We worshipped at Trinity again and then our team split in half with one group serving lunch to the congregation and then canvassing some neighborhoods for those in need of assistance while the rest of us went to Main St UMC in Bay Saint Louis to help setup a lunch for the community and then take food to Clermont Harbor UMC and serve them. The UMM group from First UMC in Columbus, MS, who have cooked several large meals at Trinity, drove 5 hours down to cook at Bay Saint Louis this time. These men can cook a mean meal! They had a flat on the way down so they were a bit late but we got the food to the people nonetheless. They served over 400 meals at Main St UMC and we fed about 25 people in Clermont Harbor. We had just erected the tent the day before so they could hold their first service since Katrina.

That tent and a few smaller ones people were staying in were the only thing left of this little town. It was a square mile of total devastation. I did see some herons and blue crabs in a nearby marshy pond while I was walking around the area. We saw a few people picking through the rubble for their belongings; such an exasperating search but they did mange to find several momentos. As I drove Beach Blvd a mile or two east to Waveland, I was surprised by it's condition. Compared to the same road in Gulfport (US 90 at that point), this portion was in good condition; I don't think I would use whoever built the Gulfport section again. I finally got to see the town many claim was the hardest hit and where some of the supplies from our first trip made it. It was similar to Clermont Harbor only a little bigger. Very little within a mile of the coast survived. Apparently someone had donated a bunch of quonset hut tents so several organizations had a place to set up shop. The picture shows where city hall had been and someone had found and erected the sign the city put up to thank those who helped after it was wiped out by Camille. City hall was now in a tent next door.

My sunset picture for the day comes from Waveland. I found the flag you see in the background (below and left of the sun) in the rubble of that building and fastened Old Glory to a railing.

I took Beach Blvd back west and ended up near a marina I had visited several weeks ago. What was cool was the hundreds of dragonflys darting around hunting for dinner I presume. I then came over to Slidell to meet up with my "boss" finally, just in time to go out to dinner for sushi. Since I've left Trinity for now, I'm having my wonderful wife overnight the old laptop down here to donate to them for team email and printing needs. I really feel like I belong there so I'm going to work on getting out of this job I stumbled into so I can spend all my time helping the volunteer work teams.