn't there.

So it's making a lot of them sick.

Besides that, everything's been clear and looks okay.

You know, we've been very fortunate.

We got to work with the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps.

They worked real close with us, helping us move our equipment around, helping us secure more ease and wate to get to people that needed it.

They had a hovercraft that was they brought up on the beach.

We were able to load our equipment on it.

They took us out where we needed to go and assisted u with everything we needed to do.

They were a real asset to this mission.

We're at the, go show City Park boat ramp.

It's just off of Mary Walker by the Marina.

We're doing search and recovery work in the marsh area here.

We got the airboat, which, gives us a little up to, you know, a better, more thorough search because, all we need is six inches of water.

Is there a boat?

And, we can control all the marsh areas where a normal boat just can't reach.

The shrimp boats.

Before the storm, they went up into the intercoastal canal to get out of the way of the.

They went in, got between the bridges.

Once they got between the bridges, power was lost.

They couldn't get out, so they were pretty much stranded on their boats.

They lost some of their boats.

Water got real high during the storm back in that canal.

We had some officers out patrolling, and they saw all these boats up in there.

So we made arrangements with the Navy to get em all rise in water.

We set up 15 boats.

One more today.

Up.

It's going to be a joint operation with the beach masters as well as wildlife, fisheries and parks folks from Mississippi and Alabama.

First of all we also have medical personnel.

Medical personnel going to be up front.

We've got two of them You got a nurse and a corpsman.

I'd be up there taking a look at things and assessing the medical conditions.

These folks have been up there.

Theoretically.

Now the Intel is tough.

I've been without food for a couple days for their food ran out today.

The water is okay.

Passes.

This is why we're here.

Rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah rah!

Go get em, guys.

You say I don't know.

Tell me, is missy that are here to save us?

I'm not gonna stand near the waves.

Hold on to the waves.

The Eagles watches on the line way.

No, no sound so way.

Oh, Lord, save us.

Us.

Raptors a storm.

Yes, sir.

We've been here since storm.

What's it been like?

You tear out the people's mouth and tear of all these boats.

It's crashed.

They can feel out all day and all night.

It was.

It was really a heartwarming experience to be able to go in there and know you're helping.

These people know.

That's what I've seen there since sister started, after they really reached out and busted their butts.

You can try to heal people an that's what's kept them going.

I'll vote on.

You know, we've had a lot of help from California, New York.

I could probably name quicker more states that were not here.

May have been.

Whoever came in, they say they had a hero to save us.

I'm not gonna stand here away and, hold on to the wings of the eagles.

Watches me go fly away where I.

Know that our officers, they went in and they left their families, some of them without electricity.

Words just can't explain how hard they worked and, how they were tryin to push themselves to make sure that they could help somebody, especially the first day.

All they can say is there's people that need help.

We need to get in there and help them.

That's been their sentiment all the way through this.

I think we got the best group of employees in the world for from what I've heard.

And they say that a hero can save us.

I'm not gonna stand here.

Wait.

Hold on to the wings.

The eagles watch is no fly away.

They.

When they're watching us.

Watching.

They're watching us fly away.

And they're watching us watch.

They're watching us.

Watch as well.

Fly away.

Yeah I mean, they're watching us.

Watching.

They're watching us.

Watch as well.

Fly away.

Yeah.

Hey.

Oh!

Damage in Mississippi is estimated at over $125 billion.

More than 65,000 homes were completely destroyed.

44,000,000yd of debris once littered the southern part of our state, and much of it still remains.

It will take months, even years for many communities to get back to normal.

But one city is already taking the first steps.

A handful of business owners are helping pas Christiane get back on its feet.

They've opened up temporary offices in a city park.

Reporter Bra Kasey shows us another example of the rebuilding efforts in a community that was hammered by the hurricane.

Hey.

How are you doing?

A small trailer has sort of become the epicenter of Pass Christian at lunch.

I love it.

Business is good.

I love it.

Double cheeseburger.

Two weeks ago, Pirate's Cove started serving its po'boys again.

And just like that, customers lined up to place a takeout order.

Try to help our community.

You know, give me, two hamburgers.

They're so happy for us to be back, you know?

So it's very important.

And it's not just Pirates Cove employees who are saying that a couple of banks and insurance agent and a quick stop have all turned what used to be War Memorial Park in the past, Kristin's temporary downtown shopping district.

And they've all provided hope for some hurricane weary residents.

Well, I jumped back up.

It helps to hold out better, you know, with fighting with FEMA and the insurance companies and everything, just a little bit of what's normal is is nice again.

