Pascagoula

Beach Boulevard and the town of Pascagoula are sandwiched between the shipyards, refineries, and the industrial port that have developed around the broad marshy mouth of the estuary. I was struck by the stark geometry of this section of shoreline - straight lines, perched beach, and a twist (curve?) to seawall design I was unfamiliar with. Although the homes behind Beach Boulevard are on rising ground and piles, most of the first tier of homes were gone.

Gautier

My exploration of road ends led me through Ocean Springs to this community west of Pascagoula and this nice little estuarine beach on Mississippi Sound. It was nice to find a place where the landscape was not dominated by either the destruction of Katrina or high-end coastal development.

Biloxi

From Waveland and Bay St. Louis east to Pascagoula, the Mississippi coast was largely a clean slate. Concrete slabs, arrays of concrete piles which had once supported houses and hotels, piers with no decking. The beaches had been rebuilt, either naturally or pumped in from dredges offshore. The coastal roads had been fixed - mostly. And much of the debris had been cleaned up. But most of the rebuilding has still to occur. Not that there is any doubt that it will happen. And it will be bigger and better, I'm sure.