The Place
Hurricane Katrina ravaged this section of coastal Mississippi. While New Orleans was being flooded, this part of coastal Mississippi
took a direct hit with 20 foot storm surges, destroying homes up to 2 km inland. Today, 8+ years later, you pass empty
foundations and slabs, and weathered skeletons of destroyed dream beach homes. It seems like one out of every three house
sites has a newly built house, the rest are empty. The trees have broken branches and trunks
where the tops were blown out of them.
The beach is mostly gone, with seawalls holding up the road. We had been told to expect this by friends
who had been here and by fellow campers we’ve met in Louisiana. It was still very sad when we saw it. 
Buccaneer State Park is brand new. It has been totally rebuilt since Katrina,
and they did a marvelous job. The
campsites are thoughtfully laid out with all of the amenities (water,
electricity, sewer). It has a water park
(closed because it is still too cold here), swimming pool, Frisbee golf and a
tiny little triangular beach built up around some rubble placed perpendicular
from the shore to catch the sand.
The Adventure
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| Bayou Caddy Salt Marsh |
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| Bayou Caddy Harbor |
We went by bicycle to find a seafood store that was advertised
as the “closest to the campground” on the campground map/brochure. It was actually a place where the fishermen
bring their catch before parking their boats at the Bayou Caddy harbor. Bayou Caddy is a straight shot down to the
Gulf with acres of salt marsh alongside it.
The advertisement said they sold
shrimp, fish and crabs. It wasn’t really
a market, and they didn’t have any shrimp or fish because of the cold
weather. They were selling crabs as they
sorted them to send to restaurants. They
were asking “Northern Virginia” prices so we declined. Besides, we really weren’t sure how we were
going to bring live crabs back in our backpacks by bicycle.
At the intersection of Bayou Caddy and the Gulf is a brand
new, fancy, enormous Casino with a huge parking deck. A sign says that they will be opening a hotel
attached to the Casino in Fall 2014. They
have an RV park down the road from the Casino right on the beach. I am sure the region is welcoming the jobs
and revenue the Casino has promised them.
If other businesses want to join in, there are lots of vacant house
sites they can build upon.
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