Attendees were able to tell their stories
BILOXI - Three days ago Eldo and Julia Allen came to Biloxi to see where their son and daughter-in-law had died; on the third day, they learned a Katrina monument had been built since they had arrived.
The Harlingen, Texas, couple wound up on the Town Green in Biloxi Wednesday night for the dedication of a monument memorializing the storm and its victims, among them John and Susan Allen.
The memorial, conceived and filmed by ABC television's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" was unveiled at a candlelight vigil.
"We didn't know there was anything being built until today," Julia Allen said.
The Allens had come to Biloxi to make peace.
"We wanted to see where they had died," Eldo Allen said. "The lady drew it on the map, and we drove here."
For people like the Allens, the memorial will be a reflecting place, with a sweeping mosaic wave beneath the oaks of the historic Town Green.
Among the crowd gathered for the unveiling were dozens with relatives and friends who died in the storm.
Derek Pride, a friend of hurricane victim Stanley Thomas of Biloxi, was there to see the monument, and also talked about Thomas with his friends.
"I was with him the day before," Pride said. "We fished every Sunday, it was a ritual. We had a fish fry the day before the storm" which struck on Monday, Aug. 29.
Cast member Preston Sharp, host of the dedication, invited all there to go to the microphone and share their stories for as long as they wanted.
Sharp said his castmates had lots of help in the three-day construction.
"It is not so much a labor of ours. It was done with locals and people from afar."
Doug De Silvey, who lost four members of his family when Katrina's surge ripped into the Gulf Hills subdivision in St. Martin, collapsed during the program. He had told his story, and apparently locked his knees while doing so, causing him to fall.
Footage from Biloxi will be part of an hourlong show set to air on ABC in March or April.
Ed Sanders, a cast member, said the rest of the world doesn't understand the situation in South Mississippi.
"It is embarrassing the rest of the country doesn't know," he said in his British accent. "If we can get the pictures to 20 million more people, we have done something."
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