PEARLINGTON - Life in this once-quaint community at the mouth of the Pearl River now revolves around the Charles B. Murphy Elementary School and Public Library.
People have been coming to the school for food, water and ice since Hurricane Katrina's storm surge flooded or flattened almost every structure. Most of the community's 2,000 residents still are trying to get those basic needs met. Others are ready to move on.
Almost everyone who stayed in this Hancock County community during the Aug. 29 storm have survival stories. Many hung onto trees and rooftops as others came along in boats to rescue them. Mississippi's death toll from Katrina is 221, including 35 in Hancock County.
Resident Gregory Morgan said local, state and nationally elected officials haven't been to his community, while law enforcement officers and volunteers from throughout the country have come to provide help. Representatives from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross also are heading relief efforts.
"We are the forgotten city," said Morgan, 55. "The tax assessor knows we're here. The cable company knows we're here. The electric company knows we're here. Where are our elected officials? They won't come here because there's no money here," he said referring to the area's lack of casinos.
Janyne Evans and her husband Mark lost their business, Turtle Landing Bar & Grill, and home to floodwaters. Evans said she still owes about $141,000 on the two-story building. He can't make plans until she hears from FEMA and her insurance company.
Evans said she wouldn't think twice about selling to nearby John C. Stennis Space Center if it made a decent offer. There had been talk Stennis would try to purchase some of the property in this area, which is about nine miles east of Slidell, La. Katrina hit the coastal counties with winds 135 mph or higher .
"People would leave as soon as they could get their stuff out and as soon as they would see their insurance company and FEMA," Evans said. "Pay me and I'm gone."
Evans said her insurance company — without even looking at the property — already has canceled her policy. Her mortgage company wants to know when she's going to send a payment.
She managed to save photographs of the Hawaiian luau she held at the bar in July before Katrina's floodwaters filled the bar and restaurant. Evans estimated the building filled with at least 28 feet of water.
Now their business and home reek of mold. Small puddles of water remained on the floor. "We had it like a real Margaritaville," Evans said in reference to the song made famous by singer Jimmy Buffett.
She described Pearlington as a gorgeous, quaint town full of hard-working people who know how to have fun on weekends. The community is located on the Mississippi River and surrounded by bayous.
Not so for Shirley Acker, who said Pearlington is the only home she has known. She plans to move into a trailer FEMA has placed on the property where her house stood. Electricity hadn't yet been installed to the trailer.
She has been living in an apartment in Picayune the last couple of weeks. On Wednesday, she was sitting on bleachers outside the school, waiting for someone from FEMA to call.
She said FEMA trailers and electrical service are signs that Pearlington is coming back. She said she's heard people say they won't return. But they have. And so will Acker.
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