Decided to take a short trip the last couple of days. My wife was having a garage sale here at the house that I didn’t want to be around for so off I went. I’ve been curious about the damage done to the south Louisiana coastline so I decided to make that my destination. What I saw just absolutely stunned me.

I rode to Sulphur, La. Then turned south toward Holly Beach. I wasn’t even out of town and began to see trashed, unrepaired buildings and lots of blue tarps on roofs (keep in mind this is 7 months past Rita!). I thought it was bad but what awaited me was unreal.

As I made my way south towards Holly Beach, the damage became worse and worse. The whole front end of the Catholic church in Hackberry was gone. Then, about 5 miles north of Holly Beach I began to see debris out in the marsh. As I got closer to "town" the debris field became more dense. I finally made it to Holly Beach… or what use to be Holly Beach. I’m not kidding when I say this… Holly Beach (aka The Cajun Riviera) was completely wiped off the map. There is no longer a town there. I took some pictures of what was once a community of hundreds of beach homes. See below:

There is not one single structure standing. The whole town is in a million pieces and scattered all over the marsh.

This is the main highway through Holly Beach. It looks more like Iraq than the USA.

This is what’s left of a motorcycle. Looks like an early 70’s Suzuki or Kawasaki. Not sure which. There was nothing visible on the tank or frame to give me a hint what it was.

After leaving Holly Beach I proceeded east down the coastal highway. Finally made it to Cameron. The ferry across Calcasieu Pass had just opened April 1^st. As I was waiting in line I glanced over to my left and saw two boats on dry land! See Below:

Two boats washed onshore by Rita.

When I got into Cameron, I just couldn’t believe my eyes. Everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING was destroyed and still had not been rebuilt. There was not one habitable building in that entire town. See the pictures below:

Downtown Cameron, La. or what’s left of it.

This is just one example of what the houses looked like that didn’t get completely obliterated. It’s actually not bad in that it still has it’s wood siding on. Many of them did not. Not one house was spared.

Cameron Elementary School. Guess the little tykes are having a very long summer!

From Cameron I continued on east through Pecan Island then finally headed north to Abbeville. This is no exaggeration; from Holly Beach all the way to Pecan Island there is not one habitable building. The entire southwest Louisiana coastline for about 100 miles looks like it was carpet bombed with tactical nukes. Once again, keep in mind that this is what it looks like 7 months AFTER Hurricane Rita struck.

After seeing the effects of Rita, I decided to continue on to Grand Isle at the very southern tip of the Mississippi Delta to see the effects of Katrina. I stayed in Houma Friday night then zipped down there the following morning. There was a lot of damage in Grand Isle but about ¾ of it had already been repaired. I didn’t take any pictures of Grand Isle because as bad it was, after having seen Holly Beach and Cameron, it just didn’t seem worth the effort. It will take a LONG time for things to get back to normal. Maybe not in my lifetime.