Dr. Anita Batman recalls a year ago today with wonder in her voice.
"The birds quit singing. It was silent," she said as she recalled the Monday morning when Greenwood received the backside of Hurricane Katrina several hours after she left the Mississippi Gulf Coast in shambles.
"There was a strange feeling in the air - real silent," Batman said.
Then came the wind and rain. She lost power in the early afternoon.
Wind gusts measuring in excess of 50 mph pummeled the area, leaving many, like Batman, without power.
But officials reported modest structural damage because of the storm and no loss of life.
Felled trees crisscrossed the landscape like pick-up sticks. A blown window here and there drew attention.
Larry Crawford, the buildings and grounds supervisor for First Presbyterian Church, took a photograph of the American flag waving on the Elks Lodge lawn on East Washington Street through a wind-wrecked stained-glass window at the church.
Apparently, said T.W. Cooper, director of Leflore County Emergency Management, the storm didn't spin off any tornadoes.
An estimated 3,000 Greenwood Utilities customers were without power that Monday night. Delta Electric reported fewer than 15,000 without power in its 13-county area of service.
Some people, like Spensia Jones, were so shocked by the storm and the damage left in its wake on the Gulf Coast, they really can't recall what happened.
"I was losing my mind," she said. "I can't tell you where I was or what I was doing."
Many people did remember what they were doing when the storm hit. They also remember the days immediately before and afterward when Greenwood became a haven from the storm rather than a victim.
Batman took in her best friend from school, Carl Williamson, his wife and their dog the day before the storm rumbled into the state.
Williamson was three days post-surgery for a coronary artery bypass. He and his family lived on the Gulf Coast. They rode out the storm in Batman's house on West Jefferson. They lost power, but, said Batman, "I figured they were worse off in Biloxi."
The couple stayed in Greenwood but Batman was activated with the Mississippi Medical Reserve Corps by the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency.
The Reserve Corps is a first-responder unit made up of volunteer physicians, nurses and others who report to the scene of any disaster and begin first aid, feeding and other support until the federal or state government kicks in.
In the days that followed, Williamson went back to his house, which was destroyed by the storm. He cut trees, hauled debris and pulled down sheet rock.
Batman's friend died three weeks after Katrina demolished his house.
Some who arrived in Greenwood did so after the storm.
Libby Carroll rode out the storm in the hallway of her house in Hattiesburg. She clutched a cell phone and stayed in contact with her parents, Rocky and Pann Powers, during the ordeal.
"We were just praying and hoping they would come out of this all right," Pann Powers said. "They called when the house came crashing down. Their neighbor from across the street had to come and cut them out of their house."
As soon as the neighbor extracted them from the house, and they felt safe enough to leave Hattiesburg, Carroll and her family came to Greenwood.
But they didn't stay a long time. They went back and forth, taking food, water and other supplies to friends who weren't as fortunate.
"Some of the people were absolutely landlocked," Powers said. "They couldn't get out. So Libby and them would load up food and ice and whatever they could find to take to them. Bernard Wiggins at the Piggly Wiggly helped them pack it. I bet they took 50 chickens down there."
The helping hands would become more of the norm than the exception in Greenwood.
People in the faith community stepped up and opened wide their doors. Those that didn't have space for evacuees provided bedding, food, or other supplies.
Debbie Oxnam ran the shelter at St. John's Methodist Church. At one point in the weeks after the storm, the church's gymnasium floor looked like a large makeshift bedroom with mattresses lined up on the floor, donated by a local businessman.
The mattresses, this donor thought, would feel much better than cots.
Across the room, tables with neatly folded clothes awaited those who needed them.
"Greenwood is the city with a big heart," said Capt. Patrick Lyons of the Salvation Army.
Lyons and his family came to Greenwood about the time of a disaster. This was their first station. It left a big impression.
One of his advisory board members suggested setting up a trailer to collect items to send to the Gulf Coast. Lyons agreed, but he thought the relief effort would be lucky if it received a piece of a trailer.
Donors volunteered until the trailer was full. A donated truck hauled the supplies to the coast.
"I couldn't believe it," he said. "That's when I knew this was a caring, giving place."
