Rising from ruin - Bay St. Louis and Waveland, MS

MSNBC is closely following recovery efforts in Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Mississippi, with in depth backgrounders, features, and reporter blogs. Five weeks in a tent and still they wait:

“The worst thing about it is the bugs,” says Jeanette as Clint, who lost most of his drum kit to Katrina, knocks out some licks on a practice pad.

Also, “I love to cook and I can’t cook.” She likes to keep house, too. “I can tidy up the tent, but that’s about it. I can’t do it like I want to, but nobody can.” She doesn’t think the trailer will be a great substitute for the house, but hopes “it’ll be somewhere where I can stay out of the weather. … I’m tired of getting sunburned. “

That handful of minor irritations is the worst she has to say about her family’s plight, though. “If you let yourself go and get down, you’re not going to be able to do anything. You’re going to be miserable.”

And miserable is one thing she refuses to be, although she has great sadness for the loss of her home and even greater uncertainty about what will ultimately replace it since the family had no insurance.

“I tell Dale, I don’t want to go near the house. I can’t. It upsets me. It’s not going to be there anymore.”

But the Lusiches are not complainers. When the trailer comes, fine. In the meantime, here they’ll be, beneath the oaks, keeping house as best they can and looking squarely to the future.

“Thanks for interviewing us,” Clint says politely.

“Take care,” calls Jeannette Lynn in a voice as warm and southern as the late October breeze that carries it through the woods. “We love you.”

The "Rising from Ruin: Two Towns Rebuild after Katrina" web site promises a virtual tour of the two cities soon, as well as "Citizen Diaries."