Five agencies from the Virginia law enforcement community (Chesterfield County Police, Henrico County Police, Virginia Beach City Police, Virginia State Game Wardens & Virginia State Police) volunteered to assist with the relief efforts on the Mississippi coast that was impacted by Hurricane Katrina. I was proud to serve with such a fine group of professionals. The officers were assigned to Hancock County to support the county/police departments. The eastern side of the eye wall of Katrina went directly over the Hancock County and the entire government infrastructure was destroyed. The police departments lost everything (patrol vehicles, jail & department headquarters). We were there to support the local enforcement folks with all calls for service. Officers worked every day on either a 6AM-6PM or 6PM-6AM shift.

One of the first compelling sites we saw entering the area that displayed the magnitude of Katrina was when we exited Interstate 10 into Hancock County. Although not the most dynamic picture, the purpose of this shot is to show how high the water entered the area. The vehicles are traveling on Interstate 10. Below the vehicles you can see a debris line from the storm tidal surge. To give you an idea how high and how far the water went, I 10 is approximately 8 miles from the Gulf coast.

This picture is of an oceanfront neighborhood impacted by Katrina. The entire Gulf shore of Mississippi was in a similar condition. For about a quarter mile inland from the coast all the homes were flattened to concrete slabs.

As you can see from this picture an entire subdivision was leveled by the storm. Ground zero for Katrina was in Hancock County. A 40 foot tidal surge reached 5-8 miles inland and hammered many of the watefront communities like this one with seawater.

This is a moving picture of a leveled home in the Bay St. Louis, MS area

Unfortunately this is what you would see all along the Mississippi coast. Debris in what used to be someone's home with scattered boats and smashed vehicles. This picture was taken in the Bay St. Louis area.

Another typical scene of a flattened home site with a poignant flag on site. This shot was taken in the Lakeshore, MS area.

Many of the impacted folks left messages targeted for the looters on what they had remaining on their property. The comment on the van in this is picture is a mild example compared to some comments left for potential looters.

This photo shows the amount of plastic and debris that remained in the trees after the surge retreated. Few remains of some of the homes are in the foreground. This shot was taken in the Bay St. Louis. MS area.

This shot is of what is left of the Rt. 90 bridge that crossed from Biloxi to Ocean Springs, MS.