38 Hurricane Katrina wiped out the highway 90 restaurant.

All the family had was a framed piece of a pirate's cove wall until it reopened a temporary kitchen in past Christian's temporary business park.

It's it's great to be back in business, but this is.

This is our life.

So we'll be back.

We'll do that.

In pass.

Christian Brad Kelsey, Wlox news.

In the wake of Katrina, a the initial search and recovery continued, residents began to think toward the future.

Dynamic planning becam the next step toward recovery, a three step process that kicked off with over 50 public forum and 33 counties of Mississippi.

Thousands of residents and stakeholders shared their vision for the future of the state.

That's when the second phase of planning began.

The Mississippi Renewal Forum in Biloxi, one of the largest charades ever held.

If you aren't familiar with the term charrette, you're not alone.

Ever since Hurricane Katrina, we are hearing and fearing what might grow out of the rubble that was left behind by the storm.

Residents of South Mississippi, and especially the coast, can take heart in knowin that the process of rebuilding will take into consideration and involvement.

All who call the Mississippi Gulf Coast home a charrette is an architectural term.

It was actually a name for a French name, for a car that would collect architectural drawings that would be turned in to the professor about a certain time of day, and it's famous around the world as an architectural planning technique.

Today, the term charrette refer to a creative process or event consisting of visual brainstorming used by design professionals to develop solutions to a design problem within a limited time frame.

You may have heard the term a lot lately, but you may not know just exactly what it is or how it will help rebuild our beloved coast.

A charrette is an intensiv planning session where citizens, designers and others collaborate on a vision for development.

It provides a forum for idea and offers the unique advantage of giving immediate feedback to the designers.

More importantly, it allows everyone who participates to be a mutual author of the plan.

The charrette is located near the project site.

Formal and informal meeting are held throughout the event, and updates to the plan are presented periodically.

Once the design team completes a kickoff meeting and site tours, a public hands on workshop is conducted for the purposes of creating a clear understandin on the part of all participants about the purpose and process of the charrette, and to solicit the public's project vision.

The design team creates a series of alternative plans based on all information gathered, including the public vision, and then solici input at another public meeting.

This input is used to refine the alternatives and create more detailed plans that are again reviewed and critiqued b the public during an open house.

The design team furthe refines and narrows the feedback into a final plan and set of implementation documents to be presented for public confirmation.

It is important to not that the project is not complete when the charrette is document refinement, and further feedback occurs through stakeholder discussions and a follow up meeting.

This allows everyone to check in on the Refine charrette plan and to allow for one final feedback loop.

Very specifi plans, recommendations, ideas, how to account for them.

How to fund them, who' accountable, who's responsible and how to get it done that are going to be, we think, different than any previous plans of this nature is probably the largest most intensive planning effort, certainly urban planning effort ever attempted in the in the United States, if not, the world.

On October 12th through the 17th, the first brainstorming sessions got underway at the heavily damaged Isle of Capri Hotel.

It was an intensive collaboration between local officials, community leaders and community planners, each bringing their own knowledge and specialties from around Mississippi and the country.

As many as 300 people arrived to help aid in the process of the Gulf Coast future.

All right, let's load it up, guys.

I found it down that way and turned down the planners, split into team and fanned out across 11 towns to get a ground level view of the devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina.

They met with local officials and residents to get their opinions of what improvements could be made for each community.

This gave each planning team firsthand information of each town's unique culture and background, the concern about the condo owners or the developers coming in and changing the character.

What this place looks.

Through.

The planners returned to the hotel and worked with other groups o possible scenarios and design.

One layer of just parking, one layer of streets, right, is what you see on eight issues where the main focus of this discussion, including building codes, transportation and traffic, zoning codes, affordabl housing, sewage and wastewater, solid waste development zones, an restoration of natural systems.

This process behind th charrette is familiar to many on the design teams, who often use such collaborative meetings to achieve community consensus and complex planning efforts.

Then in December, the Governor's Commission on Recovery, Rebuilding and Renewal produced their report with suggestions not mandates, about how cities, counties and private citizens can help shap the look and feel of the region.

Later in the program, we'll take a closer look at the report that was generated from the results of the forums and charrette held on the coast in the closing weeks of 2005.

As we continue to produce episodes of Beyond Katrina, we will be updating our website to include much of the information featured in this series.

Now you can check us out in EPB online.org.

Well, since 2003, StoryCorp has been recording oral history interviews with everyday Americans across the country for National Public Radio.

