Not homeless -- but only technically

Posted: Tuesday, September 6 at 04:50 pm CT by Mike Brunker

PASCAGOULA, Miss. -- While much of the relief effort in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has rightly been focused on those forced from their homes by the storm, another class of victim has gotten very little attention: People like Darvin and Madonna Sullivan, who are still at their homes even though they can’t live in them.

Along with many of their neighbors, the Sullivans are staying put in their middle-class neighborhood about a mile from the beach even though every home on the street  sustained considerable damage when Katrina roared ashore. Big piles of sodden carpet, ruined furniture and mattresses now dwarf every mailbox.

Some neighbors come and go as they begin to clean up the mess, but the Sullivans are camping out in their backyard rather than try to co-exist with the layer of mud and sewage that left a six-inch coating of mud throughout the house and the big hole in the roof. 

Several considerations kept them from seeking more hospitable accommodations while they figure out how to make their house inhabitable – the cost, fears that looters would take their remaining possessions and a horrific experience at a local Red Cross shelter the night the storm hit.

“The commodes were overflowing and little kids were crawling around on the bathroom floors. And people were stealing purses and flashlights and any other valuable that people brought with them,” Madonna says of the family’s stay at the Red Cross shelter at the East-Central School District facilities the night Katrina hit and part of the next day. "That is something I will never, ever do again. I would rather stay here and ride out the storm in my driveway.”

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