PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI

As we assisted Steven Sramek and his family after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, (please see "The Sramek Family" page at left), Steven asked us in January of 2006 to please show the world how little his town has changed since then. 

He wanted to help us in any way he could to get funding to the people still there, who are trying to bring the town back to life. 

We are including an essay from Steven here, written in his own words on 1/9/06 about the state of affairs in Pass Christian (known as "Pass" to the locals), with some follow-up updates from him as well.  You can feel the frustration in his writings.

DREAM ONE WORLD "adopted" this entire town as a project in 2006, and the work expanded to Bay St. Louis as well. 

We thank those who viewed these photos and read Steven's words...and were moved to contribute towards this most worthy cause.

Please click "Play" to view a slide show of Pass Christian, MS.

Well, the trees are starting to change color and we have had frost several times. The frost knocks down the bug population, which makes it easier to dig. Yep I’m still digging. It took me several months just to clear the big debris from my property. Now I am finding things that, if I could have recovered them sooner, might have been worth saving.

The FEMA food tent is still in operation in Pass, which is the only thing I feel FEMA has done right thus far here. It is a large tent located in what was downtown Pass that serves hot breakfast, lunch, and dinner free to anyone with a Pass Christian driver's license.

The only other city that has done this is Gulfport. The other cities' leaderships chose instead to take the money, saying that they would feed their citizens themselves, which, from all reports we get, they simply do not do. 

The Salvation Army set up a clothing tent about two months after the storm hit, which is still open. They also gave away small amounts of money.  My wife stood in line for two hours in Gulfport, only to be told she was in the wrong line as she was from Pass.  The only time for that was the previous week, so we did not get any.

The population of Pass Christian is steadily diminishing. Before the storm the population of Pass Christian was 16,000.  Currently the population is about 1600.

Many of the houses that survived the storm are now for sale, people are leaving the area, getting transfers, or just plain leaving. Signs are springing up everywhere “For Sale by Owner” and “Want to Buy Homes or Property."

There is so little of Pass Christian left that I don’t think it will recover anytime soon. The storm came right over the high point of the city and down the back. Only the old bank buildings, built over 50 years ago, are sound. The only thing left of the newer bank buildings are their concrete vaults. 

Buildings that survived Hurricane Camille in 1969 were destroyed. Houses dating back to 1827 were destroyed. The bridges over the bays that survived Camille were destroyed.

There were two bridges over the Bay of St. Louis.  More seaward is the railroad bridge, closer inland is the highway bridge. Both had only their pilings standing after the storm.

The CSX railroad was rebuilding their bridge soon after the storm, and they are planning on reopening around the first of the year.

The Mississippi Department of Transportation has been picking up trash by the side of the interstate and thus has done nothing about the highway bridge. This adds to the continued crippling impact of the storm. It has taken them four months to patch the beach highway enough to open two of the four lanes.

Driving the coast road at night is an experience.  It is dark since there are no lights or houses, the road is bad, and the road has no lines or reflectors. On the plus side on a clear night the stars are fabulous.  You can easily see the Milky Way and stars right down to the horizon in all directions.

Charities are drying up. After the hurricane there were several places to get canned food, clothes, and medical supplies. Now there are only one or two places left with not much in them. There are still plenty of needy people living in tents. Every day the paper has someone begging for a trailer or complaining that the heat doesn’t work in the trailer they do have.

The FEMA trailers are still not getting to the people that need them. Yet the FEMA trailer inspectors have frequently shown up five times in one week to inspect a trailer that people are living in. There is no shortage of empty trailers available, as there are several fields full of them throughout the counties. The problem seems to be the delivery part.

I recently saw a fundaising commercial on TV for the Salvation Army showing several of their people in a boat, rescuing people stranded on a rooftop. It struck me as odd that I have not seen any of this organization's people here in the past five months, other than the clothing tent. 

The church groups are the real heroes to us here, as many were here immediately after the storm, (not two months later), and a few are still here feeding people, helping with debris cleanup, and plan to spend the rest of 2006 here as well. 

We are all grateful to them, to family and friends, and to smaller nonprofit organizations like DREAM ONE WORLD who have not forgotten our plight.

Insurance companies, like mine, had told us for years that we didn't need flood insurance. Now they tell us that since we had no flood insurance, we have no insurance at all.

