Worlds Apart, Hope Reigns

It's not often that Mississippians and New Yorkers join together. In the past few weeks however, it seems that national disasters have brought our home states closer than we ever might have imagined.

Four years ago, one of us witnessed his home city inexplicably changed by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Four weeks ago, the other sat glued to the television as her home state was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina.

In this issue, we probe the aftermath of what many agree is the worst natural disaster in recent U.S. history. A team of Chronicle writers dispatched to the Mississippi Coast to see first-hand the destruction and despair left by the hurricane, and the result is Sarah Kwak's "Saving What's Left." And we check in with a few of the four dozen displaced college students who have found a new home at Duke, albeit temporary, in Emily Almas' "Starting Over 101."

The media has latched onto the Katrina story. Ratings have soared as television channels have focused on images of ravaged New Orleans-where recovery efforts have become largely politicized. Everyone from rap stars to Duke professors have debated the roles race, class and geography have played in the days since the hurricane hit.

But overshadowed by looting footage and absent from the newsprint devoted to life in the Astrodome, a small Mississippi town is trying to put itself back together.

From our position here at Duke, it can be difficult to hear these kinds of stories, let alone appreciate them for what they are. Some may wonder why anyone left in Katrina's ruins would want to restart their lives in what's been left behind: tatters.

But under the rubble, far lower than many of us up in the Ivory Tower, amid the desolation, people are banding together to do just that. They're ordinary folks, from all walks of life, and they refuse to let Mother Nature reign. The hurricane may have seized their schools and their stores, but it can't take their community.