The project celebrates our shared humanity and collective identity.

It captures and define the stories that bond us, such like those that resulted from Hurricane Katrina.

Mississippians turned out in Gulfport last month to share their experiences.

Scott Phillips of MPB news has the story.

It's been said that everyone has a story to tell, and given the fact the Gulf Coast region just experienced a once in a lifetime disaster.

StoryCorps figure there was more than a few people willing to share their experiences.

Matt Ozark helped coordinate the interviews out of their 30ft trailer recording studio.

We definitely allow people to talk about whatever is most important to them, and we encourage them to to look at the 40 minutes as their chance to record the most important stories of that person's life.

But StoryCorps doesn't conduct the interviews.

Family and friends interview each other.

Red cross workers Shanda Yankee and Kathryn Christman helped in the storm relief effort and wanted to share their story.

It was a great experience.

Basically, they set up.

They set us at a tabl as if we were at a coffee shop having lunch together.

And, they had microphones set up that recorded what we were saying.

More or less, it was just a discussion between the two of us about what happened before, during and after the storm.

And then our interview prompte would interject a few questions every now and then.

Ozark says it's important to record stories like these for posterity.

I can't even imagine what it would be like to be the great great grandchild of someone who came into a StoryCorps booth and did an interview, and to be able to go to the Library of Congres and in 100 years and hear that here, they're about their life in their own voice.

I just think it'd be you can't put a price tag on that.

And finding the next priceles story is what keeps StoryCorps rolling.

For NPR news, I'm Scott Phillips.

Normally, the Humane Society of South Mississippi receive roughly 80 puppies each month.

Since the storm, with fences knocked down and animals freely roaming, the Humane Society is getting about 250 dogs a month.

This is a huge problem that animal advocate say you can help to alleviate.

As Keith Nelson explains, he's.

Gone.

I went to Nebraska, dad, Collie Nige, and came to South Mississippi during her Christmas vacation to do some volunteer work for Hands on USA.

She had no idea she would get her hands on Biloxi.

We've already named him Lexie.

His first name is Bill and his middle name is Lexie.

So he'll be Biloxi.

Najin has been here for one week.

Sunday, she will return home to Lincoln, Nebraska with something extra in the back of her caravan.

We live on Abby Acres.

We have two dogs and two cats and 20 chickens.

And so one more little guy.

He'll fit right in.

Biloxi was lucky, but the South Mississipp Humane Society currently houses hundreds of animal that are begging to find a home.

The sad truth is, when kennels aren't abl to take care of these animals.

They're put to sleep.

Tara High, the executiv director of the Humane Society, says she does not welcome that option.

It's got to be something that our entire community embraces and says that it's no longe acceptable to kill, to control.

There's a better way.

One way is to get your animal spayed or neutered through the generosity of PetSmart and other organizations.

The Humane Society has received grants to help nip this problem in the bud.

They are offering free neutering to pet owners.

We know that everybody has ha their own issues to deal with, and we're trying to extend a helping hand for thos who have pets who care for them.

But just can't afford it now.

This is a simple solution that high hopes many South Mississippians will take advantage of.

In Gulfport, Keith Nelson, Wlox news.

The Humane Society of South Mississippi needs the public support.

Here is a list of some of the things you can provide.

Shredded paper and newspapers.

Puppy and kitten formula.

Carpet remnants and blankets.

Dog and cat treats.

Two bones.

Potty pads.

Medium and large airline crates.

Chain link fencing.

Volunteers to help out an as always, monetary donations.

Gas cards for vehicles used to transport animals.

You can donate through the website and w w w h, Smau or at any Hancock Bank location.

Well, there is no way ou to have an acute sense of loss when visiting formerly familiar coastal destinations after Katrina.

Houses gone.

Favorite shops gone.

Landmarks gone.

Whole street's gone on grace and is here to tell us abou what one popular town has done.

To reinstitute one of the most popular activities.

What's going on in Bay Saint Louis?

John, I tell you, the whole coast is sort of like seeing the ruins of Windsor.

Moved into the 21st century and multiplied like a billion times.

It's just phenomenal.

And I've always had the sense of loss at Windsor, and I just can't wrap words around what happened on the coast.

But to Bay Saint Louis one of the favorite activities that me and my wife went to down there was their second Saturday Artwalk.

And this is something tha they've re instituted already.

It's not so much building a building back into place, but building an activity back into place, which I think it's just as important.

Take a look.

Well this is the way it's going to be for a while on the coast for any who wer familiar with it before Katrina.

