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Steve Shepard I'm surprised by my own silence lately. I work with my parents every day to get the property ready for whatever is next. It really is hard to lose a house that they lived in over half their lives. That house has been with me since I was eight. Regarding the suspension of environmental regulations, the dumping of sewage is actually continuing. The city of Gautier is dumping sewage into our local bayou and apparently all over town. Their excuse is that they are waiting for parts so they can fix the pumping stations. So... no parts are available anywhere in the country? We are seeing the worst environmental disaster I've ever encountered in person. The stench in the bayous is really bad. Luckily, since Rita threatened us, the winds are blowing hard and that oxygenates the open water. After several weeks of seeing no marine life we now see fish returning. There were sturgeon kills on the Pascagoula. I'm not sure how many more species died. The seafood industry has been shut down. I am most angry about this turn of events not caused by Katrina, but caused by political leaders who seem to hate the natural world as much as I hate them. Anyway, we focus on one or two goals per day and try to meet them. I went to see my wife, Jeanne, this weekend---the first time I've seen her in person in two months. She's up in the dorms at her school, the Mississippi School for the Arts, dealing with the traumatized kids with no homes, and now some kids from the New Orleans creative arts school who have transferred to the MS school of the arts. My brother-in-law put in the final electrical box needed to hook up a FEMA trailer and his and my sister's RV so the two can be used to house my parents. Today we worked on a concrete foundation to support a newly purchased metal building so possessions can be put inside. My house isn't big enough to accommodate the scattered found objects. We are finding tools buried under the sand, ceramics, glass items not broken up, and other things which need to be housed. We also have decided to put a washer and dryer in an outbuilding---if Sears ever sends it---along with the other possessions so Mother can do laundry in the outbuilding instead of in the FEMA trailer. My brother-in-law saw the photos of the destroyed site. Dad said he was overwhelmed when he saw the property in person on his visit last weekend. It is dramatic. Steve Shepard is a Sierra Club activist from Ocean Springs. Back to Notes from the Gulf main page. Have your own story from the Gulf Coast? Contact us. Photo: Steve Shepard/Sierra Club collection; all rights reserved. Up to Top HOME | Email Signup | About Us | Contact Us | Terms of Use | © 2008 Sierra Club