Optimism competes with stress in Mississippi's Bay St. Louis
(PEARLINGTON, Miss.) Aug. 28 - For four years, the Pearlington Recovery Center has been a part of this community's life.
The former elementary school gym was a staging area for grass roots groups and volunteers from across America, drawn to the isolated community after claims its people had largely been forgotten after Katrina.
Four years after the storm, the Pearlington's Recovery Center is closed.
"The accomplishments are the reason I'm glad to see it go," Ricardo Armstrong said. "Now if we were still here working, it would mean we still have people in need."
For most of the past four years, Armstrong was a volunteer at the center, guiding volunteer crews to homes flooded and picked clean by Katrina's storm surge. About half of the approximately 900 homes that once made up the Pearlington community have been repaired or rebuilt.
That chapter of Pearlington has been closed. But, what happened in Pearlington will not be forgotten.
"Think about the thousands of volunteers we had here," Armstrong said. "It was a busy place."
There are empty lots and bare concrete slabs, but a little further are new, elevated houses.
While some churches were salvageable, the First Missionary Baptist Church had to be rebuilt; proving the age old adage, a church is not the building. It is the people inside. And, there's growing faith that Pearlington has many better days to come.
"I see growth," Armstrong said. "We're finally getting our sewer and water systems that we've been after for years. They're in the process of putting that in now. I believe once that's done and everything is situated, we'll have some businesses out here."
With all that's happened in Pearlington because of Katrina, you wouldn't think they'd be celebrating her anniversary this weekend. But, they will be celebrating and dedicating a brand new community center in Pearlington.
Its a symbol of change for the better in a community that was changed in the blink of an eye.