Seeing it now and remembering it the way it used to be.

I'm that way, particularly about Bay Saint Louis.

And that's not to take away anything from any other coastal town or city, but I just happen to have discovered Bay Saint Louis on one of the most spellbinding days on whic it could have been discovered, one of its second Saturday art walks.

First time I'd ever been there.

Just happened to drive in that day.

Second, Saturdays were days when the shops emptied out onto the sidewalks and the streets filled up with people.

And during the warm months live bands set up here or there.

So there was music everywhere.

Now, do you remember when we met?

That's the way I knew you were my favorite.

Now, maybe to the people who live there.

Bay.

Saint Louis was just the place where they lived.

But me and my wife had had a dream like charm to it.

I realize a great deal of that may have been because the town's about a thre hour drive from where we live.

And you don't travel that far to end up in a plac just like where you left from.

So maybe we were prime to be expecting something else.

Maybe we have imposed a little more enchantment on the town than was really there, but I don't think so.

The old town residential streets were lined with seaside cottages, and the town wa a pearl straight from the sea.

As far as we were concerned.

But there was something else t be Saint Louis before Katrina.

A spirit, an energy.

It's not one of those things.

The Chamber of Commerce can sit down and propose to implement and pass in a meeting an enacted being.

It just happens at some places, unexplainable and spontaneously.

And it was happening at bay.

Saint Louis.

Artisan artisans were gathering.

People were discovering them and coming there to collect their works, coming there to be with other peopl who were there just to be there.

A stranger could fee they were a part of something.

On the second Saturday art walks, when the town went outdoors and everybody came.

Katrin hit the last weekend of August.

By the second Saturday of September, roads were clear enough to ge to the coast in Bay Saint Louis, but there was not enough left of the downtown section for an art walk anymore.

Beach Boulevard was no more.

The street had been ripped apart by the churning wall of water that accompanied Katrina.

The same wall of water that smashed the buildings and mangled the town.

The quaint shops were gutted.

An old town was covered with mud and sand.

Cars were swept into piles and when we first revisited our little town, I simply couldn't get my senses to wrap around what I was seeing.

I still haven't found the proper words to express the loss that is the coast.

Who could have though anything like this could happen?

Such massive and complete destruction.

The old days were suddenly irretrievably gone.

As if someone had died.

And it doesn't take an engineer to mentally calculate how long it will take to rebuild, and again, to even remotel approach the way it used to be.

Who sang the old song?

Those were the days.

All I could think of her name in a minute if I tried.

But never mind.

The fact that I've forgotten.

Just stands to what I'm trying to say.

The song says we thought those days would never end.

And not only did they end, but they ended suddenly and out of nowhere.

And now I can't even remember who it was who sang and warned us that these things can happen.

Well, all is gone except the spirit of those old days.

Whatever it was that drew people to Bay Saint Louis on second Saturdays to begin with was quenched only that one month of September.

By the second Saturda of October, the second Saturday Artwalk was on again, and by Saint Louis they only missed one month.

Someone emailed me the still shot of that first Artwalk after Katrina.

That October gatherin was mostly outdoors and vastly abbreviated from what had been before.

But the important thing was this was after.

And yet second Saturday still came around, like the who's waking up afte the Grinch had stolen Christmas.

And yet it was still Christmas.

Now I realized that second Saturday Artwalk is a small and trivial thing, compared to the vast tracts of ruins that were where people lived and worked and had life.

But it's a step not back in time, but forward.

Forward toward putting things back to where we want them to be.

A baby step into the future of trying to make some things like they ought to be.

Once again.

Most Mississippians have heard by now that a special commission was formed by Governor Haley Barbour to make recommendations on how we, as a state, should go about restoring our devastated coast.

The report presented to the governor last month represent the work of over 500 volunteers, 20 different committees and field staffs working with communities at the local level.

They spent over 50,000 man hours honing the information down into a plan for recovery, rebuilding and renewal.

Joining our own Jeanne Edwards to talk about what's in the report is the commission chairman, Jim Barksdale.

Thank you for coming to spend some time to talk about.

I spent a lot of time with this until 11:00 or midnight or so last night, but not near so many hours is the, what, 50,000 man hours that went into putting this together?

Well, we thanks 50,000 hours.

Well, what is the big idea of all of it?

What is the central idea of all of the central idea of the report?

And the recommendations are that if these recommendations are worth doing, which we of course believe they are, that the local communities, through their leadership, mayors, aldermen, councilman, supervisors have to get behind them if they will get behind them and use the political will and the efforts of the local citizens.

