Reply #33: "washed out to sea" is a likely answer for the Mississippi Coast [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

I was down there at a relief center early in January, and I never would have believed the damage if I hadn't seen it. A body was found the week before we arrived.

The storm surge along the Gulf Coast was the equivalent of a tsunami, which left clothing, bedding, and furniture stuck in trees and flattened or hollowed out substantial buildings.

Many people stayed behind, either because they were too poor or disabled to leave or because they had ridden out hurricanes before and thought they could manage this one. We heard of a couple who survived only by clinging to a tree as the water receded and of a man who was washed out of his house and survived only because he was able to climb into a Jacuzzi that was floating by.