Even worse is that they are saying if your house was damaged or destroyed by wind (as many were) and if water was on your property either before or after the event, they are also denying coverage...

Our US senators and representatives (Trent Lott & Gene Taylor) got legislation passed through Congress that would grant $150,000 each to those people that were above the flood zone and did not have flood insurance, but whose homes were destroyed anyway, like mine. (Gene Taylor is a hero to the folks here.  He has gone to bat for the people of MS like no other elected official.)

However, FEMA and other politicians are tacking provisions onto the grant, such as: you must sign a wavier saying you will not sue your insurance company, you must pay FEMA back any money you get from them, you must agree to buy flood insurance for the past ten years and into the future, etc. I hope once these extra items come to light, public outcry will remove some or all of them.

Thank you again for continuing to care and giving me the opportunity to tell the world what is happening here"

Sincerely, Steven

UPDATE from Steven Sramek, 3.3.06:

Money is the only thing that helps right now...

There are still people in tent cities.  The other night they had to evacuate at 2AM for severe weather - old people, sick people - very bad.  The food tent, the only thing I feel that has been done right, is scheduled to close soon.  I   don't know what the folks in the tent cities are going to do when that happens.

Some people have gotten SBA loan approvals and have turned them down because of several reasons...they are simply too restrictive on how the money is spent. Then there is a local 70 year old woman who was approved to get  $600/month of social security for an $800/month loan.  Where she is supposed to get the other $200 a month, I don't know.

State Farm gave me $5600 for a new roof on my destroyed house - after they took out their $3200 hurricane deductible.  Some other insurance companies have begun to do right for their insured, but, in my opinion, not State Farm, the largest. Small companies seem to be the best, followed by AIG, USAA, Allstate, and Farmers.  This is just a small sampling from friends and acquaintances.

Thanks again for providing a venue for me to update people on the what I see and hear about the "progress" in Pass.   Steven

UPDATE from Steven Sramek, 8.11.06:

Pass had an election the other day.  1,500 people voted in what was supposedly an excellent turnout.  The population before the storm was about 6,850, so my guesstimate is that the population is down by at least half.

Virtually no construction is going on.  The houses that were "only damaged" are being restored.  The houses that were destroyed, well, the debris has been cleared, but only a very small handful are being rebuilt.  One lifetime resident told me the other day that she gets lost now, since there are no landmarks.

Many folks are anxiusly awaiting the Mississippi Development Authority building grants that have been in the pipeline since February.  That is the only hope for many of the people.

The bay bridge is still out.  This is hurting the area immensely.  It is not expected to be rebuilt until next spring - over 18 months away!  The railroad bridge which was also destroyed was rebuilt in four months...!

The housing shortage is hurting the businesses here.  I have heard of several people having to turn down jobs due to the lack of housing.  There are numerous "NOW HIRING" signs and banners out in front of businesses.

By the way, I haven't run across anyone from Fema, The Red Cross, or The Salvation Army.  The Salvation Army had a big temp building in town a while back, but it was mostly empty.

The Katrina Kitchen is still assisting in feeding people here.

Thanks again for whatever can be done to help us.  Steven

Update 11.19.07  From Steven:

Things are getting back to normal, the bridges are up, some businesses are coming back.

Ourselves - we are going to rebuild back on our old lot, elevated with concrete. We have a builder and a plan.

I talked with the Katrina Kitchen the other day.  They don't have a kitchen anymore but they do have volunteers that do work around the county.

The waffle houses have returned. They were the first back on the beach.  The Burger King is back and McDonald's is rebuilding in concrete block.

Many folks have rebuilt on pilings. Some have rebuilt on the ground - about the way they were before the storm. I don't agree with that.

The corps of engineers started a flurry a few weeks ago holding talks about buyouts for properties that were flooded. It would make good sense for several areas. They also talked about levees and flood gates - not feasible, really.

The FEMA trailer saga continues - big controversy about the formaldehyde odor. They have shut down several parks and plan to shut down the rest...

The Katrina Cottage is another contention area. Bay St Louis (BSL) City Council initially rejected them, (since the prop tax on them would be small), but the populace got up-in-arms so the council reconsidered.

Sincerely,

Steve

"If the success or failure of this planet, of human beings, depended on how I am and what I do, how would I be?  What would I do?"            - R. Buckminster Fuller