The Terrible Opportunity

Driving the Mississippi Coast in February, I found a way to map the destruction from Hurricane Katrina: look for Waffle Houses. The buildings, at one time identical, now spoke objectively of their zip codes. Off Exit 16 on Interstate 10, in Diamondhead, the Waffle House was open and doing a brisk business. They were out of Philly cheese steak, and the staff was a little behind in their cleaning, but the food was hot and the ladies behind the counter had the wherewithal to sing along with a Lucinda Williams song on the radio. In D’Iberville, the place was trashed; the damaged facade said waf. On Beach Boulevard in Biloxi, the Waffle House had no facade or any walls at all. The tall roadside sign, with its yellow squares and black letters, stood alone next to an empty brick bunker of a foundation. Live-oak trees and billboards were about all that survived along Beach Boulevard, where the slow lane was for gawkers who couldn’t believe their eyes and the fast lane was for locals who couldn’t bear to look anymore....
read more in the Oxford American Magazine online