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thedrifter
09-14-05, 05:24 AM
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Soldier recounts events in Biloxi
By Doris Benter
dbenter--gc@sbcglobal.net

GIBSON CITY -- The soldiers weren't allowed to leave Keesler Air Force Base for a couple of days after Katrina blew through Biloxi, so Pvt. 1st Class Daniel Hill didn't know how bad the damage was.

Hill had been through a hurricane before, but not one like this.

"... The first time we were off the base, it was like 'Wow,'" said Hill, a Gibson City native who spent the last week here on leave from the U.S. Marine Corps. "Trees had fallen, cutting houses in half; boats were overturned and casinos were displaced. The one casino I had been to before was in a completely different location where it had been before the storm."

The base is a stone's throw from the beach. Several buildings, including the hospital and food exchange, were flooded.

"It looked like a battlefront," he said, and it was starting to smell from the stagnant water and dead animals.

During the storm, Hill patrolled entrances to a shelter that housed 740 civilians, Marines and Air Force personnel. Sandbags lay inside and out, but water still came through the doors.

"The sound was very loud. The wind was howling and making different noises," he said.

When asked about his experiences, Hill said "Everything I have seen just amazes me." The young Marine added "At first they kept us in the building. We were stuck in the building while people outside needed our help. Thank God I am still alive."

In retrospect, he disagrees with the decision to keep the military personnel on base. "We were right along the beach," he said. "Once I saw all of the buildings destroyed and the destruction along the beach, I couldn't believe we survived it."

But, he said, "everybody just underestimated this one. Everyone got lax and when it hit full force, no one was prepared."

Hill already had been scheduled for a short leave over Labor Day weekend and decided to go ahead and take it. He had to drive rather than fly, and the trip home was not easy.

Lines at gas stations were two hours long, and gas was $7 a gallon. But once he got home, things seemed a bit more normal.

The Rantoul Wal-Mart donated five 5-gallon gas containers and someone gave him $100 to buy gas, which will be used to run generators until electrical power returns in the weeks and months ahead. Others gave him water and food to take back to Biloxi, where he now has returned.

"Those people down there have nothing," he said. "They have lost everything."

Ellie