Almost two years ago I had the opportunity to go with friends from St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church in McLean on a mission trip to the Gulf Coast. The experience was emotional and personally rewarding and I posted on different topics related to the trip (see my Katrina thread).
My thoughts are with the region, especially this evening, as Hurricane Gustav threatens those communities. I wanted to reprise one of the experiences I had with Trinity Episcopal Church in Pass Christian, Mississippi. Trinity Episcopal Church is about a quarter mile inland from the Gulf of Mexico along a broad and beautiful stretch of Mississippi beach front. The beautiful church was destroyed by Hurricane Camille in 1969. It was rebuilt with steel framing and looked like this in 2005:
The church was destroyed again by Hurricane Katrina. The church was taken down to the steel framing by a 28 foot storm surge. In 2007 I attended services there, which were very moving, in a church just beginning to be rebuilt. Humidifiers were running to dry the space, much of the interior was borrowed from other churches, and the new Tyvek did not yet disguise the incredible damage done by the storm.
Notice two things about the photos below. First, the interior pic shows the back wall - you can see where the water line was by where the real plaster wall begins. Imagine 28 feet of water pouring through the church a quarter mile inland. In the second pic, you can see where the ceiling lanterns were bent askew by the storm surge. Still amazing to me.