They can make a big difference.

If they don't get behind them.

We'll have no more than we had after Camille.

Yeah, or after Galvesto or any of the other big storms.

All of the have these reports afterwards.

Very few of the actually have made a difference.

Well, how then do you get Biloxi to agree with Gulfport to agre with Go Schade, who agree with the lost community of the Iberville where they feel ignored and left out?

Well, w don't have to get them to agree.

Yeah, we try to be sensitive.

In fact, the governor told me when he appointed me that she said, one advantage you have is you're not from the coast, so you're not caught up in the town to town or county to county politics, which proved to be an advantage.

We stayed out of politics pretty much throughout this whole thing and considered it nonproductive.

These 11 communities that we have developed plan specific plans for, we assume that they will do them individually.

They all have very differen characters, needs and desires, and a lot of local pride and why they're different from all the rest.

In some areas you do.

They do have to get along.

Like for instance, the now famous Biloxi to, to Ocean Springs, bridge.

Obviously, it can't take off from Biloxi with six lanes and wound up with an ocean springs with four lanes, unless somebody is going to have a big wreck.

So we're trying to get those kind of things.

But then the other thing we have recommended are these regional commissions that work on land, land use planning and sewage and water and purchasing those they can work together.

We believe, and they have indicated, their willingness to do so.

We have not had much pushback on that.

And there's a great economy in that, too.

A huge you can make a lot better, more efficient purchase if you combine your buying power than if every town does it individually.

I think one of the confusions that exists out ther about your report is that it's that the charrette that went on that was so visible that everybody saw with all the architects, was it?

Yeah But that wasn't it.

That wasn't.

No.

In fact, that concerned me at first.

In other words we came out with this big thing that got a lot of attention, and then we got to work.

A lot of people thought it was the big thing.

That was the governor's commission.

That was only one effort by one of the 20 committees.

That was in the land use group.

But it was a wonderful effort, by the way, and it attracted a lot of attention.

That was good.

It got us off the groun running, and people noticed it.

And now, though, I thin we've got the final report out.

They'll catch on that that was one piece of the whole thing.

We tried to make that point in the report.

And now as you go through the report, you see the new recommendations are very, very specific and in many cases very minute about.

Right.

Education needs and about environmental needs and on and on and on.

Well, we spent a lot of time talking about that, that we didn't want the peopl to think that the whole effort was just how you come up with new community designs or many other things, and rebuild in these areas beside streets and housing.

And, I think we've made that point in the report.

It was an issu of some contention early that, there were some people thought, well, that's all you had to do, but that's only a, a piece of it.

It's a big piece.

What's a smart code?

Smart code is the name for a zoning code effort that, was developed by this Congress of New Urbanism specifically.

But Andres Duany, who is one of the leaders and founders of that effort going back 20, 30 years, and Andrés and his team had come up with a way to do much better land use planning and zoning in a community than had been done before, through new graphical ways of how you transition from purely urban to high density.

I mean purely suburban or rural to high density urban areas.

Jim, there are a lot of people out there who are concerned that they're going to be zoned out of life on the coast, or that they're not going to be able to afford to rebuil and recreate a life down there.

What's being done here or what's here to help?

Well, allay their fears, if nothing else.

Probably the best section of the book, in my opinion, on the report, the most specific, with the most thoughtful ideas is the whole area of affordable housing.

We started on this.

I said, look, the rich folks are going to take care of themselves.

We got to come up with a way to take care of the working people down here, and people who had fewer means, who have lost their homes or their rental where they were renting a place.

And there's a lot of work that's gone into this.

And there are many, many ways for mitigation payments to offset the cost of rebuilding.

What will happen is that people, in lower income areas will be able to affor because of offsets and grants, a better house, a much better house than probably they lived in before, because it'll be modern and new code.

At a price about what they were paying before and on a per month basis.

In many cases, what might have been a rental payment can now actually be a lease or purchase payment.

So it'll be financially their benefit.

But we talk a lo about in the report about that.

I do think there are going to be some areas, where it's going to be harder to redevelop just because of the FEMA restrictions.

And the way the land works down there, these are there some areas down there that floo almost every other year or so, whether there's a hurricane or not, but just anythin moving out in the Gulf causes, you know, tropical depressions that come up and flood some of the lowest areas.

That's going to be difficult.

But there is a there is a federal, flood mitigation program that pays the for the value of their houses.

And in that case, they may have to move perhaps not very far, but they may want to move to an area of higher ground, into a better home for the same money.

