Katrina

Over the past few days, we've seen the footage, read the articles, rummages through photo galleries and archives and posted blogs about Hurricane Katrina. Here is another one.

I've never lived in New Orleans, nor have I ever lived in Mississippi. At the time that Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, we weren't even living in the United States. We were stationed overseas at Kadena Air Base, in Okinawa, Japan. How on earth could something like this impact me or have an effect on my life? The Gulf Coast has always held a special place in my heart. Mark went to tech school at Keesler AFB, in Biloxi, Missisippi. He was there for 3 months back in 2002...when the casino barges floated on the water, Sharky's was a really cool tourist trap on US 90, Ruby Tuesdays was right on the coast, and antebellum type mansions lined the coastal highway. I visited him several times and since it's only a stone's throw away from New Orleans, we'd hit up the city as well. There was so much charm in that area of the country. Something about it just drew me in. New Orleans at the time was the type of city that you either loved or you'd visit once and proclaim that you once went there. It was a charming, yet completely trashy party city with a bad reputation. I loved it. It rose quickly on my top favorite cities list.

In 2004, we received orders to Kadena AB in Okinawa. Okinawa is in a tropical climate--very much like that of the Gulf Coast. Tropical weather abounds there...including typhoons. What are typhoons? Typhoons are the same exact thing as a hurricane, but in that area of the Pacific, they call them typhoons. In that geographical area, they tend to generate off the coast of Guam or a little bit before and often times pass by or pass right over the island of Okinawa and the rest of the Ryuku Island chain before ending up in China, mainland Japan, the Korean peninsula or even the Philippines. We had been on island for 2 weeks when we went through our first typhoon, which coincidentally was Typhoon Tokage (tow-ka-ghee). It was a category 3 typhoon with it being just shy of a super typhoon. One thing about Japan is that the everyday architecture is really ugly. Everything is made of concrete and the glass on the windows are approximately an inch thick. The locks on sliding glass doors and windows are heavy duty and are actually really heavy. My first impression was, "Really? This place is kinda ugly." But there are 2 things that you will quickly learn: 1) The interiors of Japanese homes are quite beautiful and often breathtaking. It definitely more than makes up for the outsides. 2) Concrete and one-inch thick glass are amazing strong and resilient when battered by typhoons.

In the last week of August 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed full Category 3-force into the Gulf Coast. Entire cities and towns were obliterated and wiped clean. Many people lost their lives, the city of New Orleans nearly drowned itself. The federal, state and local responses were gut wrenchingly wrapped in bureaucratic and political tape. 5 years later, it still is. In the same 30 day window of Katrina, we were graced by 4 typhoons on our little island, one of which was a super typhoon that passed directly over the prefecture capitol of Naha. What's the difference? The difference is that the Japanese learned their lesson well. They don't build out of wood, because it is not structurally strong. They brace their all of their trees, only to lose a few limbs and maybe a tree or two in the really bad storms. I see homes that have been rebuilt on the Gulf Coast and it almost makes me sad...while they may have raised the homes off the foundations, what is going to keep the wind and rain out? Chances are, they would most likely find themselves in a deja vu situation should something like Hurricane Katrina hit again. Don't get me wrong--I'm happy to see the amazing progress that has been made in the past 5 years. In a way, I think that New Orleans has matured a bit. Yes, it's still a bit of a trashy party city, but it has come back strong and is quite clean compared to what it was the first time I went there. I haven't been to Mississippi yet, but I told Mark that the next time we go to New Orleans (most likely February), I'd like to visit and see everything for myself. He's been back and has mentioned how different it is. It too, is cleaner, yet he said that some of the spark that was once there has disappeared.