Collection

From the Baresden (www.baresden.com), website of Fran and Mike Willumitis

This is our story. Here you will learn who we are. We are in the process of rebuilding our lives in the aftermath of Katrina. Bear with us as we go through the pictures and attempt to put together our Katrina story.

After hurricane Katrina, due to the almost total destruction of our town, and the loss of all four houses in our family we were considering relocating. Our daughter and grandchildren had relocated to North Carolina and my mom's from Smithfield. I had spent quite a bit of time here growing up and always loved it. We had family here so we relocated my mom too.

Mike is originally from New Orleans, a Firefighter / Emergency Medical Technician, retired after 30 years with the City of Bay St Louis Mississippi Fire Department as a battalion Chief / Training Officer and, concurrently, 20 years with the Diamondhead Fire Protection District as Captain of the Rescue Unit.

I am a Cajun, from the bayous of Louisiana, a registered nurse, retired after 34 years as a surgical nurse, specializing in orthopedic surgery. I worked part-time in a local nursing home, until the hurricane blew it away. I was also a volunteer with both of Mike's fire departments and designed and maintained the web pages for both departments.

Our home sustained heavy damage from Katrina, 3 feet of water and 1 foot of mud! Basically, everything below waist level was a total loss. We have many great memories of the Gulf Coast, but there are some recent things we would rather forget.

Katrina made a lot of changes in our lives.

We went from living in an 1800 square foot home to a 27 foot camper trailer where we lived for 9 months.

Our well furbished almost commercial kitchen became a 3 burner propane stove, a BBQ pit and an oven that will almost hold a pan of biscuits

We moved from wearing shorts and T shirts 80% of the time to boots, down coats and hats

Our highspeed internet connection has been replaced by dial-up that uploads at 2 kb/sec

Walmart is 20 miles away. There is no Hudsons Discount Store

Our evenings of sitting in the hot tub have changed to sitting out by an open fire

No one here has heard of coffee and chicory, beignets or crayfish

Seasoning is salt, pepper and pork fat-but they do have Tony's seasoning and Tabasco

Our Nextel phones worked up to 1/4 mile from our house. Nextel with it's nationwide coverage is apparently unaware that Grantsboro North Carolina is not in a foreign country and charged us $400.00 because their towers do not work here.

We spent four months fighting Allstate who told us we did not need flood insurance because we were in a FEMA designated no flood zone

So now with our few remaining possessions dirty with mud and packed in a storage unit here we are.