That's one of the more difficult parts of the whole study.

It's a huge problem in New Orleans.

Obviously, on the Gulf Coast, it's not as big a problem, but not nearly as many homes impacted.

But it's a serious issue, and we've tried to address it every way we can.

The fact is, the water got up 30ft and they're just in place that are difficult to to rebuild exactly like it was before and just and it may not be safe to ever rebuild there again.

Well, it's not safe and they're not going to get a mortgage.

They're not going to be able to buy insurance.

So what we'v tried to do is understand that and then find ways to get better housing nearby, higher ground that is affordable.

And we've spent a lot of time on that.

And that's an important case to make.

You know, we're five months out and when you go down ther today, that's something people in Tupelo, Montana, other things places don't understand.

It's a lot of it still look the way it did five months ago.

Trying to need some tremendous progress.

But most of the rest o the world just has no idea how.

Well, I've course lived with it now for so many days and so long since the storm came working with the commission.

And but even the you don't become hardened to the to the visual image along the coast of particular to the western end of the coast.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just it's awful.

We still have so much debri left to be picked up and moved.

Another issue you've got an and the reclamation of the land is all a lot of this, are marshy areas, you know, south of, ten.

So you have the Corps of Engineers and, and, Environmental Agency looking at it.

And it's not just as easy as, say, rolling out here on some big, high, flat piece of land and calling it a developer, and where you already got sewer and water and having them rebuilt.

Those are tough issues.

We talk a lot about those issues in the report, and you talked too early on about the fact that we have a clean slate to work with.

But the fact is there are hard choices that have to be.

And the slate is not quite clean yet.

A lot of that debris still needs to be picked off that slate.

Out in the Gulf, you've got huge amounts of debris that have to be removed.

It is a clean slate, though, and I hope that people will take the report in the spiri in which it was intended, that we're not telling anybody what they have to do or or where they got to live or anything like that.

We're making suggestions, offers and recommendations and help, but it's really up to them what they want to do.

And, but it's most important, an I say this in the introduction, that we have to build back safe and better than we did before, because there is going to be another storm.

Already, the Colorado Storm Prediction Center says next year's hurricanes are going to be worse than this year.

I don't know if it's next yea or ten years, but, you know, in most people's lifetime there's going to be another one.

Will it be as big and bad as Katrina?

Let's hope not.

But let's be smart between no and then and how we build back.

You've had, 4 or 5 months of your life invested in this and three and a half.

Three.

How has this changed you?

What's this?

I really learned a lot of things about sewer and things like that.

That I never knew anything you ever imagined, you know, but it's been.

I'll tell you, it's been quite interesting and very, much of an epiphany.

I have never seen people work so hard without being paid on an issu that meant so much to everybody.

It goes back to that old point that I made in intro about No man is an Island.

I also saw local officials, mayors, councilman, aldermen that, and supervisors who spent countless hours giving us their very best thoughts and dreams working on all that while during the daytime there handling all the myriad of people who are coming to them, besieging them with requests, and they themselves had ha perhaps the loss of their home.

I think half the mayors lost their homes.

They had their own family disrupted, moved away, maybe, but they hung in there and you never heard anybody complain.

And it just it was quite rewardin to watch that kind of leadership and effort by citizens and by their leaders.

And it's a long time fro being over, and it certainly is.

Jim Barksdale thanks very much.

Thanks, Jean.

The commission's report has several hundred recommendations for cities from Pascagoula to Bay Saint Louis, but deciding which recommendations are implemente will be up to local governments and the Mississippi legislature.

Stat lawmakers are still mulling over the suggestions and do expect to take action in this legislative session on some of them.

NPR's Scott Phillip spoke with several legislators about the commission's report.

Endorse just about 99% of what the commission recommended on the governor's commission will rebuild and renew.

I thin got a lot of good ideas in it.

I think it needs to be the blueprint that we use for the next 25, 30 years on the coast to get us back, not only get us back to where we were, but be better than what we were prior to the storm.

You feel like the Senate can do anything with our recommendations this year?

Yes.

Or.

I feel like, I've filed a bill to deal with the, code situation, a building code, and, I plan on bringing that out of my committee this year.

Are there any of the recommendations that you feel like will be a challenge?

Oh, yeah.

It's going to be a challenge.

The biggest the biggest challenge we face on the coast is going to be affordable housing.

Why is that?

Well, when it when the standards increas and we build back these homes, okay.

With the new, guideline that they're going to put on us and all, it's going to cost more to build back.

I believe that overall there are good recommendations.

