My trusty Google alert sent today’s USA Today story that features Turkey Creek. The photo of Derrick Evans in front of his great-grandfather’s house made me think of this one I took a few days after Hurricane Katrina. Derrick and friends from Boston had organized a caravan of relief supplies, and I flew to Birmingham to meet the trucks on their way to Gulfport.

Evans family and neighbors greet relief caravan Sept. 2005

This photo was taken just after sunrise on the morning we’d arrived. Derrick had just greeted his mother, the Rev. Lettie Evans-Caldwell, sitting in the foreground. Miss Lettie and her husband had been rescued from their home during the storm. Water had risen to their necks when neighbors called out to them and swam over to help.

I’ll be returning to Gulfport next week to continue documenting the story. Filmmaker Dawn Logsdon (Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans) recently joined our team as Senior Editor and we’re working to finish the Turkey Creek film later this year.