I posted this 2005 email on my Facebook page today and then thought I would share it here. The documentary that took me another eight years to make is airing again tomorrow night on WORLD Channel stations. And until Sept. 24 you can find it streaming on America ReFramed — http://bit.ly/TurkeyCreek.
Nine years ago I was scanning TV coverage for a glimpse of Mississippi in the news of Katrina and making plans to head to the Gulf Coast. It was a great relief to get this email from Derrick Evans a couple days later letting friends know his mother and everyone in Turkey Creek appeared to have survived the storm because family and neighbors used boats — and even an air mattress — to rescue those trapped in their homes. One of the men Derrick mentions who rescued people by boat, Dashawn Thompson, is wearing a red “Turkey Creek” shirt in the photos below. Dashawn also shot the home movie footage of Katrina in Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek, before he realized the other end of the street was flooding and grabbed Derrick’s boat from his yard. I took the group photo outside Derrick’s great grandfather’s house on the morning we arrived in a caravan from Massachusetts and Alabama to meet Derrick’s mother and cousins. Those days are vivid in my mind, and will remain so.