I do have some concerns about some of the housin recommendations and exactly how all that's going to play out especially as it relates to low to moderate income resident and and people who were renters.

One of the things, with Katrina, that that seems to be a place where folks falling through the cracks is, how do we get, and maximize support to people who didn't own property, residential property, who are renters, but who also want to go back to the Gulf Coast?

Do you feel like the Senate will be able to take any action this, this term to, to help the folks on the Gulf Coast?

Well I think that, especially on on some of the economic inducements for business development we'll be able to do some things that will be usefu for the rebuilding of the coast.

I'm also, hopeful that as it relates to water and sewer, treatment facilities, wastewater treatment, that sort of thing, that we'll do some meaningful things.

As far as the housing issue.

I'm just not, quite sure whether there's anything left for us to do, at this level because of what was done, at the federal level for homeowners.

But we certainly need to take a stab at doing something for people who didn't own property.

But.

But who were residents down there and, and, property that someone that's on.

Well, it's going to be a tremendous responsibility because, yo know, the insurance companies, we don't feel held up their end of the bargain.

So we're having to come with federal relief and hopefully something on the state level to make our people maybe not home, but certainly livable.

And, I know you have seen the offers.

No.

But, have you heard anything about some of the recommendations for the individual citizens?

And what do you think about some of the things that they are?

Well, I have one concern and that would be the 51% rule, you know, for damage from the storm.

You know, who would determine 51% and what what is 51%?

Let us remind you that links to the commission report, as well as other information included on this episode of Beyond Katrina, will be available on our website at WW, MPB online.org all in one day.

Hurricane Katrina blew down more than two years worth of annual timber harvest in Mississippi, destroying the life' work of many private landowners.

This was especially true for several large scale tree farming operations south of Hattiesburg.

Farm weeks Brian Utle visited with two Tree farmers of the year who were particularly hit hard by the storm.

Well, this was lobloll pine and it was planted in 1986.

We left it a little thicke than we'd originally intended to for for a couple of reasons.

The main one being the the wind damage possibility of hurricanes or storms coming through.

So we left it a little, little thicker to provid a little more cushion from that.

For Cecil Chambliss, the words spoken in this 1999 television feature on his Tree Farmer of the year honor unknowingly foreshadowed an impending disaster that would take place in 2005, Hurricane Katrina.

Yeah, in six hours, from from 8:00 that morning till about four that afternoon to see you.

So yo you live for work of a lifetime?

Just totally decimated.

It's it's, It's tough.

I was hoping to come out and maybe see some damage on the periphery.

And then as you work your wa toward the center, it wouldn't, you know, it wouldn't be so heavily damaged, but.

But I got out of here and took a look, and every every bit of it's blown over.

Of the 500 acres managed by Cecil Chambliss, 11 consist of thin plantation pine.

It's these thinned areas tha seem most susceptible to damage, offering no protective barrier against the sustained hurricane winds of over 100mph.

Pockets such as this 60 acre tract of lobloll were almost totally destroyed.

Yeah, I'd say in the ballpark of of, 300,000 plus or minus.

Not.

That's not that's counting what's on the ground.

Now, if you look at the future growth, it's lost.

And you, you into the, you know, to the big dollars.

When Katrina went through this 20 year old plantation and then it cause a considerable amount of damage that you can see here, probably in this particular stand here, you're, you're looking at, probably 80% of the trees either, broken off, blown over, or damaged 80 to 90%.

And so that's a significant loss that this landowner has incurred.

Extension.

Forestry Professor Glen Hughes works in southern Forest County and has spent a lot of time documenting the tree damage in his area.

He says the losses for many of these landowners, however, go much further than just dollars and cents.

They put their lives, into this land and to come out and see it, in many cases where it's just, timber laying all over the ground that they planted many years ago and they manage, that is devastating.

I've been back three times to look at it since then, and it takes about a week to settle back down and feel normal agai after coming and looking at it.

It's it's, It's tough.

Not even counting the the economic loss, the the the the mental that goes with it.

It's hard.

While much of the damag to Chambliss property is obvious at first glance, taking a closer look at the trees left standing reveals even more bad news.

A lot of these trees are leaning, and the leaning trees particularly, they're beyond about 30 degrees.

And another year they'll be, They'll be dead, probably.

So the leaning trees are, another big source of damage.

So, so snapped off trees, the ones that are blown over from the root systems and the leaning trees that ar our primary sources of damage.

As with any disaster, there are lessons attached to the losses, such as understanding why certain landscapes contributed to excessive wind damage, and why some tree species fared the storm better than others.

