En-Gulfed Coast

Eddie and I have been on the Gulf Coast for the past couple of days, driving between Mobile, AL and Beaumont, TX. All along Interstate 10 there are signs of destruction everywhere. Trees bent and shattered like toothpicks, roof tops missing, broken glass slicing at the wind, boats thrown up against the shores like toys thrown aside by a petulant child. Homes and churches destroyed, mobile homes with holes blown through them and everything from farm equipment to tractor trailers blown on their side. This is dowtown Gulfport, MS looking like a war zone. Bricks and glass all over, building insulation, gnarled sheet metal...
Battered Golden Arches...
An ominous message for the looters...
No Belgian waffles today...
Another building in Gulfport...

These billboards lined I-10 on the way out of Lake Charles, LA to Beaumont, TX. Their messages had been blown off in the wind and it looks as though they are bowing to the setting sun. Most of the signs in the area looked like this, although these got away easy as their base had not been twisted into a heap of metal. Watching this on the news just doesn't have the same effect. Seeing the devastation in person has a much greater impact. I'm happy that Ed and I donated money but sad knowing that it wasn't nearly enough.