When Hurricane Katrina struck I immediately flashed back to my memories of when Hurricane Isabel hit Virginia Beach and inland to Richmond, where I lived at the time. We didn\'t have power for nearly a week and, with the roads blocked off, our neighborhood became a large family, helping each other survive, sharing food, stories and hands. \r\n\r\nHowever pleasant my memories were during the loss of power that we had, it in no way reflects the internal and external damage that Katrina left in her wrath. \r\n\r\nI have now come down to South Mississippi for Hurricane Relief efforts four times, primarily through Spring Breaks during my school year. Each time I see the development that has taken place since August 29, 2005, but at the same time it breaks my heart to see it because it shouldn\'t be this slow, take this long. So many other hurricanes have hit the coastland of America over the last century but nothing has ever been so devastating as when Katrina struck on the morning of August 29, 2005. What has made this one different? Why did Katrina have to be so devastating? Coastal towns and cultures were completely wiped out. Neighbors and families are dissipated and perhaps may never come back together. \r\n\r\nAugust 29, 2005 was the turning point for this region of the United States. However, it was the aftermath of Katrina that left this region in devastation. \r\n\r\nSix months after the storm, in March 2006, I came down to Gautier, Mississippi to the First United Methodist Church, where we could see for miles and miles the devastation. We did several jobs. Many people had just gotten their FEMA trailer and were prepping homes for reconstruction. It was a lot of cleaning up that we did. I remember in some neighborhoods an entire family\'s belongings sitting outside on their lawn, most of which they wouldn\'t be able to use again. \r\n\r\nA year later, March 2007, we were in Gulfport but about 15 miles inland helping a dear lady named Charlene. It was here that I really began to hear the stories of Katrina. Charlene\'s husband had died just four days before Katrina hit. The house that he had built and lived with his family in for over 40 years was nearly demolished except for the structure. Everything inside was completely gone--all of the memories. I think this was the case for many families, the structure was intact, for the most part, but everything else--gone. A sweet lady, Charlene lived for months in her yard, in a tent until she finally got a very small camper. We cleaned up her yard and painted the interior and exterior of her house that had been gutted and refurbished. Stories are told and developed in these small meetings of people. I have heard of groups coming from all over the country and even from abroad to help with hurrican relief. Would these people have even met if it had not been for Katrina? And why does it have to be in times of devastation that we take the time out to help each other? \r\n\r\nIn October of 2007, two years later, I got to see first hand and be apart of rebuilding rather than just cleaning up. I met Ms. DeDei in Pass Christian along with another single mother and her two children. We got to put touch ups on one house and lay flooring and install kitchen cabinets in another house. I put my feet in the Gulf for the first time since Katrina and wondered how this water, that is so calm and so peaceful lapping up onto the shore like a lake, could cause so much destruction behind me. \r\n\r\nAs I write this I am in the middle of my fourth trip here, now in Waveland and Bay St. Louis area where we are putting siding on a house and building porches. \r\n\r\nThere is so much to be done. And the injustices that are arising in the aftermath of Katrina make me incredibly angry. It is unfair that Katrina wiped out the cultures and towns. However, just because a storm demolished a place does not mean that it should keep people from coming back due to the economic hardships that have arisen because of it. If an area, such as in Biloxi, was primarily used for low to moderate-income levels, it should remain exactly that. I agree that things should be restored to better conditions to prevent future damage, but it should not circumvent the culture and people that lived there before the storm. The Gulf Coast has suffered severe enough damage already, why make it even worse by developing a different culture, one that appeases to a specific class of people, preventing those from coming back to what once was. Herein we see the advantages to having money and the disadvantages to not having money and, depending on if you have money or not dictates whether you get to return to the Gulf Coast you once knew or owned. \r\n\r\nIt is February 26, 2008 and Hurricane Katrina Relief, Reconstruction and Revitalization is still going on. It cannot be forgotten. We are still down here. Even if we live in other areas of the United States, the Gulf Coast is still a home to us and is still apart of our nation and we cannot forget about this region. We are still here, we are still growing and we are coming back, slowly but most certainly surely. \r\n