One of those lessons learned is found in the side by side pine plantations located at Cecil Chambliss Tree Farm in Purvis, while his 20 year old loblolly pine acreag was almost totally demolished.

Just across the road, a longleaf pine plantatio of the same age held up rather well under the high winds, with much lighter damage.

Or maybe some some serious thought to given as to what species that will be planted next time around.

We planted the three species out here, in 20 years ago to to do a study to see which would be the better one to have in this area.

And if this storm is any indication, it looks like loblolly may be the be the last the last thing tha I want to plan out here again.

And, we're going to go with longleaf and, with longleaf pine as landowners go forward and are thinking about replanting, they need to, to consider certainly if they live, or have property rather south of Hattiesburg, we get another category four hurricane like Katrina that comes through.

And do you want to, you know, have a risk of a, complete blow down?

I think we've we both been been equally equally hard hit, just been, you know, various situations, some people that their mature timber was devastated and others that was the plantation pine.

But, you know, across the board, it's been it's been a hard.

It'll take a lifetime to recover.

You're talking 20 years growth here, and, you know, 20 years down the road will be back to where we were today.

You're talking about a lifetime from Purvis.

I'm Brian Utley reporting.

Well, despite th fact that much of Mississippi's agricultural livelihood was leveled by Hurricane Katrina, it is comforting to know that very quickly, we are reminded that things will return to normal.

What a cultural Felder rushin and doctor dirt of MPB radio's Gestalt Gardener.

Show us how some of the plants and people are recovering after the storm.

What they foun is that nature can destroy, but it can also surprise and inspire us.

When Hurricane Katrina devastated the Mississippi Gulf Coast, we knew every living thing would be changed.

But despit the tremendous damage, one thing kept occurring to us.

Over and over.

We saw that nature will fin a way to overcome tough times.

This theme was probably best described when we discovered a group of sunflowers, kind of accidentally growing wild in the front yard of what used to be someone's home in Biloxi.

Probably blow out of a neighbor's bird feeder.

Look what I found.

I found a piece of a doll right here.

You know there's all sorts of destruction out here but these things are coming up.

Yeah, but coming up in all of this stuff, them from seed, from seeds.

And you know what they were calling the sho asking about, Saint Augustine.

Look, stuff is coming back.

Thanks, Augustine.

I guess you could say that where even in all this destruction, where there's a will there's a way and there's life.

Gardening is going to heal stuff.

We'll hear.

We'll come back.

People are picking up and fixing.

But it was still a horrendous thing that happened.

A lot of the big trees up here got severe damage, not just breaking and all, but sometimes are weakened enough to where they may have insect problems.

The rest of this year we may have lost all the pecans and pine beetles.

May be a problem even here where some of the grass was killed.

You can see where there's new growth already starting out.

Of course, further north is going to take a little bit longer.

So there's new stuff being fixed.

There's new growth coming out.

There's hope springing forth.

And come springtime things may be a little bit better.

While filled in, I was in Saint Louis.

We made sure we were going to check up on a good old friend, horticulturalist Miss Jane McKinnon, to make sure her house and plants was okay.

When the Katrina came in, it pretty well wiped out your book collection.

It took out my books about half my garden.

And so now I'm in the process of trying to figure out what's the very bes things and go and do it right.

This time.

Well, it looks pretty good.

I mean, you've you've lost some trees here.

I lost a lot of shrubs lost azaleas and crape myrtles, broke up the, oleander and some of the rose died from the salt in the water.

Because when the salt came over, a lot of people don't realize how brown everything was because it's from the salt.

We think, you know but your grass is coming back.

This coming back.

And the trouble was a lot of the topsoil washed off.

So we're going to have to replace said it showed how shallow rooted these things are in this wet soil.

Well, as you can see, the folks here on the coast never give up.

And that's a great lesson we gardeners can use.

Whether it's plants or people, nature will always find a way to come back.

Thank you so much for being with us for Beyond Katrina.

On the next episode, we'll be focusing on housing issue in the hurricane ravaged areas.

Thousands of FEMA trailer and blue tarps cover the coast.

But what can we expect next for what was supposed to be a temporary solution?

And what of the gaming industry?

A major source of tax revenue for the state and jobs for coastal residents?

That's on the next edition of Beyond Katrina.

We leave you now with some very powerful image from photographers working for and with the Sun-Herald newspaper in Biloxi.

Further reminders of the way things used to be for MPB and all our contributing producers.

I'm John Johnson.

Thank you for joining us.