From Biloxi-
Mayor A.J. Holloway reminded the crowd gathered at the Town Green for an 8 a.m. Katrina service, “At this exact time four years ago, we’d be standing in water over our heads.”
Under clear blue skies, four students from Biloxi schools recited the names of the 51 people who perished in the storm. The oldest was 96; the youngest 22.
“Today we pause to remember the victims,” Holloway said, and also to look forward to the day when visitors to the Coast will comment on Biloxi’s remarkable recovery rather than the devastation of Katrina.
Offering a prayer for the first responders was the Rev. Harold Roberts of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, who returned to the beach late on the day on Aug. 29, 2005, to find his church and his home gone.
“Today again I say thank you,” he said to the police, firefighters, National Guard, the Navy and all the others who he said made order out of chaos.
Also remembered were the volunteers. “To me it was the clearest evidence of God at work,” said Milt Grishman, lay leader of Congregation Beth Israel. “It was a miracle. They came from everywhere.”
Mike Womack, executive director of the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, said everyone thought Camille was the worst hurricane until Katrina hit and he cautioned Katrina may not be the worst storm Biloxi will ever see.
He was at the Mississippi State Emergency Operations Center four years ago.
More here-
http://www.sunherald.com/local/story/1570476.html
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