Photos

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Last Chance
Biloxi
Mississippi


On my way back home from Pensacola, Florida on 8-24-2005, we stopped at Biloxi so my nephew could buy some fresh shrimps. While he waited for the scaling, I interviewed the Vietnamese vendor and have been told about the current difficulty due to the price of shrimps going down, the price of fuel going up: most of the owners parked their boats here behind the new casino, either went overland looking for another job and let the bank forecloses their property, or took the boat’s value to the gambling.

The boat I photographed has a funny name, “Last Chance”. I don’t know if the owner meant last chance for his shrimping career, or last chance on the gamble. Four days after my picture, Biloxi became the eye of Hurricane Katrina where tsunami smashed the 25 feet-high surge into Biloxi and areas up to six miles inland were flooded. Devastating wind and water torn down the Quiet Water Beach apartments and killed 30 of its residents. Torrential rains and storm surge buried Biloxi under water.

In town, firefighters, police offices and volunteers pulled bodies from the rubble in East Biloxi Tuesday morning while hearses and trucks cruised around to load the corpses. Search and rescue crews put black marks on homes known to contain bodies, because there weren't enough refrigerated trucks to remove the corpses. One man said his wife was ripped away from him as they clung to each other at the top of their home. It appears the death toll from the storm will be high. One survivor after another told of friends and loved ones who floated off or disappeared as the floodwaters rose around them.

With all the updated news about the hurricane’s aftermath, I am afraid this boat never has its last chance. Instead, most likely it has already slammed into the nearby casino and became thousand pieces of debris now.

Please pray for those in the path of this dangerous storm.


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