Devastation still evident in Mississippi a year later

Last week I and nine other AmeriCorps members of New Jersey Public Interest Research Group's (NJPIRG) Community Water Watch took a service trip to Mississippi. We went to help with the continued rebuilding effort in an area that, more than a year later, is still ravaged from Hurricane Katrina. I had seen the images on TV of Katrina's immediate damage, but this was my first real-life experience with the devastation. I write to share my impressions.

There were streets full of driveways with no homes, and storm-battered shells of buildings stood with no signs of rebuilding in sight. What shocked me was not what had been done by the hurricane on Aug. 29, 2005, but what hadn't been done in its wake a year later. A local man named Paul thanked me for caring. "You wouldn't believe how many people think that everything down here is all better, that we're back to normal," he said.

Before my trip I was one of those people; I was ignorant to how bad it still was. I, like others, believed that since it wasn't in the news anymore that it wasn't a problem.

Newspaper headlines are littered with quips from shoppers on Black Friday and with celebrity gossip. We all must be conscious and wary of the current media agenda. For Gulf Coast residents, love of community is stronger than fear of another Katrina. This holiday season, let's not forget them or their stories; their spirit in the face of destruction is truly newsworthy.

Katie Feeney

NJPIRG Community Water Watch

Brookdale Community College

campus organizer

Lincroft