Team Avent Ferry UMC has been busy doing finishing work on a new home for a disabled veteran. Ms Cheryl Lewis is a retired Army paramedic. She lost her home when Hurricane Katrina hit in August 2005. However, Ms. Lewis is among a list of residents and businesses still trying to rebuild four years after that devastating storm.

See a short video of the deplorable conditions Ken Smith is seeing in D'Iberville.

A member of our host church, Heritage UMC was kind enough to give us a tour of the D’Iberville/Biloxi area, post Katrina. We drove through areas that were once thriving neighborhoods, now just empty lots. In most cases, there are very little reminders that houses once occupied the space. One of the main bridges is still out. Several roads are still being worked on before they can reopen to traffic. We ran into at least two or three road blocks on our tour.

During Katrina, the water in some parts of D’Iberville and Biloxi came up as high as 10 feet. Entire shopping centers and homes were under water. Most of the homes built now are required to be at least 10 feet off the ground. We saw some houses that didn’t meet that requirement. Our guide said if residents were building before the Federal Government moved in after Katrina, they were allowed to complete the house based on the pre-Katrina plans.

As for businesses, some still haven’t reopened since the storm. However, D’Iberville and Biloxi in general are bouncing back largely due to the bustling casinos. Before Katrina, gambling was only allowed on rivers boats moored to the hotels. The storm changed that. Now, gambling is allowed on land. This is the classic case of if you build it, they will come. Once the casinos reopened, Biloxi, D’Iberville and this entire area with the Back Bay on one side and the Gulf on the other, were open for business.